Post #47 – Women’s Memoirs, Writing Prompt – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
By Promptly Portland
Writing Your Life Story with a Little Help from Your Pet, Again
To keep my cat friends and family happy, I decided to start with a photo of a cat today to balance my last post where I started with dogs. Independent of your pet preference, an animal in your life can be incredibly wonderful. And the stories they give us to tell.
Have you ever given your pet an intelligence test? My partner and I decided to determine which of us had the smarter dog. We found an online intelligence test and put both dogs through their paces. They both failed. Actually, they both failed miserably. The next day, I had some time between classes and decided to coach my dog so that she could do better on the test. I had her practice and practice. Then when my partner came home from work, I casually suggested that we give the dogs the intelligence test again, suggesting that maybe their failure was just a fluke. Wouldn’t you know it. My dog failed again. Well, I still love her.
I’m sure the cat owners of America are rolling their collective eyes right now. I know, I know. I’ve heard it all before. “Cats are so much smarter than dogs.” We’ll leave discussion of which animal is smarter for another day because I want to move on to a writing prompt involving your pet. By the way, if you don’t have a pet, I promise that next week’s prompt won’t involve animals. So don’t give up on me.
Last week, the writing prompt had you describe your pet and then had your pet (with your help) describe you. Let’s move on to ways that your pet has helped you better understand yourself. This prompt is quite broad so I’ll just make two specific suggestions. However, if the topic, but not the specific prompt, interests you, just use it as the general prompt to get you started writing today.
500 Words (or more): Memoir Writing Prompt
1. Think of the pet that has meant the most to you. This might be the pet you have now or one from your childhood. Write 500 words (or more) about what you liked to do with your pet — go for walks, cuddle, throw balls, hang-out together, or what? Then write about what need in your life the pet met. How did you meet that same need later or did you no longer have that need?
2. Did your pet ever teach you something about yourself? For example, did you extend yourself with your pet in ways that you never did before? Did you feel a kind of compassion that you didn’t know you could experience? Through your pet, did you find it easier to meet people and later found you could do this even without having your pet nearby? Write 500 words (or more) about ways that you discovered more about yourself because of your pet as well as what you discovered.
**If you missed the first writing prompt about pets, CLICK HERE.
The best gift you can give your dog.
Until next time,
Promptly Portland
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