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    The Kilkenny Cat Book 2: "Justice"
    The Kilkenny Cat Book 2: "Justice"
    The Kilkenny Cat Book 2: "Justice"
    Ebook376 pages5 hours

    The Kilkenny Cat Book 2: "Justice"

    By William Forde

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    About this ebook

    This author's works have been praised by numerous celebrities, the most notable being Nelson Mandela who described two of his African stories as 'Wonderful', the late Princess Diana who used to read two of his books to the Princes William and Harry when they were aged 9 and 7 years, and a former Chief Inspector of Schools for The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (OFSTED), who described the author's writing to the press as being of 'High quality literature.'

    The Kilkenny Cat has been written as a trilogy. Book One deals with the theme of ‘truth’, Book Two with ‘justice’, and Book Three on the theme of ’freedom’.

    All three books seek to show that truth, justice or freedom cannot exist in isolation, and that the only way one can experience any one of them is when one is able to experience all three.

    Book Two’s setting begins in Falmouth, Jamaica and provides the reader with a way of life that most non-Jamaicans may find strange, but which all natives to Jamaica would instantly recognize. Book Two continues to examine the issues of discrimination that is practiced in that country and particularly homophobia and sexism. Mixed partnership between black and white couples is also looked at in the context of the story. The second half of Book Two is set back in Ireland.

    The trilogy is designed to show that every country on the face of the Earth exercises discrimination against some of its citizens. The nature of discrimination may subtly change and vary from one country and situation to another in both shape and form, but it will always be present in some degree for those of us who care to look.

    Particular forms of discrimination looked at in this trilogy include the issues of colour, race, religion, age, culture, sexism, disability, homophobia, gypsies, asylum seekers, refugees and economic migrants.

    These issues are looked at through the eyes of travelling cats, whose experiences mirror those of human society. Overarching all the themes of this trilogy is the issue of ‘Good’ versus ‘Evil’, where the terms ‘God’ and ‘Satan’ are used to denote opposing values, qualities and lifestyles.

    The speech of the cat characters who come from Jamaica is distinguished from the speech used by non-Jamaican cats by changing the word ‘you’ to ‘ya’ and its linguistic associates, and no attempt has been made to replicate the patois more commonly used by many Jamaican citizens.

    The Kilkenny Cat Trilogy is an allegorical story of all manner of discrimination practised throughout the world; particularly in Ireland, Jamaica and England. Told through the eyes and experiences of travelling gypsy cats, it is a must for all cat lovers and students of the discrimination, the 'Northern Riots', Ireland, Jamaica and Northern England and 'Good v Evil.' It is suitable for reading by teenagers and adults.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWilliam Forde
    Release dateOct 20, 2011
    ISBN9781465948540
    The Kilkenny Cat Book 2: "Justice"
    Author

