Storytelling Week 3: The Lone Cat

This is the story of a poor little tabby kitty whose cruel owners did not care about her.  Because she was only a tabby and not a gorgeous full bred kitty, her parents dumped her on a hill.  She had nothing but the fur on her skin, not a blanket or any food in sight.  She was left there all alone to face the cold dark night by her lonesome.

A mother and daughter were out for their nighttime stroll, as they were every evening after they tend to their four kittens at home.  As they were walking by a small hill to their right, they heard what they thought was a faint kitty cry.  Though they weren't sure what they had heard, they stuck around and waited for the sound again.  The little tabby kitty didn't make another sound until the mother and daughter had wandered off and her meows could no longer be heard.  But behold, the little girl, skipping down the trail, did in fact hear another faint kitty meow.  Certain of what she had heard, she returned to the spot where she originally was.  Searching high and low, she finally saw her.  A sad little kitty perched atop a hill, cold and shivering she wept.

The daughter insisted that her mother let her take the tabby in to avoid the cold weather.  Her kind-heart and warm soul thought of her little cats at home and was sad to see this poor tabby all alone, so helpless.  Her mother agreed that the little girl could take her home, so indeed, she did.

Once at home, the cat opened up and began to show love to her new owners and their kittens too.  Day by day, the little girl would play outside in the yard with tabby.  Neighbors took notice to their newly adopted pet and one of them was not fond of the idea.  The evil neighbor down the road began posting fliers around the town with a picture of tabby and a caption that read, "FOUND CAT."  Even though tabby was not his, the evil neighbor wanted her gone.

The little girl noticed the fliers around town so every day she went around and one by one took all of them down.  She though she had taken them all but one little poster slipped past her.  The next day, a knock came on the little girls door.  It was an old, bitter woman with a large sac on her arms.  She told the girl that the cat belonged to her and demanded that the little girl hand over tabby.  With tears in her eyes, the little girl said no.  She told the bitter woman that someone who abandons their pets with no place to go and nothing to keep them warm doesn't deserve to get them back.  She told her that she loved her new tabby kitty and that she was forever part of their family.

Cat, Source: dnainfo.com

Authors note: I chose to retell the story of The Wolf-Mother of Saint Ailbe but instead of the wolf who found the baby, it was a family who found a cat.  I wanted to flip the roles of who found who in the story and switch the animals and characters.  I chose to have the original owner of the cat come back to try and get her back to prove a point that you don't always deserve to get things back that you treated poorly before.  The book of Saints and Friendly Beasts by Abbie Farwell Brown (1900)