Esteban's Thanksgiving Fable
November 28th, 2008 (Life)There was once a cat that lived with a family of dogs. She had a great life and got everything she desired. Still, she never really felt at home. So, one day Whiskers decided that she was going to leave the house to find out if there were any other cats out there in the world. As she bid adieu to her family of dogs that she had known her whole life, whiskers let out a little meow of delight. It was finally time to hit the hit the pavement and find out what the rest of the world was like.
Whiskers found that there many things she had never heard of before. Catnip, in particular. The longer she spent living in the wild, the more catnip she had to have to feel happy. Sure, whiskers made many friends. She met big cats, small cats, cats with no hair, and even a three-legged cat named Tripod. But, as Whiskers trekked farther and farther from home, she began to look more and more haggard. Her friends all got their fill of food from their owners, but Whiskers found herself stealing food and trading it for catnip because she just couldn’t bring herself to go without. Alleys where steam rose from the sewers were her favorite place to sleep. As Whiskers awoke one morning from her catnip induced sleep, she heard a faint gobbling noise in the distance. Some creature she had never encountered before was waddling through the steam – it seemed to hop over the piles of trash almost as if it could have flown in another life. As it grew closer, Whiskers heard a voice: “Hey there cat, watcha doing?” Whiskers answered back, “Oh, just trying to get some sleep before my next meal.” “Why are you sleeping out here? Where is your family?” asked the Turkey. “What?” said Whiskers. “What are you anyway?” “My name is Thomas. Thomas the Turkey”, replied the strange creature. “Well”, Whiskers said “my family is a bunch of dogs and I’ve left them to discover the world. I was sick of being the only cat in that house.” “Look at you now though”, said Thomas. “You have nothing to eat except this one bite of catnip.” As Thomas reached out his wing to point, Whiskers hissed back, “Merooowww. Don’t you touch my catnip.” With pity in his eyes, Thomas said softly, “Look, if it were me, I would go back to my family even if they were all different from me. I’m sure it must have been much better than you have it out here on the street.” “Whatever…” Whiskers mumbled as she turned to walk away. But, she couldn’t get that thought out of her head. Life was so much better when there were dogs around that loved her. So, Whiskers decided to head back home and the dogs all accepted her with open arms…err paws. As she was coming into the house, one of the dogs said, “You’re just in time for Thanksgiving…and we’re having Turkey!”.
Moral of the story: Be thankful for the life you have.
