Cat and Snail

    Once upon a time there was a Cat. He was a kitten, but he kept thinking of himself as a Cat. He lived in a little house by the ocean and every day he had a lot of things to do. He played in the garden, hid in the grass, slept, ate and hunted for birds and flies. Cat was very proud of his fluffy orange fur, his tail, sharp claws and whiskers. He thought maybe he was a tiger, but he was not sure. As long as he could remember he had always lived in this house and he was happy to be a cat, until…

   One sunny day everything changed. A heavy wind started to blow, and the sky became dark. Dark clouds hid the sun and it started to rain.
  “What is going on?” demanded Cat angrily. “I’ve always watched the sun and its behavior was good. And what am I seeing now? It ran away and somebody broke the sky! Maybe I need to call someone and ask them to fix the sky? It’s too much water for me!”
  “He-he! You are so funny… It’s just raining,” said someone softly. Cat looked at a beautiful rose in a flower pot.
  “Is it you? Are you making fun of me?” he asked.
  “A rose is a flower. It is not able to speak” said the same voice.
Cat observed the porch and jumped up to the banisters. There he noticed a slowly crawling little snail on the top of it. Cat was surprised to see a stranger. To tell the truth he was a very young cat and many things in the world were new to him.
  “Are you a mouse?” asked Cat. He had heard about mice but never seen them.
  “No,” smiled the snail, “my name is Snail. I like to travel and count stars. They are beautiful.” Snail looked up the rainy sky. “What about you? What do you like to do?”
  Cat was lost in thought and scratched his ear with a paw.
  “I like to play on the grass and catch flies!” said Cat proudly.
  “Why do you need to catch flies?” wondered Snail, “Do you eat them?”
  “No,” said Cat. “I catch them, then I let them fly, then I catch them again. I don’t need to eat them. My food just appears every morning on my plate,” explained Cat.
Snail looked surprised.
  “Wow!” she said, “How is that possible? Are you sure your food appears by itself? Maybe someone puts it there?” asked Snail.
Cat shook his head “I don’t know. Maybe people put my food on the plate. There is no one else here.”
  Snail looked around. “People, who are they? I have been traveling for three days and never seen any people.”
  “People,” explained  Cat, “are big funny cats. They look strange. They do not have tails, whiskers and I don’t know why, but they only walk on two paws. They do not have any fur, except a little bit on the head, and they do not meow at all.”
 Snail looked sadly, “I don’t know how to meow either,” she said, “and I look different. Do I look funny to you too? I don’t think you would like to be my friend.” Snail turned around and started to crawl away from Cat.
“No!” yelled Cat. “Wait, Snail. Don’t leave me, please!” He stopped her. “It’s okay if you look different. It’s okay if you don’t know how to meow. I want to be your friend anyway and I will not make fun of you.”
  “Do you promise?” asked Snail.
  “Promise!” smiled Cat. “I can teach you how to meow if you want,” added Cat, “and I would be glad if you would teach me something that you like to do.”
  Snail grinned happily, “I like to count stars,” she said and looked at the sky.
 The rain ended and big bright stars shined on the dark sky. Cat and Snail were perched together on the banister.
 Snail was meowing.
Cat was counting stars.
They were glad that each of them had found a friend today, and both of them had learned something new.