The Flying Flea, Callie and Me by Bill Wallace

Author:Bill Wallace
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

Callie raised up and looked at me, but she didn’t say anything. That was okay because I was breathing so hard that I probably couldn’t have heard her, anyway. It took a while for my hair to unfuzz. It took even longer for my legs to quit shaking and for me to breathe without wheezing and rasping.

“Want to talk about it?” the old cat finally asked.

I took a deep breath. A little shudder raced through me, so I took another breath.

“I went in the barn. And . . . and . . .”

“Met the rats, huh?”

I nodded, digging my claws into the swing to keep the shudders from shaking me again. “They chased me. They were gonna eat me!”

Callie made a little snorting sound and put her head back on her paws. “I bet the reason they chased you was because you ran. Rats are cowards. They won’t even take a kitten like you on in a fair fight. Probably at least three or four of them, right?”

“Four. They were big, too. Really big!”

Callie nodded. “Like I said, they run in gangs. Only cowards run in gangs. If you hadn’t run from them . . .”

“You mean, they wouldn’t have done anything to me if I hadn’t run from them?”

Callie raised her head. Her whiskers twitched from side to side. “Hard to tell. You’re not a kitten anymore, but you’re not a full-grown cat, either. You can’t always figure out what rats are going to do. But, like I said, they’re cowards. Usually, they won’t fight a cat. Not even a young, small cat like you. Still . . . well . . . probably would be a good idea if you stayed out of the barn until you’re a little bigger.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever go back in the barn,” I said, shaking my head. “Not ever again.”

Callie only smiled.

“You will. Cats hate rats.”

“Why?”

“Well, rats are destroyers. They eat or gnaw or tear up all our people’s things. We cats love our people. We can’t put up with rats making our people miserable or hurting their stuff. It’s just the way we are.”

“When will I be big? When will I not be afraid of rats?”

“You’ll know,” Callie said. “You’ll know.”

With that, Callie kissed me between the eyes. She washed and cleaned my forehead with her rough tongue. Then she washed behind my ears. After a while I didn’t feel so scared anymore. I felt like a baby kitten again with Mama loving me and taking care of me. Before I knew it, I fell asleep.

• • •

Catnaps always make us cats feel better. When I woke up, I strolled straight to the door of the barn. My eyes narrowed. I felt mean and strong and . . .

“Here, kitty, kitty, kitty,” a voice called from inside.

I stopped running when I got to the woodpile. Okay—so they looked like mice. But I never saw such big mice—I mean, rats. I never saw such long teeth. I could explore the barn—later. Maybe when I was bigger and stronger.

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