    William Forde

    William Forde was born in Ireland and currently lives in Haworth, West Yorkshire with his wife Sheila. He is the father of five children and the author of over 60 published books and two musical plays. Approximately 20 of his books are suitable for the 7-11 year old readers while the remainder are suitable for young persons and adults. Since 2010, all of his new stories have been written for adults under his 'Tales from Portlaw' series of short stories. His website is www.fordefables.co.uk on which all his miscellaneous writings may be freely read. There are also a number of children's audio stories which can be freely heard.He is unique in the field of contemporary children's authors through the challenging emotional issues and story themes he addresses, preferring to focus upon those emotions that children and adults find most difficult to appropriately express.One of West Yorkshire's most popular children's authors, Between 1990 and 2002 his books were publicly read in over 2,000 Yorkshire school assemblies by over 800 famous names and celebrities from the realms of Royalty, Film, Stage, Screen, Politics, Church, Sport, etc. The late Princess Diana used to read his earlier books to her then young children, William and Harry and Nelson Mandela once telephoned him to praise an African story book he had written. Others who have supported his works have included three Princesses, three Prime Ministers, two Presidents and numerous Bishops of the realm. A former Chief Inspector of Schools for OFSTED described his writing to the press as 'High quality literature.' He has also written books which are suitable for adults along with a number of crossover books that are suitable for teenagers and adults.Forever at the forefront of change, at the age of 18 years, William became the youngest Youth Leader and Trade Union Shop Steward in Great Britain. In 1971, He founded Anger Management in Great Britain and freely gave his courses to the world. Within the next two years, Anger Management courses had mushroomed across the English-speaking world. During the mid-70's, he introduced Relaxation Training into H.M. Prisons and between 1970 and 1995, he worked in West Yorkshire as a Probation Officer specialising in Relaxation Training, Anger Management, Stress Management and Assertive Training Group Work.He retired early on the grounds of ill health in 1995 to further his writing career, which witnessed him working with the Minister of Youth and Culture in Jamaica to establish a trans-Atlantic pen-pal project between 32 primary schools in Falmouth, Jamaica and 32 primary schools in Yorkshire.William was awarded the MBE in the New Year's Honours List of 1995 for his services to West Yorkshire. He has never sought to materially profit from the publication of his books and writings and has allowed all profit from their sales (approx £200,000) to be given to charity. Since 2013, he was diagnosed with CLL; a terminal condition for which he is currently receiving treatment.In 2014, William had his very first 'strictly for adult' reader's novel puiblished called‘Rebecca’s Revenge'. This book was first written over twenty years ago and spans the period between the 1950s and the New Millennium. He initially refrained from having it published because of his ‘children’s author credentials and charity work’. He felt that it would have conflicted too adversely with the image which had taken a decade or more to establish with his audience and young person readership. Now, however as he approaches the final years of his life and cares less about his public image, besides no longer writing for children (only short stories for adults since 2010), he feels the time to be appropriate to publish this ‘strictly for adults only’ novel alongside the remainder of his work.In December 2016 he was diagnosed with skin cancer on his face and two weeks later he was diagnosed with High-grade Lymphoma (Richter’s Transformation from CLL). He was successfully treated during the first half of 2017 and is presently enjoying good health albeit with no effective immune system.

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      The Kilkenny Cat Book 2 - William Forde

      The Kilkenny Cat

      Book Two: ‘Justice’

      by

      William Forde

      © William Forde. July 21st, 2005

      First Edition 300 copies print run

      Published by William Forde (July 21st, 2005) Mirfield, West Yorkshire, England.

      © William Forde, July 21st, 2005

      Cover Illustration by Joel Stephen Breeze.

      All text, characters, reproduction, manufacturing, exploitation and artwork copyright reserved by William Forde.

      Revised publication, October, 2011

      Copyright October, 2011 by William Forde

      Smashwords Edition

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      Thank you for downloading this ebook. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      #####

      Dedicated to my mother, Mary Forde

      Born: 24/01/22 : Died 26/04/86

      Author’s Foreword

      The Kilkenny Cat has been written as a trilogy. Book One deals with the theme of ‘truth’, Book Two with ‘justice’, and Book Three on the theme of ’freedom’.

      All three books seek to show that truth, justice or freedom cannot exist in isolation, and that the only way one can experience any of them is when one is able to experience all three.

      Book One is set in the country of Ireland, the land of my birth, Book Two in Jamaica and Ireland, both countries I know well, with Book Three being predominantly set in Northern England, the place where I have lived for most of my life.

      The trilogy is designed to show that every country on the face of the Earth exercises discrimination against some of its citizens. The nature of discrimination may subtly change and vary from one country and situation to another in both shape and form, but it will always be present in some degree for those of us who care to look.

      Particular forms of discrimination looked at in this trilogy include the issues of colour, race, religion, age, culture, sexism, disability, homophobia, gypsies, asylum seekers, refugees and economic migrants.

      These issues are looked at through the eyes of travelling cats, whose experiences mirror those of human society. Overarching all the themes of this trilogy is the issue of ‘Good’ versus ‘Evil’, where the terms ‘God’ and ‘Satan’ are used to denote opposing values, qualities and lifestyles.

      The speech of the cat characters who come from Jamaica is distinguished from the speech used by non-Jamaican cats by changing the word ‘you’ to ‘ya’ and its linguistic associates, and no attempt has been made to replicate the patois more commonly used by many Jamaican citizens.

      Book Two’s setting begins in Falmouth, Jamaica and provides the reader with a way of life that most non-Jamaicans may find strange, but which all natives to Jamaica would instantly recognise. Book Two continues to examine the issues of discrimination that is practiced in that country and particularly homophobia and sexism. Mixed partnerships between black and white couples are also looked at in the context of the story. The second half of Book Two is set back in Ireland.

      My heartfelt appreciation is given to the artist Joel Stephen Breeze for the cover of all three books. I also extend my thanks to ‘cat expert’ Silvia Williamson for the invaluable information that she gave me at the research stage of this trilogy.

