Lesson 7 - First Draft

Bella opened one eye, training it on the clicking high heels as they tapped across the parquet foyer. When the front door slammed, she rose and stretched like an arch-backed Halloween cat, except Bella was all white. She was queen of the castle until two months ago when her mistress brought home “the heathen”. “The heathen” was a calico, an ugly calico in Bella's opinion, appropriately named Donna. Together, they were poison.

Donna’s continued residence was not in Bella’s plans. Bella tried bullying and intimidation, but it resulted in her mistress calling her the “b” word and shaking a pointed finger at her. Bella was clever and conniving. Prior to Donna’s arrival, she was her human’s smart little kitty.

Alone in the house with her nemesis, who was asleep on the dining room table, Bella sauntered into the kitchen. Sniffing at her food, she winced and turned to inspect Donna’s morning cuisine. Although not any different, it tasted better because it was Donna’s. Bella ate most of it and sat back on her haunches to wash up. Needing a drink to wash down what her human called cat food, Bella slurped some of Donna’a water. Deciding to create a little damage, she put one paw on the edge of Donna’s water dish and pushed down, upending the liquid into Donna’s remaining food and on the surrounding floor.

“That’s a start.” Bella sat back, licked her paws and finished washing her face. Fully awake now, Bella looked around the shiny clean kitchen. She heard the whoosh whoosh coming from a metal door her mistress called the dishwasher. When the weather was cold, Bella could lie close to it and get warm if it was making the noise. It was springtime now so she ignored it. She hopped onto the counter and put her paw under the corner of a cabinet door. Thump thump. Bella loved making that noise. It made her mistress act crazy, but since her mistress was gone, she moved on.

“What’s this?” In a square basket on top of the microwave, Bella saw a plastic bag that had not been there yesterday. It was full of something. Plastic bags were her favorite. She chewed on them until they were sopping strings of plastic. She hooked this one with her claw and pulled it down onto the counter. Sniffing, Bella thought it smelled good. Grabbing a corner in her teeth, she chewed, and it smelled better. Chewing the opening bigger, Bella shook the bag from side to side until the contents spewed out and floated over the counter and down onto the kitchen floor. Bella recognized the smell. It was the same smell as the stuff her mistress put inside her rolling ball while saying, “Here Bella, want some weed?” It fell out the little holes and drove Bella berserk when she batted it around. This must be the mother lode. Bella pounced at the flakes and rolled across the counter in it, stretching then curling up then stretching and curling up, again and again, until she was dizzy.

Getting too close to the edge in her frenzy, she slipped to the floor and righted herself just in time.
Bella shook herself off and licked at the tiny pieces sticking to her fur. She flopped down to rest a minute.

Deciding it was time to have some more fun, she looked toward the dining room at the sleeping Donna stretched out on the big table. Time to wake her up. Bella twitched her tail and kicked out with her hind legs as she jumped over Donna, knocking over the sugar bowl. The lid flew through the air and broke in three pieces. The white stuff sailed out of the bowl and landed on the polished wood floor like snow. The empty bowl rolled under one of the chairs, settling on its side with less than a spoonful of its contents.

Donna jumped up on all fours in attack mode as Bella squatted on the edge of the table and watched. Bella’s eyes squinted to tiny slits until Donna’s tail twitched, and the face off ended. . She looked away from Bella and settled into a crouch, tucking her paws underneath her.

“Look what you did, you clumsy oaf.” Bella mocked Donna, trying to put the blame on her as usual.

Donna jumped down and raced to her litter box to scratch in the sand. She shook herself off and padded into the mistress’ bedroom. Bella followed at a safe distance. Donna jumped on the bed but kept her eyes open.

Bella spied her human’s jewelry box on the vanity. Nosing open the lid, the box slipped to the floor behind the chair, spilling its contents. Hatching a new idea, Bella sank her teeth around a long opalescent strand of pearls. With a piece of the prey clenched in her mouth, she dragged it all the way to the front door improvising her plan along the way. Once on the parquet entry, she commenced chewing the silk thread, shaking her head back and forth, scattering pearls until the numbers of them were uncountable. They rolled like miniature bowling balls.

Donna sneaked around the corner and looked over the scene. Both cats’ ears pricked up upon hearing the slam of a car door, and Donna bounded off to her favorite napping spot. Bella jumped up on the bookcase in the foyer to watch the action and enjoyed a quick cat dream of Donna’s removal from the premises for causing the mess.

Bella heard the key turn in the lock and the door swung open. The mistress’ forward motion screeched to a halt as she surveyed her loosed pearls peppering the parquet. “What in the world? How did my pearls get here?”

Instead of screaming out Donna’s name as Bella expected, their mistress tiptoed through the minefield to her bedroom. “My god, my jewelry’s been stolen. Donna, Bella? Where are my little sweeties? Are you okay?"

By the time Bella jumped down, Donna was already rubbing up against her human’s legs. When Bella got to her, her human had Donna in her arms, petting and cooing over her.

“Oh, my poor babies. I’ll bet you were so scared.” She put Donna down and picked up Bella for her share of love. After all the necessary purring and rubbing, the two cats lay down on the carpet, and the mistress pulled her cell phone from her bag.

“I’d like to report a robbery.”

Donna looked over at Bella and rolled onto her side. She stretched out all four paws, shook a little, curled up into a ball, and resumed her nap. Bewildered by her human, Bella got busy thinking up a better plan.