Misty's Kitten

A differently abled cat

A mother cat named Misty, checked over two of her three newborn kittens carefully. The first two were all black with little white noses and paws. Misty licked them both dry with her rough textured tongue and pushed them over to the corner of her box so she could attend to her third kitten.

One glance told Misty there was something odd happening. The color of her only son was green!

She had never seen any neighborhood cats this color. 'What could she do?', Misty thought. She licked that kitten until her tongue was sore. She had to quit licking because it was feeding time and all three kittens were crying.

Days went by and all the neighborhood cats dropped by to see the new additions. They had nothing but praises for the two black kittens. They had a different voice tone when they saw the little green kitten. Comments began to fly.

"Where did he come from?"
"He is so different!"
"Are you sure he belongs to you?"

The green kitten hid himself under a pile of dry crinkly leaves. It didn't feel good to be laughed at and hearing the other cats making fun of him. His mother saw what all the comments were doing to her son and tried to give him positive strokes with her paw.

As the green kitten became older he noticed he was much stronger than the rest of the cats. He could climb trees much faster and retrieve bugs and small insects without any problem. The neighborhood cats, one by one, began watching the green kitten who had now become a cat. They too wanted to know how they could climb trees so quickly and catch insect so fast.

One day a young spunky kitten went up to the green cat and whispered in his ear, " Can you teach me how to climb trees so fast and catch bugs so quick?"

"Sure!", said the green cat with a scarddled look on his face. "How come you are talking to me when none of the other cat's don't speak to me?"
The spunky kitten replied, "I had to take a chance talking to you because I really want to learn your skill."

The spunky cat began sharing with the rest of the cats and they can all be seen climbing trees together!

1994

Author's Note

Sharon and I took a book making class together. She carved printing blocks and wrote this story. We used an old printing press and made the book from scratch.

Billigami

Reviews

[Kim S.]

This is wonderfully written, I like the imagery in this write

[M. J. Smith]

All it takes is one. One person to reach out. I have been on both sides of the fence.
Sadly, I don't now know where my friends have moved to. But I remember helping and being helped.
Laughter, acceptance, friendship... All because one person stepped across the invisible line.
A precious story with a beautiful message.