Friday, January 6, 2012

Cadashi (The Cat)

Cadashi is sort of an arrogant cat who walks around with her tail in the air that looks like a hook you could hang her up with and her head held high. She wonders why the dog is always allowed to go in and out, but she can’t. She knows she no longer has her front claws, but she is still fearless. She thinks “humph!!!! If that silly dog can go outside and make it, then why do they think she should stay indoors all the time?” “I’m not afraid!!!” She soon starts plotting her escape…


Cadashi is a cat who wants to get outside and one day when the door is left open, she escapes. The air and the warm sun feel wonderful on her fur…and from there the adventures begin.


“Ah…how great that sun feels.” Soon she sees that there are things outside that she can play with. She notices a butterfly swooping up and down. “Great!, she thinks…I can jump and swat at it.”. “Stop fluttering”, she tells the butterfly…but it just flies away. But Cadashi doesn’t care, she moseys on her way. After all, “I’m Free!” she shouts…..


When chasing the butterfly she hadn’t noticed that there was another cat just lying in the field across the way. “Hi there”, says the other cat. “Are you new to the neighborhood?” “Oh no”, says Cadashi…”I’ve lived here for about 2 years now”. “Well, how come we’ve never seen you out and about before?” asked the lazy cat lying in the field. “Oh, my owners think it’s too scary for me to be outside, but what do they know?”…”I’m not afraid, I’m Cadashi and I’m fearless!!!”.


The lazy cat moseys up, and says, “then if you’re up for adventure, follow me”. Down the field they trot…Cadashi smiling all the way as she follows the lazy cat. “How fun Cadashi thinks”. “Why have I never ventured out before, this is great”.



They keep going across the field; all the while Cadashi is jumping and swatting at butterflies or just plain ole flies or anything that moves. She even got to chase a mouse for a little bit, but it soon disappeared under a pile of rocks and stumps, and Cadashi was too excited to continue her adventure across the field to stop and play her waiting game. Cadashi thought herself to be the most patient cat in the whole world and could outwait any moving object…but not just now, she was busy just being outdoors.


Soon the lazy cat stops and starts creeping way low. Cadashi is like “what, what is going on?” The lazy cat says, “shush…..there’s a fox right over there across the field.” Cadashi is like, “so? What’s a fox anyway?” The lazy cat almost shouts as he asks, “You don’t know what a fox is?” You have been coddled and locked inside! “A fox isn’t our friend; they’d as soon eat you as look at you”. “Well!! Not me”, says Cadushi as she raises her tail in a smug manner and starts prancing around, head held hi. “I’m Fearless!!” “Right!”, snorts lazy cat.


Soon, the fox suddenly sees them and darts toward them. The chase is on. Cadashi has never run so fast in all her life. First the fox was chasing her, now it’s chasing lazy cat, and now back to her. Her heart is beating so fast as to puff her fur out making her look like a running fur ball. Finally, the fox darts back in the direction of lazy cat who is closer, and off they run. They continue until way out of site of Cadashi, and they are running so fast she can’t catch up even if she wanted to, but she didn’t.


She found she was afraid of the fox after all once she saw his teeth. They made hers look like tiny little bauble pearls. His teeth looked sharp, very sharp and she wasn’t anxious to never see those again nor did she ever want to feel them pierce into her lovely furry body. After all, she was Cadashi, and was always perfectly groomed. Her owners had always seen to that.


With the lazy cat, and the fox gone, Cadashi continued on her outdoor adventure. She wasn’t sure how far she had ventured, but looking back she no longer could see her house or the front yard so she knew she had gone quite a way. However, she wasn’t concerned; she was outdoors, after all, and on a wonderful adventure. Soon she was jumping and batting at butterflies again, and hoping to find another mouse she could chase, but this time catch it because her tummy was rumbling, and she realized she was getting hungry after all.


Cadashi continued on her outdoor adventure until well into the night. When nightfall came, she started to shiver…it was getting cold out. She longed for her nice warm bed that had been made especially for her. She also didn’t like all the animals that seem to come out of the fields at night or from under the ground or logs or wherever they came from. The warm wonderful sun was gone, there were no butterflies flitting around, but at least for a while she could chase those wonderful little things that kept lighting up. However, by the time she reached where they were and had jumped high enough, it was dark again and there light was gone. Those things were amazing, she thought.


She was tired and so longed to just go back in that door at home again, but she now didn’t know where she was or how to get back to it. She really didn’t want to nap in this field, she wanted to go home. All of a sudden, she didn’t feel so fearless, her tail wasn’t smugly up in the air like a hook; she just looked forlorn.


