Short Story, Theme Prompt, Writing Prompts

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Nancy's Notes 🖊️♬

Written for Muse On Monday. David has
asked us to write a story where the characters
cannot communicate through language.
Here’s where the prompt took me.

© The Far Side by Gary Larson

Carl pointed furiously at the shredded sofa cushion, then at Fluffy, then back at the cushion. His face had turned the color of a tomato.

Fluffy blinked once. Slowly. Then looked away.

From the corner, Biscuit watched this exchange with enormous, sympathetic eyes. He looked at Fluffy. Fluffy flicked an ear in his direction …. the universal feline signal for “you’re next, idiot”.

Biscuit whimpered softly and sat on his own tail.

Carl was now miming …. demonstrating with theatrical arm movements the act of scratching furniture, then crossing his arms and shaking his head vigorously. He pointed at the scratching post in the corner.

Fluffy yawned enormously, showing every single tooth.

Biscuit, desperately wanting to help, trotted over to the scratching post and pawed at it enthusiastically. “See, Fluffy? This. He means THIS!”

Fluffy stared at him with the withering contempt only cats can truly achieve.

Biscuit looked back at Carl, tail wagging, clearly expecting praise for his translation services.

Carl patted his head absentmindedly, still glaring at Fluffy.

Fluffy watched them both, stood up, and stretched luxuriously. She walked directly back to the sofa, jumped up, and kneaded the cushion with claws extended. After circling the cushion, she yawned, curled into a ball, and immediately went to sleep.

She had made her position perfectly clear.

NAR©2026

This is “Dogs & Cats” by Seb Lowe

Muse on Monday – April 13, 2026

Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.

32 thoughts on “Blah….Blah….Blah”

  11. haha! We don’t have dogs anymore but we have cats! I can just picture this. They’d be looking at each other, if they even stayed to listen, and thinking, “Are you listening to this crap?!” 😹 This is perfect.

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    1. Lois, of all my friends, I knew you would love this. I’m so pleased to know I was right! As I mentioned to Brian, I’ve had this cartoon stuck to my bulletin board for years; it’s a classic. Thanks so much for enjoying and commenting on my post. 😹😻

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