      My eternal gratitude, however, is reserved for my deceased parents, Paddy and Mary Forde; all of the Forde and Fanning family, and the Brennan family of Kilkenny who provided the inspiration for this book’s setting.

      By better understanding how we became who we are, we can more easily understand the nature of the person we have become.

      William Forde

      October, 2011

      #####

      Chapter One

      ‘The Past’

      The past and present live on in each of us. No amount of regret can wish it away and it will never be forgotten. Both past and present can never be separated. We are who we are. What we are destined to become is shaped and determined by where we came from and how we got here. It remains an inexorable truth that no creature born to this Earth begins its life without a trace of history.

      TKC (The Kilkenny Cat) was no exception to this precept. She was born in County Kilkenny, Ireland, at the turn of the century. Her birth seemed to herald a new start to the New Millennium. From the moment when she first discovered her history, TKC felt compelled to trace her roots. This journey would eventually take her across the other side of the world to Jamaica, the land of her parents’ birth. But wherever she went, TKC never lost the smell of her birthplace; that very same plot of Irish soil where she had entered life and where her deceased mother and twin brothers now lay buried, alongside the ashes of her daughter Louise.

      TKC’s black father was of Afro-Caribbean descent. He was a famous cat who became known as ‘Garvey the Great’. TKC’s mother had spent the earlier part of her life as a ginger gypsy. She was a travelling queen of immense beauty; a Jamaican flower called Jasmine. As Garvey the Great and Jasmine were to discover too early on in their union, the dreams of lovers can become shattered in the dawning of a new day. Like many couples before them and since, their plans for the future as lifelong partners became no more than ‘what might have been.’

      After Garvey the Great had died, his pregnant queen decided to start life anew in Ireland. Having been conceived under the warmth of Jamaican skies at the height of her parents’ happiness, TKC and her two brothers were eventually born beneath the cold cloak of an Irish winter in County Kilkenny. Both of TKC’s brothers never saw the light of day. One was born dead and the other only survived minutes. TKC was the third of the triplets to be born. Her mother had lived for long enough to provide her kitten with whatever little warmth she had remaining, but by the time that TKC was discovered the following morning, her mother Jasmine had been found dead nearby.

      TKC had been found by Mr & Mrs Brennan, a childless couple who lived in a cottage on the edge of Kilkenny. As Mrs Brennan carried TKC indoors, Mr Brennan buried the stiff corpses of the orphaned kitten’s mother and two brothers in his cabbage patch. Having been born the only survivor of her father’s last litter and her mother’s first, it was left to TKC to preserve their memory and to continue the ancestral line of the family tree.

      From the moment of her auspicious birth, any feline who ever met TKC instantly sensed that she’d been born to greatness. They could recognize her as being different to other ginger travellers. Although female, TKC had been born with the coat and markings of a male. She was distinguished in both look and form by the striped coat of a ginger tom and the unique feature of three-toed paws, instead of the usual feline four. TKC’s overall attitude and general behaviour also branded her as being special.

      TKC was equally happy in both male and female company, and it often seemed that she refused to conform to the stereotyped roles of either queen or tom. She was a cat who preferred to express both male and female traits of her personality whenever she felt the urge. Through her long and eventful lives (for she lived more than once), the three digits on each of her paws symbolized her never-ending search for the unification of truth, justice and freedom. To constantly search for these three of life’s most elusive qualities was the essential purpose of this special cat. This was the role, which her Maker had assigned to her. He had designated TKC as one of life’s messengers and had determined that she’d spend her existence in the lifelong search for truth, justice and freedom. While having been blessed with the possession of many admirable qualities, which endeared her to all good cats, TKC’s Maker also endowed her with those feline frailties that sometimes result in temptation, fault and weakness.

      It was the presence of such flawed beauty of character that enabled TKC to effortlessly blend into the background of any company, without ever marking herself out as being either saint or sinner. Chief among her better qualities was a warm heart, a kind disposition and a positive outlook. She also possessed an inquiring mind and the ability to remain positively focused from first thought to final action in all she ever undertook. From the many mistakes she made during the growing-up phase of her development, TKC displayed the capacity to learn from them. Such learning provided her with the courage to sometimes live with a situation less than perfect.

