Cool website

Ever heard of the CFA
http://www.cfa.org/

Here is a story from the site

CAT ISLAND
The Beginning

A story by Helen Nyman
Illustrations by Emma Pennisi


Once upon a time there was an island that was inhabited only by cats.

Cats from all over the world that had never had a home or a family to look after them, or had been abandoned, travelled to this island knowing here they would be welcome.

There was a King and a Queen who ruled Cat Island. The King was called Freddy. He was a mixed breed, half Persian, half tabby. He was much loved by all his subjects. King Freddy always seemed to have a smile on his face and his greatest pleasure was playing tricks on other cats.

The Queen was called Suzi and she was very different from King Freddy. Queen Suzi was a pure breed Persian, with a magnificent fluffy tail, which she cleaned continuously. When she wasn’t grooming herself she was either eating delicate little specialities that her cook Tilly prepared for her, or she rolled on her back waiting for the “Royal Belly Rubber” to come and scratch her tummy, until she fell asleep purring so loudly that King Freddy had to put earplugs in so as not to be disturbed!

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The most popular place on the island was the fish shop, which was owned by a big fat ginger cat called Rusty and his wife Amber, a very friendly ginger and white tabby, who liked nothing better than a good gossip – if anyone wanted to know the latest news on the island, they always went to see Amber.

Rusty and Amber had four kittens – three ginger ones with bright green eyes, and to everyone’s surprise a black one with yellow eyes, who Amber declared to be the spitting image of her Grandfather, and no one ever dared to challenge her!

As there were many kittens on the island there was also a school for them, run by a very intelligent cross-eyed Siamese cat called Tee-Cha. No one is very sure whether she got the job because of her intelligence or because with a name like hers what else could she be?

Apart from the fish shop, there was also The Milk Bar, which was a favourite meeting place to go to in the evenings to socialise with friends and neighbours. As there were no cows on the island the milk came from coconuts and this was a real specialty.

The Milk Bar belonged to Flash, a very slim agile black cat who, before moving to the island, had lived in a country where black cats were considered unlucky and had spent most of his early life running up trees to avoid the bullies who threw stones at him, making him an excellent tree climber! He would climb right to the very top of the trees where the coconuts grew and push them down with such force that they crashed to the ground and split open immediately. Waiting at the bottom of the tree was Flash’s wife Molly who collected the coconut milk into large empty turtle shells that were occasionally washed onto the beach by the waves.

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In case any of the cats were unwell there was a hospital run by a rather absent-minded cat called Dr Yowl. He was a big white cat with sparkly blue eyes, and was very hard of hearing, which often led him to giving the wrong medicine as he couldn’t really hear what his patients were complaining of, but up to now he’d never really hurt anyone.

As the cats on the island had come from all different countries, each one arrived with their own unique culture. The cats from Italy were very noisy, and all seemed to talk at the same time and waved their paws in the air when they spoke. If you sat too near to them you could often catch the smell of garlic on their breath as they claimed it added that little something to their food, and also helped to keep the fleas away!

There were cats of all breeds from France, Russia, China, England, Kenya, India, Brazil and many other nations and once a year they all dressed up in their national costumes for Cat Pride that was celebrated with a big garden party in the Palace grounds. This year the celebrations were to have an even greater meaning as it was Cat Pride’s 125th anniversary!

King Freddy was very excited at the thought of the annual party that was going to be in two days time. He was planning the list of games they could play. The most popular was “Pinning the Tail on the Lizard” – there were thousands of tiny lizards running around on the island, and a large part of them without tails as cats just love catching lizards and biting their tails off.

King Freddy didn’t consider this cruel as he never killed the lizards and insisted that their tails grew back again anyway, so why not have a bit of fun? He did make one rule though and that was that all tails that had been bitten off must be preserved so that on the day of the big party each of the cats could have a chance to pin the tail on the pretend lizard that was attached to a palm tree and the winner was awarded a free treatment at the islands beauty parlour. Here they could have a full manicure of front and back claws, and their fur would be licked until it shone like silk.

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>Tilly, the Palace cook, was very busy preparing special dishes to eat at the party. She was a very large cat as she always dipped a paw into what she was cooking to taste it, and was therefore rather chubby especially around her tummy. The dish that Tilly liked cooking most was iced mice. First she made tiny mice out of fish mixed with ground coconut and when they had been cooked she quickly dipped each one into a delicious icing, made from a secret recipe that had been passed on to her from her Great Grandmother. Nobody had been able to get her to tell them the ingredients, but let me tell you those iced mice just melted in your mouth and were the favourite treat at every Cat Pride. In fact, a lot of the cats came just for the pleasure of eating one.

Queen Suzi was trying to decide which of her many collars she would wear for the party, and she finally decided on a pink velvet one with little sea shells attached to it, which she was convinced made her look just like a mermaid.

