Based on a
true story about a Cat, a Dog and a Baby
This book is dedicated to my wonderful
granddaughter Isabelle.
Ileana
The day the Baby
came home Fifi the Cat and Missy the Dog were sitting in the living room.
Now, you might want to ask: “How do
Fifi and Missy look like?”
Let’s see!
Fifi is a big Persian cat.
He
is mostly gray, with a touch of white around his neck, like a bow.
His
fur is long and very smooth. It feels like velvet.
He
is really proud of his long and fury tail. He is showing it off, moving it along his body, as a dancing cobra.
Missy is a
Maltese dog.
Her long and silky fur is entirely white.
She has black round eyes and a black little round nose.
When she is too hot, too tired or too excited a red
tongue sticks out of her mouth.
What about Missy’s tail?
Her tail is a very important part of the picture.
She is “talking” with it. Just by watching her tail you
would know if Missy were happy or sad.
It was a sunny
day but going outdoors was out of the question. It was too cold.
Fifi was purring next to the fireplace,
in his favorite spot.
Missy was trying to sleep as well. From
time to time she was opening her eyes looking out the window.
“ Why wasn’t Mommy home yet? She’s been gone for such a long time!”
Snow started to fall, the first snow
that year. It was mid-December.
When Mommy finally
entered the living room, Fifi opened one eye. Missy jumped, as usual, in order
to welcome her beloved.
“What’s happening? She is not taking her, Missy,
in her arms, giving her a hug, as she
does every time she comes home. This is strange!”
Mommy’s arms are full already; she is
not alone.
She is carrying something, something very important, as you can see. It smells like
Mommy but also different…
“One moment, please, Missy!”
Mommy goes into the
bedroom, followed by Missy. She puts the thing in the new crib that appeared
suddenly in the house a few weeks ago.
She takes off her coat and, finally
Missy is able to jump in her lap and give her a big kiss.
But all of a sudden, the thing starts screaming.
Mommy lets Missy go, she rushes at the
crib, and …here she is… busy again.
Days go by.
Missy is trying to understand why her
life has changed all of a sudden.
“Fifi, do you like this? What do you
think? Why is Mommy ignoring us?”
No answer. All Fifi wants is to be left
alone. As he is getting older, he needs more resting. He is sleeping all day
long in his warm and cozy corner.
Mommy is always
busy. So busy that Missy needs to
remind her when it’s time for dinner.
How does she do it?
First she looks Mommy in her eyes, so
deeply, anyone could figure out she is hungry.
3
Not Mommy! She is in a hurry: to feed the Baby, to
change the Baby, to hold the Baby; the Baby, again and again.
Mommy forgot about Missy.
“I’ll find a way to remind her I am
here!”
Missy goes to the kitchen where her
dining corner is: her two plastic dishes, one for food, and one for water.
“Let’s
remind her!” Grabbing her bowl in her mouth Missy exits the kitchen and goes
into the bedroom where Mommy is busy with the Baby.
“Here I am! I need food!”
Mommy is laughing with all her heart!
“What a smart girl! Here, come
on! I completely forgot about you and Fifi. Sorry, I am really sorry. Come on, guys!”
“Mission accomplished! Fifi should thank me,” Missy thinks. “He never does! Cats! They always believe
they are the most intelligent, the most…everything.
Now, just figure it out: if it weren’t
for me, who in the world would have fed him?”
Months go by…The
Baby is growing.
Little by little Fifi and Missy are
getting used to their new life. They are learning to accept the Baby, even to
like her.
First Missy approached the playpen,
sniffing around, even standing, in order to see better and to get more familiar
with the new smell.
She was able to feel and to enjoy the thing Mommy was so careful about: this
little creature that looked and smelled like a human but was still just a…thing.
Missy was actually excited to be close
to the Baby, and to observe her. She was happy also because she was able to sit
next to Mommy, to cuddle her with her eyes.
From time to time Mommy would even take
the little dog in her arms and let her kiss her face, like before.
Fifi was less
sensitive. Of course, he’s just a
cat! He was sleeping all day long in his
corner, happy as always with his life. Until one day…
“Where is my favorite cushion?” Fifi looked around. “I can’t find it. If I
don’t find it I won’t be able to go to sleep.”
4
He continued to look in the living
room, on the sofa, on the armchair. Then he went in the bedroom. Nothing!
“Let’s see…” Next to the bedroom it was
Baby’s room.
“Why don’t I take a look over there?
Oh, yes! It must be there.”
Fifi tiptoed towards the playpen, where
Baby was having a good time looking at some picture books.
“Boy this thing is growing! It seems like yesterday that it was my size and
now it is so much bigger. But it can’t hurt me; after all I’m a cat! Plus, it smells like Mommy, so it can’t be
mean.”
Fifi sniffed for a while, and he
decided to jump inside the playpen, in order to take a closer look.
“Here it is! My cushion! I found it!”
“I knew Mommy was moving around things.
I knew that all of a sudden I had to share not just Mommy’s attention but also
my stuff.”
