Old Deuteronomy and Bustopher Jones took a catnip together. The last time they had met was at the ball and that day they wanted to have for themselves. Old Deuteronomy had delayed his meetings and even Bustopher had no appointments that day and taken some free time to spend with Old Deuteronomy at the vicarage wall.

"How long, my little friend, how long do we know each other? It is a very long time, now look at me and look at yours, we're all satisfied with our lives. I have my great family - including you - and you have your noble-life you always searched for." Old Deuteronomy smiled.

"You are right! Say, do our Jellicles know why they are Jellicles? Did you ever tell them the story?" Bustopher twirled his beard. "They actually think? Shouldn't they notice what is going on? If you see the Jellicles increase now... We will be more and more in a few month. Some of the females are pregnant and Munkustrap has made you adopt so much new street-cats. The youngsters should notice that the tribe can't be too old. If it were old there would be much more Jellicles."

"Fortunately, nobody asked me about that. And even Skimble, Gus, you and..." he sighed at the thought about the old female cat: "...Griz...did not say a word yet. I do not like to tell them the story. I'd like them to believe that all the Jellicle traditions are old. I like to believe that myself." He wrinkled his nose.

"Oh, friend! Didn't you even think about telling Munkustrap? He should know that as the Jellicle leader in future." The noble-cat seemed to wonder about Old Deuteronomy.

"I have forgotten the story myself. Through all the years. I wanted to forget it. And in fact, I think he is still speaking too much. It is not the right time to tell him yet," replied the old cat and scratched his tail. Bustopher moved a bit away from Old Deuteronomy, he had been 'cleaned' the day before from every parasite and did not want to pass the procedure again.

"You want to keep it a secret, hm? I do not know what is so wrong about the story. Why do you want to keep it to your death?" Bustopher shook his head.

"The story is not glorious enough for Jellicles," answered the old cat who had built up so many Jellicle dreams and wanted his cats to be something special.

"Somehow," Jones sighed "we are al strays in the end."

"Do I hear that from Bustopher Jones, the St. Jaimes Street cat? A stray in white spats?" Old Deuteronomy pretended he was wondering. He knew that Bustopher Jones did not count himself a real Jellicle, more as a Jellicle-special-friend. He thought he was too often away from the tribe and he did not know all the dances and tales. Old Deuteronomy wished he would accept that he was a Jellicles, a special one.

"Guess what fun we had in those days! You, Gus and Griz, and me and Skimble as the youngsters." Bustopher sighed and fixed a loose hair on his head.

The two big cats turned back time to see their memories.

It was a warm and sunny day, you may even say the sun greeted every cat. Deuteronomy sat together with his friends Grizabella and Asparagus, also known as Gus. They were all just grown and took their freeness to stray around. Grizabella and Gus played often theatre, he was the hero and Grizabella was the glamour-girl he had to protect. They where known as the theatre couple by all the other cats and made a lot of fun. Deuteronomy was more one of the dreamy kind. He liked to lay somewhere around and make his plans to a nice world.

He was making his plans when somewhere he heard some meowing in the street. Wondering who that could be he rolled around to his feet and jumped over the fence. He saw Griz and Gus rehearsal for their next show. He wished he had such a nice friendship himself, but his last female - and first wife, Denjina, had just moved away with her family and Deuteronomy had passed a very sad time after she was gone, without saying good bye. It was a surprise for herself that she moved away. As far as young Deuteronomy knew it was possible that she had been pregnant. A long time had passed before he had been happy again and had decided to wait for anything live could give to him.Away from every thought he listened to the meowing and thought it came from a very young cat, a kitten or a cat that maybe spoke to a kitten.

Jumping over another fence he noticed the meowing now nearer. Suddenly something made a loud noise. It was the noise of a trashcan falling down or explode. Deuteronomy looked over the fence and saw a trashcan lying on the ground and a brown and beautiful tail waving out of it. Nosy he jumped down to examine the tail and the rest of it.

In the darkness of the cans inner side he could see a cat's shape. It was obviously eating, the back turned to young Deuteronomy. And it had not seen him yet. Deuteronomy decided to take a look at the cat as long it was eating before introducing himself. As far as he could see, it was a thin cat of normal size. The tail and the back which was all he could see, the rest was in darkness, were brown with some patches of darker brown and some yellow patches.