Six of the French cats were practicing the Can-Can. They were very good at it as they had lived for a long time in an alley behind the Folies Bergères in Paris and had often slipped into the theatre whenever the back door had been left open, and watched the dancers kicking their legs in the air, much to the delight of the audience. They had only decided to leave Paris when the cold of winter had started to make their bones ache a little and the thought of the sun on Cat Island had finally convinced them that it was time to make a move.

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One of the dancers, called Fifi, was paying special attention to her whiskers, as last year at the party King Freddy had winked at her and told her that she had the prettiest whiskers he had ever seen. She was hoping that maybe this year he would say something nice about her to Queen Suzi and that just maybe the Queen would call her to be one of her ladies in waiting. What she didn’t know was that the Queen always chose unattractive ladies in waiting. In that way, she herself looked more beautiful!

The cat’s chorus was rehearsing the music for the party. There were two Russian cats, one Swiss who was particularly good at yodelling, and five Afro-American cats who brought a tone of gospel to the singing. They were arguing as to who would sing the national anthem to open the festivities, and it was finally decided that Boris, a very handsome cat from Siberia, would have the honour this year as he really did have a superb voice, especially when he’d had a saucer of coconut milk with a drop of vodka added to it.

There were only two police cats on the island as most of the inhabitants were well behaved, but just to keep the occasional trouble maker in order, King Freddy had appointed Sergeant Nelson, a black cat with only one eye - he’d lost the other eye in a nasty fight years ago but didn’t really like to talk about it. Sergeant Nelson’s right hand cat was officer Sam who was an excellent runner, which was a great advantage when he had to chase naughty kittens who liked to steal fish from the fish shop when they thought no one was looking.

It was the day before the party and everyone was very busy doing last minute things and preparing special food dishes to take to Queen Suzi, who made it quite clear that she appreciated any gift that involved food.

Amber was in a real tizzy as she had promised to help the royal cook Tilly with the final preparations for Cat Prides food, but the fish shop was full of busy shoppers and she just remembered that she had an appointment to take her kittens to be vaccinated at the hospital in half an hours time. “Heavens”, she said, “I’ll never be able to do everything on time!” The three little ginger kittens were quietly sleeping in a basket under the counter, but as usual Lucky the black kitten was missing. Amber knew just where to look. You see, Lucky had a passion for climbing trees and he liked nothing better than to run right to the top of the palm tree that grew outside the fish shop. Rusty could never understand where Lucky had inherited his climbing skills from, but Amber said his Grandfather had been a great tree climber, and no one ever dared to question her!

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At the hospital Dr Yowl was having a short catnap when his nurse Lola woke him to tell him that Amber had arrived with her kittens for their vaccinations. Having not heard what Lola had said he gave a little stretch and instructed her to give them some cod liver oil and tell them to come back in two days time to let him know how they were feeling. And, with that, he went straight back to sleep.

“Never mind”, thought Lola, “I’ll do the vaccinations myself.” In fact, Lola was much gentler when it came to giving injections.

At the Palace King Freddy was having his claws trimmed by his faithful servant Felix. Every now and then he would give a little chuckle to himself, which usually meant that he was planning a trick to play on someone. Queen Suzi was lying on a satin cushion gazing out of the window and trying to remember her speech that she made every year at the opening ceremony of Cat Pride.

In the school house Tee-Cha had the task of choosing the kitten who would present Queen Suzi with a bouquet of lavender at the party the next day. Queen Suzi particularly loved the smell of lavender as she claimed it helped her feel calm and relaxed. Sitting at the back of the classroom was Bertie, who was King Freddy’s nephew and, like his uncle, he also loved playing tricks. Tee-Cha decided that he should give the bouquet to Queen Suzi and it was a decision that she would later regret.

All the cats went to bed early that night as they wanted to be bright, fresh and shiny furred for the party the next day.

At last the day of the party had arrived and the sun shone brightly. The Palace gates had been opened wide and the cats started arriving.

The first through the gates was Yoki, a little cat from Japan, and she was dressed in a beautiful kimono. Yoki was carrying a big plate of sushi that was her gift for Queen Suzi.

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The array of costumes was spectacular and everyone was in a very good mood owing to the wonderful mouth watering fragrances that were floating in the air from the party food from every corner of the world that Tilly had prepared: Spaghetti with “much-room” sauce (which allowed you to eat as much as you wanted without ever feeling full) from Italy; Rat-atouille from France; Birds nest soup from China; Hot Dogs with kat-chup from America; fish fingers and toes from England; and chocolate coated ants from Southern Africa. And sitting in the place of honour on the grand food table was a huge silver platter piled high with Tilly’s famous iced-mice, which would be handed out at the end of the day when the party was over, and not a minute before.

King Freddy and Queen Suzi were sitting on the royal thrones that had been placed on a small platform in the centre of the flower garden. This was the Queen’s favourite place for entertaining guests as it was a paradise of colours and scents. There were beds of roses of every size and shape, rows of orchids as big as cabbage heads, sunflowers as tall as houses, and blue bells that tinkled in the tropical breeze.