She had just started to fall asleep to her own purring, when it became very light, and she thought it was getting daylight already. But soon she heard a wonderful, familiar sound. It was the sound she had grown up with, a wonderful little voice that always called her name, only now this voice sounded all loud and upset. She realized, the sound was calling her name over and over very loudly, and it was her little girl owner.


She started to run and meow as loudly as she could, all the time hoping they would hear her. Soon she was scooped up, and hugged so tightly she thought she might stop breathing. She meowed loud so her little girl would know to release a little pressure. Soon she was nuzzling the little girl’s neck and purring loudly. If she could only tell her that she now knew and understood, and she would appreciate the wonderful, warm safety of her home even more.


Soon the daddy voice, said…”so glad we found you Cadashi, and you didn’t go far enough away to get lost. If you’d gone farther, we might have never found you. You only made it part way across the field that is behind our house.”

Let’s go home, and Cadashi was happy to picture her nice, cozy bed she’d be sleeping in after all. She’d had enough adventures in that day to last her for quite a while (or at least until another day).






(for Tess ~ in memory ~)


©copyright Peabea (all rights reserved January 2012)


Tickle Bee

Mr. Growley Bear only came out at certain times. He never came out at night. Then there was the Tickle Bee and the Snorty Bug. Whichever of these three came out depends on Charlie’s mood.

When Charlie was happy and playing with his Legos or his cars or just running around and doing somersaults…sometimes the Tickle Bee would descend on him. The Tickle Bee is grandma’s hands and she wiggles them back and forth while coming at Charlie and he squeals and says “No, Tickle Bee..No, No, Tickle Bee”, but the Tickle Bee keeps coming anyway and just tickles and tickles him until he says, “Stop, Stop” with outstretched hands. Grandma then stops and Charlie likes that.


Sometimes though when Charlie gets scolded for things, he isn’t sure why he should get in trouble, he pouts and heads off to his room. Grandma comes in to say, “Okay, you know why you got in trouble, but Grandma’s not mad at you, just trying to get you to understand what you did that made Grandma upset.” Of course, Charlie being only 4 years old, thinks he never does anything wrong. How could it be wrong when he was only trying to entertain Grandma and make her laugh, and could he help it if in the process he knocked over his glass of juice or he broke a favorite knick knack or smacked at Grandma? So he thought to himself, I’m gonna stay mad and stay on the bed and just pout and hide under the pillow and not look at Grandma when she comes in the room.


Of course, then here would come Grandma and she would say, “Ut oh…now you’ve made the Growley Bear come out and she would go Grrrrrr!!!! And wiggle her fingers while coming at him, and Growley Bear did the same thing as Tickle Bee…he would growl all the while as he tickled Charlie until Charlie would laugh and squeal and then he wouldn’t be pouty anymore. If its’ Snorty Bear…he does the same thing only instead of growling, he just makes a snorting sound while coming at Charlie and tickling him.


One day when Charlie and Grandma went shopping…to Charlie it seemed like Grandma went shopping every day, and he sometimes just didn’t want to go along...but in the car he would hop and fasten himself into the car seat and off they would go. While they were shopping and Charlie was riding in the cart, he got bored and started asking questions like, “Where’s mommy?” to which grandma answered, “She’s at work honey”. Charlie said “Why?” and grandma explained that mommy had to work to buy him clothes and groceries and the toys that Charlie liked to play with. He thought, “Oh, that’s what mommy always says too”. Okay!!. Then he said, “Why don’t you work grandma”. Grandma explained that she did work, but then they couldn’t afford to keep some workers anymore so they had let her and others go. She had lost her job so now she stayed home and she babysat him and played and had fun with him. Charlie thought about it, and pondered that for a moment and then he said to grandma as he patted her arm “That’s why we have to be nice to people grandma”. Grandma burst out laughing with the biggest smile on her face. Charlie laughed too, but wasn’t sure why they were laughing. He wasn’t sure he liked her laughing at him. Then he started to pout, but grandma told him…”Oh honey, I’m not laughing at you, I’m just laughing because what you said was so grown up and so funny”. He liked the part that she called him grown up because he was a boy and not a baby anymore…he was 4 years old now..but he still wasn’t sure he liked that she had laughed when he had said that to her.


He decided though that he would not pout and then he said, “I love you grandma”. With that, she gave him a smile and said, “I love you too, baby” and gave him a big hug. “I’m not a baby!”, he told her. “I’m a boy and I’m 4 and my mommy goes to school and she teaches me things and I learn things and I’m NOT a little baby!” “Okay, okay” said grandma..and again she smiled. After that Charlie decided he just wouldn’t talk anymore, and just rode in the cart while grandma looked for the things she needed from the store


©copyright Peabea (all rights reserved January 2012)