Mom tricked me into giving her an idea for today’s story. If you’ve been following Mom’s Story A Day May posts, you know she’s been trying to talk me into doing her stories for her on Saturdays, since I post for her on ordinary Caturdays.
Today, I said, “If you don’t stop teasing me about it, I’m going to … run away from home!” (I wouldn’t, of course, but that’s what I said to her this morning.)
And she said, “Aha!” and wrote this story.
The Cat In The Canaries
by Marian Allen
One day, a long-suffering cat named Katya decided her human needed to be taught a lesson, so she (Katya) ran away from home.
She took nothing but the fur on her body, trusting to her instinct and her wits to provide everything she needed. She was also extraordinarily good-looking, which didn’t hurt.
The expressway was within easy walking distance of the house, and Katya reached it without trouble or incident. A motorist who had pulled over to take a call on his cell phone (for, of course, no one would be silly enough to try to drive and talk on the phone at the same time) saw her and fell under her spell. When she hopped into his car through the open window, he allowed her to curl up in the passenger seat and ride with him to the next big town. Traffic slowed to a crawl near an airport; with a meow of thanks, Katya jumped out of the car and cat-footed to nearest terminal building.
After scanning the destinations on the board, Katya narrowed her choices down to two: Sardinia or The Canary Islands. She borrowed a quarter from a newspaper vendor, flipped it, and it was settled.
Levitating onto the appropriate counter, she said, “I’d like a one-way ticket to Tenerife, please.”
“What are you paying with? Your good looks?”
“Yes.”
“Here’s your ticket,” said the ticket seller. “And here’s your change. Have a nice flight.”
Katya’s only problem on the trip was the difficulty of avoiding being petted, but she tucked herself under a seat in the first-class section and only came out to feast on the salmon and pate de fois gras the flight attendant put down for her.
At last, the plane landed.
The attendant requested the other passengers wait until Katya had disembarked, which they were happy to do.
“Welcome to the Canaries,” the attendant said, as Katya passed her with a jaunty ear-flick. “Enjoy your stay on Tenerife.”
But she didn’t.
Before she left the terminal, she heard someone reading from a cell phone guidebook, which said that the name “Canary Islands” came from the Latin for dog, because the first Europeans who landed on the islands found large, fierce dogs there. The tasty little birds were named “canaries” because they came from The Canary Islands, that was true, but the islands were named after dogs, not birds!
Katya used her large green sparkling eyes to enchant a fellow tourist into letting her use his cell phone to call her Mom.
“I want to come ho-o-o-o-o-o-o-m!”
“I miss you so much,” wailed Katya’s mom. “I just bought you a ticket on the next flight out.”
“First class?”
“What else? Nothing is too good for my kitty-kitty-Katya.”
So they were reunited, and never quarreled again.
~ * ~
Note to Mom: Flattery won’t work, either.
A WRITING PROMPT FOR ANIMALS: If you ran away from home, where would you go? Where would you wish to go?
KG
Jane
May 18, 2014 at 12:37pmGus, the wire-haired fox terror, er, terrier, was always running off from home. Once, he came back and knocked on the door, but Dad just closed the blinds and left hiim out there. Boy, was Gus flummoxed! He didn’t learn his lesson, though, even when Dad finally let him in and then gave him the cold shoulder for a few hours. Have I mentioned Gus was like having 2 extra kids in the house?
Marian Allen
May 18, 2014 at 12:59pmLOL! You could write at least one book about life with Gus. 😀 I love Gus stories!