"Kate, the Great!" A Fairytale...(Based loosely on a true story!)

Once upon a time in a previously farmed kingdom out in the middle of the desert, there was a baby princess named Kathleen. Most of the members of the Royal Family called her Kate, for short, or "Ka-tee," when they thought she was extra cute. Being the 4th-born in the family, she wasn't first at many things. But, she WAS the first to be born with beautiful, jersey-cow brown eyes, and lovely, dark, slightly wavy, chocolate brown hair.
As a matter of fact, Kathleen was named after her Grandmother, Queen Kathleen, who also carried the same features. Kate was sure to be a dark-haired, dark-eyed beauty.

From the moment of her birth, life in the kingdom was very, very busy. They had a new, but very unfinished-looking castle, and a new Royal Infirmary where the King, her father, spent countless hours tending to the sick of the kingdom and trying to keep coins in the royal coffers.
Although life as a princess was wonderful, she noticed that the Royal family would often forget to live happily ever after from day to day, and were sometimes consumed with their troubles. One of their troubles was dirty laundry. They had mountains of it!

Another were dirty bathrooms.
There were 5 bathrooms in the Royal Castle, and no matter how they tried, they could never get all of them to be clean at the same time!




Those were just a few of the Queen's troubles, but the King had his fair share as well. For example, although their castle grounds were very small, they were continuously overrun with weeds, swamps, mosquitos, flies, and, worst of all... gophers!



And then there were the constant paper piles, paper piles, paper piles... the King could never find his important Royal documents. All in all, things were a Royal Mess!




Even though things were tough at times, they tried to be happy just being together. And Little Princess Kathleen handled it all with grace and poise. Then, one day, while riding with the Queen in their Royal Coach, something very strange happened. They were driving alongside a corral of horses, which were often seen along the roadsides of the kingdom, and the Queen noticed some unusual movements from farther back into the barn. They asked the driver to pull the coach over for a closer look, and to their surprise, there was a camel in the corral!?!!!?!!! A camel? How very strange, as they were not common at all to their kingdom. As the Royal Queen, Prince Joshua, and the 3 Princess sisters were peering in to see the camel, to their great surprise, it began bounding toward them! They were frozen in shock at the sheer girth of the beast! And, at the odd patterning of fur in long, straight, stringy patches intermingled randomly with the shorter, whispier coat. Before they could react, the camel was towering over them!
He seemed to like Princess Kate's bright red sweater, for he swooped down with his huge, curved neck and swallowed her whole! The Royal Queen immediately sprang into action. She and the other two Princesses, Isabelle, and Olivia, along with Prince Joshua climbed around that animal's neck and SQUEEZED, SQUEEZED, and SQUEEZED altogether until they applied so much pressure that the camel spat out Princess Kate, onto the ground. Together they rushed to her side, and, to their great and happy surprise, found her totally unharmed! Upon further examination, however, they noticed one peculiar alteration. What was once smooth, silky, dark tresses was now none other than... CAMEL'S HAIR! And what a sight it was!














But do you think that marred Princess Kate's enduring beauty? Not one bit. She became ever more exotic-looking, and people came from all over the kingdom to admire the evidence of her brave battle with the camel.

And what about the Royal family and all of their troubles? Well, Princess Kate's altered appearance stood as a constant reminder to them of what is really important: Their Eternal Royal Mission: Return With Honor, and Return Together. They sent a proclamation throughout the kingdom to remind others of the same:
So whenever you stop by our castle for a visit, just remember...
"We might not have it all together, but TOGETHER we have it all!"

And they all lived more happily than ever, after that....


The End

(Note: no camels were harmed during the shooting of this story...)