Once upon a Time (A Cat Story)

Once upon a time there was a beautiful, white cat with clear blue eyes. The vet thought one of his parents was Siamese, which meant he, as one person suggested, worshiped his owners like a dog and played like a monkey.

One day this sweet kitty became ill. The family was very sad, and they wanted him to become well, so they took him to the veterinarian and asked her to try and find a cure. After two days they were called and told to come and get him; what was wrong with him, however, was not really known. He was dehydrated, and he seemed depressed. No other information was known about their sick friend.

Two nights later, one of the family noticed that their little friend had a dry nose again and that he was not feeling very chipper. So the lady of the house began to think, “You know, I use to have a water dish in the sun porch. I wonder if he use to drink out of that all the time and I have taken it away from him.” So she headed outside to find the old water dish and after cleaning it up, she filled it and placed it back where it had been. Kitty looked at it, but showed no interest. Again the woman pondered, “I wonder if I could cheer him up by getting out his play mice.”

The play mice had been set upon a shelf one morning when the lady had found them, as usual, all over the bathroom floor. You see, Kitty had the habit of forgetting he had a catnip mouse in his mouth when he went to get a drink, and he would accidentally drop his toy in the water dish. After rescuing his little friend, he’d carry the soggy critter around with him. The family members had become accustomed to stepping, bare foot, on cold, soggy critters in the hallway and stairwell. Each night when the household was quiet, he would play with his soggy mice in the bathroom until he had tipped the water dish over and, frequently, torn open the mouse, leaving wet, brown smears of dried herb pussy-pawed all over the floor.

So the lady went up to the bathroom and brought down his toys and laid them on the floor by the water dish. And then...

Kitty pounced. Kitty snatched the mice and plopped them into the water! Kitty’s eyes flashed with delight and his tail swished with pure joy! Kitty fished a mouse out of the dish and ran to the wood box, dropped it, and then pounced to scoop it back out again. For forty-five minutes, kitty played with kitten-like delight!

Today, the family has stockpiled little cat mice. Some are striped; others are fuzzy; a few are filled with catnip, but others have a hard plastic interior filled with pebbles that rattle. Kitty is happiest when one member of the family sits at the bottom of the stairs while another sits at the top and they throw a mouse back and forth while kitty tries to catch it.

Life is back to normal in kitty’s world, and the family has adjusted to the special needs of their little friend.

Thus they have learned: Never put the mice upon the shelf.
--by Jean in Wisconsin


Snowflake, the kitty