Crosstimbers Review Forum

Thanks for posting this. I've read it, but I'm not quite sure what to do with it, so I'm asking for a bit more background.

First, I sneaked a peek at your port and found "Invalid Item" , which I *loved!* It's a great story, with a heartwarming message. So, I know you can write well, and I'm pretty sure it's my deficiency that I'm unsure about the story you sent me.

To be clear, I love cats and I think they are smart. At least, Mr. Dinger, our late and lamented Abyssinian, was quite smart--his namesake was Erwin Scrhodinger, btw. However, cats aren't smart enough to have the kinds of thoughts and conversations that you portray in "The Coaltion." That made me think that maybe this was a SciFi story, where cats had evolved (or been engineered) to have human-like abilities to think and speak. Except that there's no hint of this in the story.

I also wondered breifly about the age level, but this seems clearly written with an adult audience in mind.

Finally, I wondered about the liklihood of the kind of adoption that's in the story, which led to this link:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/bizarre-biological-twist-mother-lion-a...
which suggests that this almost never happens. Indeed, there's only a couple of known examples, including the one in the story of a lioness adopting a leopard cub.

I liked the idea of the story--basically a new take on the "ugly duckling" fairy tale, except instead of a swan the ugly cheetah is a lion. Stories about not fitting in and finding acceptance when you're different resonate particularly for gay people (i.e., me), so I like this aspect of the story.

However, I want to provide a review that's useful to you, as well. I can't quite wrap my too-literal brain around cheetahs and lions with the mental processes in this story, so I wonder if you can give me a touch more context, or at least tell me what you're looking for.

Thanks again for sharing. I'm glad I read things in your port!

Max

Max Griffin
Please visit my website and blog at
https://new.MaxGriffin.net