[Planning]The World Oldest Cat

[Catterjune]

I had this idea for a really long time, and I actually may write it, but I'm just unsure which route to go.

 

The basic idea and general gist: There's a small town out in the middle of nowhere called Piddlesboro. It's home to the World's Oldest Cat and not much else. It's a rural community with three TV channels and one radio station.

 

A news reporter lady and a camera man from Silvershine arrive in town to film a sort of fluff piece for the news. "Here's the World's Oldest Cat celebrating her birthday". They're in, they're out, and they're back in Silvershine by the morning. At least that was the plan.

 

Piddlesboro's claim to fame is their cat which they claim to be over a hundred years old. The camera man reasons that it can't be right and tries to debunk the mystery. Two parents gave their son a pet cat. When the cat died of old age, they got him an identical cat as a replacement. By the time he goes off to college the new cat dies, and this time they replace her for their daughter. The son returns, inherits the cat and gifts it to his young son. The cat dies and, to avoid tears he finds an identical replacement. Repeat until today, and here we have a cat in a long line of deception, not the same one from a hundred years ago.

 

"But the vet said-"

"The vet works for Piddlesboro. He wouldn't betray them."

"But why keep up the charade for so long?"

"The money my dear girl! Do you see how much merchandise they sell about this stupid cat? If it died tomorrow, the tourism money would all dry up!"

 

 

I'm not too sure where to take the story from the basic idea and general gist of the story, though I did have some ideas:

 

- The townspeople are crazy, extremely overprotective, and cult-like for their cat. Story would become sort of like a horror story.

 

- The cat REALLY is a hundred years old, and it's actually some supernatural entity (that controls the town?)

 

- A little of both, or it's purposely vague?

 

 

But without knowing which route I'm taking, I feel I can't write up a convincing ending. If they're a crazy cult, I feel our protagonists would probably not survive the encounter. If the cat is actually supernatural in nature, I feel like one or both might survive, but the fate of the rest of the town would be left a mystery. If purposely vague, the ending would feel vague and I dislike it when a story can't commit.

 

So citizens of YCM, which kind of a story would you prefer? Do you have any other thoughts, questions, comments or concerns after reading the above?

[mitchermitcher]

First, you may or may not find https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tama_%28cat%29 an interesting, if somewhat unrelated read. Might give you some inspiration.

 

Onto the actual thing, I don't think either of the possible story paths are that interesting myself. It's already such a fascinating town, one that purposely keeps on that charade, that it makes you wonder whether the only sentiment behind it all was the desire to bolster tourism/profits or something more. There's no need to add more story elements to make one side or the other a villain. This idea doesn't need that. It could be a touching story about the many incarnations of that cat and what it meant to its various owners over time or something. Or maybe the cat falls ill under their coverage and the two reporters get roped into the town effort to keep it alive. Or said two characters might spend a portion of the story debating the semantics of a tourist attraction.

 

As for the ending, it really depends on one fundamental question to this idea. Whether it's fine to keep up the charade or not. It may feel like it's absolutely certain that it isn't, but try to think about what you want the story to convey and why.