“There is somebody in this house more important than I.”
“At least Mommy thinks that. Mommy had
to bring this thing home too. As it
wasn’t enough to have Missy around.”
“But it won’t keep me from
sleeping!”
Fifi ignored the Baby, headed towards
the corner where his cushion was,
made himself comfortable and started to purr.
Soon he was fast asleep.
Baby liked
Fifi.
She knew that Fifi was a cat, like one
of her stuffed animals, just a little bigger and different somehow…He was warm
and soft and it moved and made noises, especially when he was hungry.
Baby always wanted to participate when
Mommy was feeding him. She even tried to
pet him with Mommy’s help.
Now she was a little surprised when she
saw him jumping in her playpen, but she wasn’t scared.
After Fifi fell asleep she went closer,
so she could observe him better. She touched him and his fur felt so good!
She started to pet him: on his head, on
his body, even on his bushy tail, the way Mommy showed her.
Fifi was purring louder and louder.
The Baby continued to pet the furry cat
until the soothing sound made her eyelids get heavier, and sleep took over.
5
When Mommy came to check the Baby, she
was asleep in her playpen, hugging Fifi, her head next to him on the cushion.
Picture perfect!
Do
you
know how many things can fit in a playpen?
A lot!
Cushions, blankets, storybooks, and toys. Especially toys.
Baby had a lot of stuffed animals:
horses and cows, cats and dogs, ducks and geese, even dinosaurs, and, of
course, bears, I mean, Teddy Bears.
Missy had a few toys as well. Not as many as the Baby, though. She used to
play especially with an old bone, made out of fabric.
It was already dirty and ripped from so
much playing. But Missy seemed to like it so much that she didn’t even want to
share it with Fifi.
“Cats don’t need toys! They have their
tails to play with.”
As Missy got to know the Baby better
and not be afraid to get closer, she started to observe her toys; especially
those that were in the playpen.
She didn’t know yet which one she liked
the best; all of them were colorful and had a nice smell.
”They smell a little like Mommy but
there is something more.”
Missy came closer. She was really curious to see the Baby
playing with her toys.
She was also determined to detect the
smell she hasn’t recognized yet.
She stopped, not too far from the
playpen and laid down, her nose on her paws.
Now she was close enough. She was able
to see and to feel everything that would happen inside.
The
Baby
was quiet. She seemed busy playing with her stuffed animals.
All of a sudden, somehow, one of them
fell off the playpen. Or maybe the Baby
dropped it. I don’t really know how it happened. It was out there, next to
Missy.
The little dog startled, and, surprised,
couldn’t help from grabbing the toy with her mouth, shaking it continuously.
“Will it make a noise?”
When she had enough shaking, she put
the toy down and sniffed it.
“It smells like…Baby!” clicked in her doggy mind.
Missy started to wag her tail; she was
as happy as you can imagine.
“Victory! At last, the mystery is
unveiled.”
6
Now, that she
identified the new smell, Missy wanted to play with more of the Baby’s
toys.
Her old bone didn’t appeal to her
anymore; it was really ripped and yucky and it smelled like…Anyway! It didn’t smell like Baby, not even like
Fifi.
Missy approached the playpen and tried
to take a closer look at the stuffed animals.
“I like the cat and the horse, I also
like the duck, but most of all, I think… I like the Teddy Bear. It looks so cuddly and soft.”
She wanted so badly to play with one of
those toys, that she made up a plan.
“If
I want the Baby to share her toys
with me, I definitely have to share my
toys with her.
I hope she likes my favorite one. It’s not so dirty, after all! It still looks
like a bone, which is a nice and yummy thing, believe me!”
Missy went to her corner, in the
kitchen, to look for her bone. After she found it, she grabbed it in her
mouth.
She headed in a hurry back to the Baby’s
room. She ran toward the playpen as quickly as she could.
She jumped in the air still holding the
bone in her mouth. Then she released it inside the playpen, next to the Baby.
“Here is my bone, you can play with it
as long as you wish”.
“Now, can I have that Teddy Bear
sitting in the corner? Pleeeaaase!
Can you imagine
what happened next?
As if she totally understood what Missy
told her in her doggy language, the Baby picked up the Teddy Bear. Believe me,
it was her favorite as well.
She looked at Teddy’s face, examining
his eyes, touching his nose and his ears.
Then she took him by his paws and she
balanced the little bear in the air, outside the playpen.
She waited for a moment, and then she
released her darling Teddy, who fell smoothly on the floor, next to Missy.
And from that day
on the Baby shared all her toys with Missy. They had a lot of fun together. The
Baby would drop her toys out of the playpen and Missy would pick them up and
release them back inside.
“But what about Fifi?” you might want
to ask.
7
As I told you
before, Fifi liked to sleep a lot, because he was an old cat. He came back many
times to baby’s playpen in order to find his favorite cushion. Actually he
enjoyed Baby’s smell as well.
So everybody was happy.
And they lived happily ever after, as
best friends.
