
Three Things Challenge #MM551
Today’s three words:
UNUSUAL • USUALLY • UNIVERSALLY

Three Things Challenge — MM551
18 September 2026
Perfectly Normal… Apparently! 😂🐾
“Your household is rather unusual,” the visitor remarked.
I looked around.
Bella was sleeping on the sofa.
One cat was sitting in a cardboard box that was clearly too small.
Another was staring at a wall.
And Galileo had just deposited a mouse outside the door.
“Unusual?” I asked.
“Well, yes. Doesn’t it get chaotic?”
“Not usually.”
At that precise moment, Bella spotted the mouse.
Galileo rushed to defend his prize.
The cat in the box launched itself across the room.
And the visitor nearly spilled her coffee.
I sighed.
“Okay. Occasionally.”
She looked at me.
“How do you manage all this?”
“Coffee.”
“That’s it?”
“And a very flexible definition of normal.”
Just then, something bumped against her shoe.
She looked down.
Oscar, our African tortoise, had appeared beneath the table.
He was staring at her feet.
“Why is your tortoise looking at me?”
I glanced at her shoes.
Black.
Of course.
“Oh, that’s Oscar. He has a thing for black shoes.”
“A thing?”
Before I could explain, Oscar began enthusiastically investigating her left shoe.
She moved her foot.
Oscar followed.
She moved it again.
Oscar followed again.
“Does he always do this?”
“Only when he finds someone attractive.”
She stared at me.
I took another sip of coffee.
“Apparently, you’re his type.”
Meanwhile, Bella had returned to the sofa, Galileo was guarding his mouse, and the cat had climbed back into its ridiculously small box.
The visitor looked around.
Then down at Oscar, who was still devotedly pursuing her footwear.
“Your house is completely mad.”
I smiled.
“Perhaps. But we’re happy.”
Because while the definition of normal may not be universally agreed upon, one thing is certain:
In this house, chaos is included in the rent.
The cats are the landlords.
Bella runs security.
And Oscar?
Oscar is looking for love in all the wrong shoes.
The visitor came for coffee.
She left with questions.
And a rather devoted tortoise trying to follow her home. 😂💜
#3TC #MM5351 #ThreeThingsChallenge
With love, coffee, poetry, and stardust,
— Maggie The Afterlove Voice 💫

https://ditto.fm/silenced-but-not-broken

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