Petersen School
October 7, 1998
Dear Mrs. Huffman,
My Name is Kendall. I'm 11 years old and sit at table 3. I have brown hair and hazel eyes. I sometimes think that a dangerous accident is fun. Like the one I am going to tell you about.
I was running home from school. I had 5 minutes to get to soccer practice and I was going to be late. When I got home, I slipped on my shin guards and soccer shoes, grabbed a water bottle, got on my bike, and went to practice.
I was riding my bike as fast as I could. I was holding my frozen solid water bottle. It slipped through my hand and fell under my front wheel. The wheel slipped on it, and I fell off my bike. I slid about 2 feet into the side of the curb. Thank God I had a helmet on! I got up and I laughed. I thought it was so cool. I got back on my bike, grabbed by water bottle and rode again to practice.
When I got to the soccer field everybody said, "Kendall! You're late again!"
I said, "What? Something soooo cool happened....."
Sincerely,
Kendall
My One in a Million Cat
Winter, 1999
CoCoa is my cat and he is 3 ½ years old. He is a pretty good sized cat. CoCoa is a brown, black, and white Himalayan cat. His fur is soft and smooth, like my bed sheets. Sounds like a normal cat, right? Not exactally. This story is about my cat's life. Believe it or not he's jumped off a balcony and have his true son live at home with him. Doesn't sound too normal does it? You will here about this and more, when I tell about my cat's life, a cat that's 1 in a million.
My family, like any other family were pet lovers. We were in our car, searching through newspapers at the same time. We've stopped at 4 different houses looking for a cat I would be happy with. The 5th house we stopped at was a nice little house on a small cliff. I walked in and saw a box with 3 little kittens inside. I picked up each one, but none of them seem to interest me. The 3rd kitten I picked up just looked at me. It seemed like we stayed there like that for hours, then the kitten a sweet little meow. "I'll choose this one!" I exclaimed. On the way home in the car, with the kitten in my lap I whispered, "I'll name you CoCoa."
After a couple months, CoCoa was racing around our apartment as if his tail were on fire. He to follow me everywhere if I ran. I lived in Vancouver, WA and it was summer time and it was hot. Since we lived on the 2nd floor, we had our own balcony. This time of year we leave the door to the balcony open so CoCoa could go outside. After a couple weeks we couldn't find CoCoa anywhere. We found him outside. But how did he get outside? A day later, I saw him, he jumped off the balcony. That is sooooooo unbelievable I thought, and I went to go get CoCoa.
About a year and half later, CoCoa turned about years old, we moved to Scappoose, OR. My family, the cat, and I were on my way to Salem because my aunt said my cousin's cat Mischief was ready to mate. When we got there we dropped CoCoa off. About a week later, we came back picked CoCoa up and went home again. After a long while, we went back to Salem again, leaving CoCoa home. After we got there, Mischief had had her kittens and I got to pick one! After we got home once again, but the worst had to come.
A year later, CoCoa and Latte seemed to be getting along (( think CoCoa knows Latte is his son!) They both are house broke now, my mom doesn't want them inside because of loose hair and fleas.
A month passed, Latte had gone missing. We looked everywhere, but no sign of him. A week passed, Latte came back, but a totally different Latte. He never wanted to come inside (He always wanted to, so I knew something was wrong). My dad took him to the vet and we found out he had to stay over night. The next night, the vet called and they told us he had drank anti-freeze. The vet asked if Latte could be put asleep. We had no choice so we agreed. After my Dad hung up I cried my eyes out all night, until I went to sleep.
A year later, and we didn't feel too bad about Latte any more. But we still miss him. As for CoCoa, now 3 ½ years old is still himself. For he will still be my cat, a cat, 1 in a million.