One morning, on a warm sunny day, I woke up as a large, brown and white cat, with long, soft fur. I was utterly confused; didn’t I just go to bed last night as a young girl? Making sure what I feel and see is true, I glance in the mirror, which is close to my bed. I try to scream in fear, but all that comes out is a frightened “MEOW!!”
I swish my tail, and lick my brown fuzzy paws. I feel well-rested; maybe this isn’t too bad after all.
I leap out of my open window with the grace of a feline, landing on all four paws. I find a nice green field to graze in, as an adventurous barn cat. Then I leap through luscious green pastures of long grass, illuminated by the golden gaze of the sun. Chasing field mice along the way, they frighteningly scurry before my paws. Thundun, thundun, thundun, my paws land softly with each leap.
As I chase the field mice and hear them squeak with fear, they call to one another: “watch out, watch out! A cat is coming, and it’s going to get a hold of us all!” I suddenly question myself, why would I scare the mice when we could be friends?
With grace and ease, I stop dead in my tracks and take a long look around. The mice quickly disperse in the long grass, and the field is silent, except for the sound of the crickets chirping like an orchestra with too many violas. I take a slight step forward, and I hear a mouse squeak quietly behind a clump of grass, as if it is urging the others to be ready to make another run for it. I slowly creep forward, so as not to scare them anymore, and peer around the grass patch. Two large, green eyes meet mine, open wide in fear, and it doesn’t twitch or move a bit.
I softly utter, “meowww,” in the most gentle way, hoping to amend the ties that were just broken, as I scared the mice.
The mouse doesn’t run, and it doesn’t hide. Its huge pupils contract, and the corners of its mouth begin to curve up. It lets out a kind squeak, and, slowly, hundreds more eyes poke out behind the tall grasses behind it.
I feel a sudden rush; was I really chasing this many mice? So many eyes look at me, who knew this many little friends lived in these big, grassy fields?
I bow my head low toward the ground, kneeling my front legs down, with my rear end up in the air and the white tip of my tail swishing slowly back and forth. My green eyes look tenderly at the little mouse before me, and as I assess the little creature, two, three, then four, small paws with clammy nails climb up the crown of my head, and onto my back.
“Hold on!” I tell it through an excited meow.
The mouse’s small paws slip around the scruff of my neck, and we’re off! I bound through the fields once again, but this time with loving intentions.
I glance over, and see gray and brown puffs leaping through the fields behind me. Up they go, above the grasses, and a split second later they disappear again, before reappearing for their next leap on.
We hurl through the field for hours upon hours, before resting in a nice sunny spot at the top of a large hill overlooking the pasture. Down below, I can see small cows chewing on the grasses.
That night, after saying goodbye to my mice friends and sending them goodbye with a wedge of cheese I found, I curl up back in my bed inside my home. Oh, how nice it is to be a cat!
Written by Mira Dahms
