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 ever 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)