      TKC was never colour prejudiced and could spot a winner in any shade of the Maker’s palette. Black, white and ginger were among her favourite reflections. She felt at home in any honest place and was at ease in any cheerful company. As TKC grew older and wiser, she came to see the connection between past and present as the umbilical cord that joined one generation to the next. Throughout her life, her river of respect ran deep. She came to develop a deep respect for different customs and cultures; particularly in her three spheres of influence, Ireland, Jamaica and England, which she came to regard in equal measure.

      Although TKC had arrived in the world orphaned, she soon came to view every well-meaning cat as part of her extended family. Before her third birthday, she’d been partnered three times; having given birth to two litters of ginger travellers on Irish shores to two Irish cats, plus a mixed litter of blacks and gingers to her third partner, Mose, in Trelawny, Jamaica.

      Throughout her first six years of life, TKC became acquainted with the emotions of happiness and sadness, pleasure and pain. She was also no stranger to the experiences of birth and bereavement. She recognized that the existence of one type of emotion required the very presence of its opposite in order to possess any meaning and purpose. She knew that none of these opposite emotions and experiences could ever exist without the other.

      Through her natural love for other cats, she came to see the eternal love of her Maker in herself. She also learned that ‘love’ is the most moving and enduring experience of all. She learned that love can endure any earthly trial and tribulation and that its power can conquer any mountain of fear and doubt, even the fear of death itself. She had learned that ‘good’ is greater than the power of ‘evil’ and that no creature, however badly behaved, is ever beyond the reach of redemption.

      These were some of the truths that TKC came to terms with during her first six years of life. With the help of Merlin the Wizard and the combined love of her family and friends, TKC had managed to successfully emerge from her horrible experiences imprisoned inside Babylon Barracks and had regained her natural qualities of ‘goodness’ and ‘independence’ that The Black Witches of Belfast had robbed from her. Being the only cat ever to escape their trap of ‘Double Jeopardy,’ TKC became ‘enemy number one’ on ‘The Twelve Black Witches of Belfast’s hit list. ‘The Twelve Black Witches of Belfast’ became determined to exact their revenge on TKC and her loved ones.

      As TKC travelled around, it pained her immensely to see the level of cruelty and discrimination displayed by one type of cat towards another. Nothing seemed able to prepare her to see black and white cats at the throats of each other. She found it difficult to come to terms with the suspicion of the native towards the asylum seeker or the well-off towards the economic migrant. She couldn’t understand the cruelty of the able-bodied moggy towards its disabled neighbours or those with beautiful faces towards the physically deformed. Very few settled cats seemed tolerant towards the gypsy travellers or tried to be understanding of their ways, and too many cats of heterosexual nature expressed hatred and disgust towards the gay cat. As for any ‘equality’ between the relationships of male and female, forget it, because it didn’t exist! Very few toms gave their queens the consideration and respect that they deserved and assigned them to subservient roles within the family household. This was the world as it really was and not as TKC would have liked it to be. This was the harsh ‘truth.’ This was ‘truth’ without ‘justice’ and ‘freedom!’

      It was in Ireland, the land of her birth, where TKC had first encountered these widespread prejudices and discriminatory practices. Next, she would find them in Jamaica, the land of her parents’ birth; and before her travels across the globe ended, she’d also discover them in England, in abundance. All of this was part of the unpalatable truth she had to stomach through the experience of her travels; and it hurt!

      #####

      Chapter Two

      ‘Jamaica: Land of my Parents’

      During their life together, TKC and her partner Mose became the proud parents of twelve healthy litters. Their first eleven litters comprised of an equal mixture of pure gingers and pure blacks. There were also an equal number of male and female kittens born to each litter. It was as though their offspring symbolized the equality of status that existed within their partnership. It was therefore with great surprise that their twelfth litter produced twelve pure blacks; six toms and six queens. Upon the birth of this litter, both TKC and Mose knew that their Maker had blessed their union with the mark of his African approval. He’d also provided each of the twelve kittens with the three-toed paws of their Garvey ancestry.

      They’re beautiful, Mose boasted with a hump of male pride as he showed off his twelve newly-born offspring to his nearby neighbours. They’re all beautiful, he mewed in a smugness of satisfaction as he began to check their limbs for muscular perfection, especially the six toms.

      I love the beauty of the black body, he later remarked to TKC. Just look at them, Mama! See how powerful and dominant black is. It’s so majestic. It puts all other colours in the shade, don’t yar think? And just feast yar big Mama eyes on the size of those muscles in the legs of the toms. They’re just like a chip off the old block!

