Didn't I order a cat??

Ding dong. The doorbell rang and Mr. Renengard opened the door. "Hello, I've got a package for you," the delivery man said to Mr. Renengard. "Just sign here and it's yours." "OK," Mr. Renengard replied. "Thank you, bye." "By the way, where is the package?" shouted Mr. Renengard. "In the garage," the delivery man shouted back. "Thanks again." "No problem."

Better go see what the package is. Holy cow, look how big that is, looks as big as an elephant! Might as well go get my chainsaw so I can open this thing. Oh great, no gas, now I got to find my axe and I have no idea where that is. Found it, but I wish I didn't have to move all that stuff, now I can't get my car in the garage, oh well, that's life. Now I better get hacking away at that crate. Finally. Now all I need is a hammer, a sledge hammer that is. I'll go get mine, I think it's up in the attic. Good, found it, now to whack the side off that crate. When he got down there, he found the side already off, and an elephant standing there.

"Oh, so you're the package that came for me," he said to the elephant with a shaky voice. "I thought I ordered a cat. Well since you're here you might as well stay." Mr Renengard spent the next month making the garage into a home for the elephant. They got to know each other very well and they got along fine usually. Sometimes Mr. Renengard would yell at the elephant and it would lay down and sulk. Mr. Renengard's friend said to him, "I don't know why you keep that elephant, he stinks and he makes a mess." "I keep him because I have to and because I like him, is that a good enough reason?" "If you want it to be."

One day Mr. Renengard was outside washing his elephant and the man that brought the elephant came back. He had a little crate this time. "I'm sorry Mr. Renengard, but this is what you ordered isn't it?" He opened the crate and took out a cat. "I'm afraid so, but can I still keep the elephant?" "Sorry but someone in Africa ordered that elephant." Mr. Renengard said goodbye to the elephant and hello to the cat. It took Mr. Renengard a long time to change the garage back to normal but he did it. Then he said to the cat, "at least you can live in the house and not the garage."

The above is a story that I wrote for my grade 5 "Language Arts" class in March of 1986 - I was 11. The comment (from the teacher) in my notebook at the end of the story was, "I really enjoyed this story." I thought I'd share it with everyone. :)