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Editing These are excerpts from a children's book that I copyedited. Edits are shown as follows: comments and insertions are underlined, deletions are struck out, optional deletions are marked by surrounding ?question marks?, and optional insertions are shown ?both underlined and surrounded by question marks?. from My Cat Ozzy by Susan Hacker Chapter II After a while, I thought about it and decided that cleaning the litter box might not be that bad. I went next door and offered to clean Hattie's box. It wasn't too gross, and it didn't take long. I told my mom and dad I could do it once a day. They said ?that? maybe I was responsible enough to have a cat now. That Saturday, they took me to the animal shelter to look for a cat. The animal shelter is where they take cats and dogs that don't have homes. cats and dogs that don't have homes are brought. Sometimes they used to have homes but they got lost. Sometimes people have to move and can't have a pet where they are going. The cats were in one room and the dogs were in a different room. Inside the cat room, the cats were in cages all over the room. Some of the cages were stacked on top of others. In each cage was a cat, with its own little litter pan and bowl of water. There were cats of every color. There were big cats and little cats, but no kittens. There were male cats and female cats. Some looked friendly and some looked shy. I knew I could ?only? have ?only? one and I felt bad about having to pick. I felt like they were all looking at me and wondering whether I would be the one to take them home – except for one cat. One cage seemed to be empty. Then I realized that the clump of orange fur near the front of the cage was a cat. The cat was curled up, facing the back of the cage. He was not moving. I tapped the door of the cage with my finger. Nothing. I tapped again, louder. One ear perked up. Then the head lifted. Then the cat flopped over to face me. He had golden eyes with marks around them like an owl's. He stared at me. I tapped the door again. Suddenly, his hairy front paw came down on the door of the cage. I almost didn't pull my finger away in time. He was still lying down, staring at me. He left his paw stretched out toward me. The lady who worked there came over. "He's normally much more playful," she said. "He has a cold right now." "A cold?" my mom asked. "Just a little upper respiratory infection," the lady said. "It's been going around." "Would you like to hold him?" the lady asked me. I said yes. She opened the cage and picked him up and handed him to me. He was very soft and cuddly. He started to squirm after a few minutes and I gave him back to her. "We were thinking more along the lines of a kitten," my dad said. The lady said ?that? all ?of? the kittens had been adopted. She said ?that? this cat, Mandarin, was only about a year old. I already knew I really, really wanted him. My mom asked about the cold, and the lady said it would go away by itself if we kept him warm and made sure he had plenty of water. My parents went outside and had a talk. When they came back, they said I could have Mandarin. It was the happiest day of my life. Before we left, I asked the lady some questions about Mandarin. ?Such as, who brought him in.? ?Who had brought him in?? She said a man had found him outside, by a dumpster. That's all they knew about him. I asked her how they knew he was a year old. She said ?that? they can tell by the teeth. She gently opened Mandarin's mouth and showed me his teeth. They were very white. His breath smelled a little like tuna. Chapter VII One day, Ozzy was chasing a very fast bunny. The bunny ran so fast and so far that before he knew it, Ozzy had chased him through all the fields of the neighborhood and into another neighborhood, where people lived. There were no more fields, just houses and yards and streets. Dogs and strange cats lived in some of the houses and yards. Some of them looked mean and scary. The scariest thing was the roads. Ozzy had never seen a road before. Every time a car or truck passed by, Ozzy shivered and looked for a place to hide. He forgot all about chasing the bunny and turned around to go home. But he was not sure which way was home. He walked in one direction for a while, but instead of finding open fields, he found more houses and roads. Then he went back the other way, but that wasn't home either. He was standing on the curb, trying ?to figure? out how to cross a road, when Spider-Man rode up to him on a bike. "Are you lost, little cat?" asked Spider-Man in a strange, muffled voice. Ozzy looked up at him. He had never seen Spider-Man, or any other person, before. Spider-Man got off his bike and crouched down. "Here, kitty," he said. Ozzy slowly walked over to Spider-Man. Spider-Man stuck his hand out so that Ozzy could smell it. It smelled good, like food. Spider-Man went to his bike and pulled his lunch box out of his pack. He opened his lunch box, took out the crust of a tuna sandwich, and found a little piece of tuna. He gave it to Ozzy. Ozzy quickly swallowed it, then looked at Spider-Man like he was expecting something else. Spider-Man went back to his bike and put the lunch box back in his pack. He looked at Ozzy. "Follow me," he said. He turned his bike around and walked it away from the road, back to his house. Ozzy followed him. Spider-Man held the door for Ozzy. As they walked back toward the kitchen, Spider-Man yelled, "Hi mom. Mom, I came back.," in the direction of the stairs. In the kitchen, Spider-Man opened a can of tuna and put some of it in a bowl for Ozzy. Ozzy scarfed it down right away, and kept looking at Spider-Man. Spider-Man filled a bowl with water and put that down. Ozzy had never seen a bowl of water before. He stuck his paw in it and quickly pulled it out and shook it. Water splashed on the floor. Just then, a woman walked into the kitchen. "Would you please take that mask off, Jason?" asked the woman. Jason pulled the Spider-Man face off. Now he was a very nice-looking twelve-year-old boy. "I see you found a friend," said Jason's mom, looking at Ozzy. Ozzy walked over to her and gave her a head butt on the leg. "Can I keep him?'" asked Jason. "Let's see how he does here," said Jason's mom. "I think you should stay home tonight and keep an eye on him. I'll call your father to pick up some cat food and a litter box on his way home." Jason called his friend and told him ?that? he would not be trick-or-treating that night. Then he took off the rest of the Spider-Man costume. Ozzy spent the next few days getting to know Jason, the house, and the other people who lived in the house. He had never been in a house before and didn't know any people, so he had a lot to learn. Ozzy learned about stairs and windows, bathtubs and refrigerators. He learned not to jump on the table or wake people up. Some things he never learned. He never learned that if someone is opening a can of cat food for you, it really does not help to meow. He never learned that if you sneak up behind someone and stretch out on the floor, there is a good chance ?that? they will step on you. But he learned enough to live in the house with Jason and his parents. Meanwhile, Ozzy's mother was very sad and worried when he did not come home. But she had the other kittens to take care of, and could not go to look for him. She hoped he had found a nice place to spend the winter. And he had. Epilogue If you are wondering what happened to Jason, he was very sad when Ozzy left. He looked for Ozzy for a long time. One day, Jason was checking the bulletin board at the vet's office to see if anyone had put up a "cat found" sign for Ozzy. He saw a flyer with a picture of two tiny kittens. Somebody was giving the kittens away. One had long hair and reminded Jason a little of Ozzy. Jason reached up to the flyer and pulled off two paper tabs that had the phone number on them. One said, "Adorable Kittens." The other said, "Free to a Good Home." At supper that night, Jason asked his parents if he could take the kittens. They said they would think about it. Jason cleared the table. He left the paper tabs with the phone number at his mom's and dad's places at the table?,? and went into the living room to practice piano. A few minutes later, his mom came in and told him he could have the kittens. Jason is very happy now, and so are the kittens. Their names are Bach and Beethoven.