Queen Suzi kept staring at King Freddy - she couldn’t understand why he had his crown tilted right over his left ear. She thought it made him look rather simple minded and told him so. King Freddy just gave one of his mischievous grins and said, “All will be revealed in time my dear, so calm down. It really does nothing for your looks when your fur is all ruffled”, and with that the matter was closed.

Little Bertie, King Freddy’s nephew who had been chosen to present the bouquet of lavender to Queen Suzi, was standing behind one of the rose bushes with Lucky, Amber and Rusty’s black kitten. The two were doubled over with laughter. It was obvious that they were up to no good. Suddenly Amber's voice cried out, “I recognise that laugh and it usually means trouble!” and with lightening speed she pounced behind the rose bush and grabbed Lucky by the scruff of the neck and carried him off in her mouth leaving Bertie just standing there with his mouth wide open.

It’s a pity that Amber had not arrived earlier – the two mischievous kittens had sprinkled a large amount of catnip into the centre of the bouquet of lavender that was going to be presented to Queen Suzi. Instead of filling her with a feeling of tranquillity it would have the opposite effect, because as everyone knows catnip brings out the clown in every cat. That was just what the two naughty kittens were counting on. You see no one had ever seen Queen Suzi lose her legendary self-control, which from the kitten’s point of view was pretty boring.

A loud fanfare of trumpets was sounded and all the guests looked towards the platform where the King and Queen were seated. Climbing up the four steps leading to the platform, in a rather unsteady manner, was Boris, who had been given the honour of singing the national anthem. It was obvious that he had put more than a few drops of vodka in his saucer of coconut milk that morning as before arriving at the microphone he gave an enormous hiccup.

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There was total silence now, as the cats felt great pride in their national anthem, and everyone was hoping that Boris would not make a mess of things. A quick check to make sure the microphone was working then Boris pulled in his stomach, threw back his shoulders, opened his mouth, and started to sing,

Cat Island, Cat Island
My land and my home
No more will I wander
No more will I roam.

For here we are safe
From dangers and harms
We’ve food in abundance
And beautiful palms

King Freddy and Queen Suzi
Take care of our needs
And so three meows
For all their good deeds
MEOW, MEOW, MEOW!

There was a moment of silence and then Queen Suzi raised herself from the throne and thanked Boris for his beautiful deliverance of the national anthem. Boris bowed to the Queen and made his way down the steps, feeling very proud of himself and a lot calmer now that it was all over.

Queen Suzi cleared her throat, fluffed up her tail and began her welcome speech to her guests

“King Freddy and I are delighted to see you all here once again at this years Cat Pride. We sincerely hope that you will all have a simply wonderful day. Enjoy the food, enjoy the concert, and do try and take part in the many activities that have been prepared for you.

“I’d just like to add that you may admire the beautiful flowers that are growing in the Palace grounds but it’s strictly forbidden to pick any. Anyone caught doing so will be punished accordingly.”

And on that light note she ended her speech and sat down again awaiting the presentation of the bouquet.

As Bertie approached Queen Suzy with the bouquet of lavender he looked like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. He gave her a quick little bow and handed her the bouquet. In turn, she inclined her head a little, thanked him, and slowly lifted the catnip sprinkled lavender up to her nose and inhaled the fragrance, not once but three times! It didn’t take more than ten seconds for the catnip to take effect. She suddenly threw herself onto the floor and started rolling around from side-to-side purring loudly. As if that wasn’t enough, she then raised herself up onto her back paws and started chasing her tail round and round. She was quite oblivious to the screams of laughter from all the cats that delighted in finally seeing Queen Suzy lose her legendary cool and composure, without quite understanding why.

King Freddy decided that this was the perfect moment to reveal his little surprise. He stepped in front of Queen Suzi and slowly lifted his lop-sided crown off his head. All the cats fell silent as the King uncovered an enormous bright gold earring dangling from his left ear!

“We have to move with the times my friends”, he said. And with that, a new fashion was started on Cat Island.

The rest of the day flew past, as the cats watched the cabaret, listened to the cat’s chorus and participated in all the fun and games. Needless to say all the delicious food was gobbled up and now it was time to go home, but not before receiving the long awaited iced-mice. One by one the weary, but happy, cats strolled past the grand food table where Amber and Tilly were handing out the iced-mice that had been individually placed in turquoise shells to commemorate Cat Pride’s 125th anniversary.

Everyone agreed that it had been a wonderful day and that they were very lucky to live on Cat Island.

Back to the beginning

About the author
Helen Nyman is originally from Manchester, England, but moved to Rome, Italy, in 1970 where she discovered a world of abandoned street cats. She started taking care of a colony near her home, feeding them in the early morning. When possible, homes were found for the kittens; however, many ended up in her own home, especially the sick ones.

Her life has been enriched by this experience, and a lot of the personalities in the story are based on cats she has given a home to.

She hopes to carry on her relationship with the Roman cats for many more years to come, and gain more inspiration to keep writing about Cat Island and its inhabitants.

Our thanks to Ms. Nyman for graciously allowing us to use the first story about Cat Island on our site. Additional stories can be found on her blog.

All rights reserved. ©Helen Nyman 2007