Deuteronomy cleared his throat. "Hello! Do we know each other?"

The cat was completely shocked, turned around and started hissing. It was a female. "Hey, lady, I am not gonna hurt you. My name is Deuteronomy. I would be happy if you came out and than I can greet you, lady."

"Oh, I am sorry." She came out and sat down, raising shyly and embarrassed one paw. "My name is Notypat. I am new here."

Both cat's looked at each other with big and pleasant eyes and it was obvious that they liked each other. Deuteronomy felt that she was something very special. Her thin body rested so peacefully on her paws and her bushy tail was a picture of elegance for every cat. He went over to her and licked her ear and she was happy about it and purred. Before he knew what was happening, they were rubbing their shoulders together, purring in one another's ear.

While they were sitting there near to each other, Deuteronomy saw moving something inside the trashcan. It was slowly and hardly moving and...it had four eyes???. He stopped purring without noticing it and stared into the darkness. He had good eyes but he was standing on a sunny spot and the sun's rayons shone directly into his eyes. Inside the carton it was dark. It was impossible to see what was happening there.

"What is it, Deuteronomy, dear, what makes you stop purring?" Notypat turned around elegantly and rubbed her shoulder on Deuteronomy's shoulder.

"There is moving something. Do you see?"

Of course she saw it and rose her paw again which showed that she felt uncomfortable or embarrassed.

"Oh, that... I did not tell you yet. This are two kittens." She saw Deuteronomy's wide eyes when he heared that. He was somehow shocked because if she had kittens she was perhaps married. Or had a already a lover. And if she wasn't she maybe had a sad story like he had with Denjina.

"Shh, not mine, dear, not mine. I found them. They are so young and small. I couldn't let them die. Come out, little ones, come out." She called the kittens and they stepped, slowly and afraid, out of the can. Deuteronomy recognized the meowing that had made him come here.

Two very small kittens, of course. And both unbelievable thin. When they stepped out it was easy to see that they were not her kittens. The smaller one was mostly orange with a bit of brown and other different colors. It had some problems to walk and swayed from one side to another. It must have just learned to use his legs.

The other cat looked a bit healthier and not as thin as the other one but still thin. It was black, mostly and had a white face and some white on his paws and on his head. The white was so exact painted on this cat that it could even have been made by an architect who wanted both sides to look exactly the same, in the mirror way of course.

"Where did you find them, Notypat?"

"I found them on my journey to this village, they where in an old car on a junkyard where I was hunting for some food. They where so thin and inside the car was no smell of another cat or a mother for the babies." Notypat licked the kittens and her tongue did not stop until the small cats where as clean as she was. Their fur looked now as beautiful as hers.

"Have they names yet? Or a home? And you, have you a home?" The young tom was angry with himself the same time he said this. He had just met this beautiful cat and was asking her questions without stopping. Notypat smiled and sat down. She seemed to have a lot of time and laughed. Than returned back to be serious.

"No, they haven't. They have neither a name nor a home and I have no home myself. I just moved here. I need no home, but these little babes here, they need one. I do not know if I'll be able to find enough food for them and I do not feel old enough to nurture two kittens now."

Deuteronomy wondered why she had said this. She was a perfect mother and she was not too young to have kittens. She was the same age as Deuteronomy was and he did not feel very old. And in fact, Denjina and he had wanted kittens. And also that Noty wanted to be a stray was strange. She looked too elegant to be a stray. She could lose her beauty on the street by fights with other cats or because of humans, what a horrible thought.

They decided to spend the night at a the vicarage wall where Deuteronomy had a warm place.

Deuteronomy passed the following days with Notypat and the kittens, searching for a home in which the young kittens could reside. They had no names for the two little toms yet and it was difficult for them to find the names, but at last found them.

The orange one was an energy ball, always running around. Notypat began someday calling him just Shanks, because she could easy hiss this if Shanks made nonsense. The black and white cat stayed always with Deuteronomy and was one of the calm sort. He was a very proud kitten. It was funny when the group of cats saw someday a man walking up the road who looked like the smart kitten: Proud, and in black clothes with white gloves and white stuff on his feet. A human copy of the kitten. He was followed by a younger man who talked without stopping to the proud one:

"I wouldn't mind, Mr. Jones. You just need to sign the papers and you will have the whole factory, we could make a special..." and so on.

