1997-0000 Short Prose ‘Why I Dislike the Cat’ by Melissa S., ISPS Dharamshala, Class 8 from 1997-98 Sahaj Amrit, Pages 10 and 11

I dislike cats because, first of all, they have not got good vibrations and they eat cute birds. They climb up trees and pounce on the birds, eating them alive and leaving a big mess of blood and feathers. In Australia the army had to go around shooting all feral cats because they were causing a lot of harm to nature. Cats are also so alone and independent it makes me feel like the cat is my owner. When I was small, I had a cat and whenever my friend came over to my house with her dog the cat would get so scared she would get an attack of diarrhea and that would make the house all dirty. Cats always run away even if you don't do anything wrong. They are also very fussy and picky about what they eat and how clean they are. Cats are too fragile and so aren't good around little kids. My old cat at night used to get in my bed and bite my toes, as well as scratch me till I've kicked it out of the bed a 100 times. I don't mind kittens because they are cute and playful but I think that cats are terrible (especially around a big family with kids). When we go on trips we have to leave our cat with the next door neighbour and whenever we came back we had to pay 3 times as much because the cat had ruined the house. These are the few things I don't like about cats, others may think it's funny but to me cats are just big headaches.