The black and white cat was very interested in the conversation, even though he did not understand a word he said about how the younger one was concerned about the older. Deuteronomy joked: "You would like to be a Mr. Jones yourself, kitten, would you?" And so the kitten was named Jones.

Grizabella and Gus where crazy about the kittens. They even taught them some nonsense. They learned how to walk the "glamour way", or how to make themselves important in front of others and how to make humans look at them. Not very good things at all. The useful part like hunting and hiding needed to be taught also and so Notypat and Deuteronomy did their best.

It was not easy to force Jones to jump on a mouse, he was really lazy and said always: "One day, I will receive my food on silver plates and I will only have the best food!" Every time he said that, Deuteronomy jumped on his bag and twirled him around. And laughing he said: "If you say that again, I'll bite your nose, Mr. Jones!"

And so it happened what ever had to happen. Shanks was somewhere out of sight when Notypat, Deuteronomy and Jones where walking down the street. Suddenly a huge car came around the corner and Notypat hissed: "Hide somewhere!" She was looking for Shanks but he was out of sight and she could not call him.

From the bush they where hiding into they cried for Jones who rested on the street.

"Jones, come, quickly. It's dangerous out there!"

Jones only looked at them as if he did not understand and than it was too late. A man had already jumped out of the car and taken the young Jones by his neck. Notypat cried when she saw the confused kitten and Deuteronomy tried to keep her quiet before they were discovered. They watched the car driving up the road when it stopped a second time. The man went over to the trash can and grabbed inside it. When he returned to the car, he carried a hissing and howling orange cat with him.

Notypat and Deuteronomy turned around and tears ran down their faces. Why hadn't they grabbed Jones when they had hid? Why hadn't they taken care of Shanks? And they returned home to tell Gus and Griz.

The two gray cats were very unhappy about what had happened. Life was not the same after all. The young kittens had made their life funny and exciting and it was all over now. Notypat strayed around for days, searching her young friends. They hadn't been kittens after all, they always had tried to be adults and pretended they were Noty's and Deut's friends. Deuteronomy sat on the vicarage wall and thought about his ideas. The ideas of a friendship were of old and young cats which helped each other. His ideas about a tribe where every cat has friends and where every cat can talk and live. And the tribe would try to prevent things like this from happening!

Notypat still refused to have kittens and she did not become pregnant. Deuteronomy was sad that nature did not take its turn. He asked often why she did not like to and she always answered: "You can explore so much without children, my sweet little cat." And she always tried to put up a smile but her eyes were sad. One day, Deuteronomy wanted to know the truth.

"You want to have kittens, right?" and she did not answer.

"You wanted to keep Shanks and Jones, yet you did not want to find a home for them? Notypat, tell me the truth!"

"I didn't want to keep them! I didn't want to know what it is like to take care of kittens!" tears ran down her face. "I didn't want to know something like that could happen to me!" Notypat cried and sniffed. She turned around in anger and wasn't anymore the friendly and calm cat she had been before.

"Why can't it happen to you! Why?" now Deuteronomy screamed at her, like she had screamed at him.

"Because they stopped it! These humans made me unable to become pregnant, while I was sleeping! They made me a cripple!" she screamed in tears. She wanted to run away immedeately but the only way out of their home was where her husband was standing. And so she turned in one edge of the box they lived in.

Now, Deuteronomy could understand her, he was not angry anymore and he wished he had not screamed at her. He could also understand what made her want to be a stray. It was her heart-wish to be a mother, he could have seen it while she had taken care of Shanks and Jones. That was, what made her life so unhappy sometimes when she sat alone on the wall and stared at the stars. Deuteronomy felt so sorry for her. Not only sorry for her, now also he was not able to have kittens. His pain was not as severe as hers but he felt a needle piercing his heart when he thought about it.

Ohhh! Sniff, Notypat
backwards to the gallery

© by Petra Lichtenecker (Mistoline)