      Since returning to Jamaica with TKC, Mose had gradually developed the habit of calling his partner ‘Mama’ instead of her Irish name. This practice simply became reinforced once all of the other cats in Falmouth also began referring to TKC as ‘Mama Mose’. This was one of those customs that TKC never really liked, but one which she learned to live with in quiet resentment for the sake of family peace.

      They’re all beautiful, TKC confirmed. I just hope that the Almighty has made them all capable of imagination and dreaming.

      Dreaming, Mama! Mose mewed back disdainfully, finishing off a piece of chicken as he spoke. No amount of imagination and dreaming will ever fill their bellies, Woman, he added haughtily in a tone of masculine arrogance, or help them climb the greasy pole of adult advancement!

      If you knew any better, Mose, TKC replied with annoyance, you’d value the twin towers of imagination and dreaming more than that piece of Jerk chicken you appear to prize so highly. Haven’t you ever heard of the four cornerstones of wisdom?

      Mose gave TKC a puzzled look, which told her that he hadn’t yet become acquainted with this piece of Irish-spun philosophy, so she told him.

      Breath, thought, feeling and the capacity to dream are the four cornerstones, she mewed. Without these four stones, the house of wisdom could not be built. Breath makes us live, thought makes us wise and feeling makes us compassionate.

      And what about this imagination and dreaming ya keep harping on about, Woman? Mose mewed, before TKC had been given adequate opportunity to explain.

      Every cat born within the boundaries of Kilkenny knows that imagination is the highest kite one can ever fly, TKC told him, adding, and it is dreams that provide the wind in its sail. Be very careful, Mose, before you go begin bad-mouthing and running down the importance of dreams. Never forget that old Irish saying that ‘the future belongs to those cats that have the wisdom to believe in the birth of their dreams’.

      Mose looked at TKC and smiled wryly. He seemed to concede the point under discussion without any further argument. As usual, he felt convinced that his expressed views carried more logical weight than those stated by his partner, but he’d now known her long enough to realise that no amount of cogent logic could persuade her to the contrary. Like most toms, he believed that reason played no part in the workings of a queen’s mind, once she’d made it up with the building blocks of airy-fairy art, fanciful imagery and potty philosophy.

      Move along, Man, Mose told himself. Move along! We born inside the boundaries of Falmouth have our own wisdom too. It’s time to do a bit of lateral thinking, he quietly mused as he moved away from TKC on some pretext of finishing off a job he’d previously started, but had abandoned.

      ‘Lateral thinking’ was a piece of Jamaican wisdom, which was known to every black tom who desired to keep the relationship that he shared with his queen intact. It simply went like this. When you dig yourself into trouble, stop digging the hole; get out of it as quickly as possible and move along!

      Move along, Man, Mose repeated to himself, and yar thoughts will move along with ya!

      So Mose put this piece of Jamaican, male wisdom into operation and moved his body out of his partner’s range of vision, beyond her vocal distance and out of her earshot. As he rested his body down beneath a palm tree nearby, he continued to tell TKC precisely what he thought of her potty ideas. And do you know what? He’d moved out of gunshot range. He could now tell her what he liked. He could even call her a few nasty names if he’d a mind to let off steam. And do you know what? She never mewed a dickey bird in reply. How could she? Especially when she couldn’t hear him talking to himself!

      Despite the many differences of opinion that they held, TKC and Mose got on very well together. Having become lovers, they remained warm bed pals and lifelong friends. If the truth be known, Mose was quite pleased with the comparative ease in which his queen had settled into Jamaican society. Deep down, Mose had gradually grown obliged to accept that ‘once a Kilkenny cat, always a Kilkenny cat.’ He realised that he’d never be able to get the better of her Irish tongue, change her made-up mind or conquer that fiery temper that all Irish, ginger queens are known for. So, through the process of lateral thinking, plus a good dollop of Jamaican common sense, Mose learned to win the argument ‘out of her earshot and firing range.’ As for the forthright manner in which she spoke to him; so long as she only argued with him in private and accorded him his due respect in public, nobody, except himself need ever know the extent of their differences or feel culturally offended by her non-observance of some of the Jamaican practices.

      Initially, the Jamaican queens tended to treat TKC as being a stranger from a foreign land, instead of being a newcomer to a strange land. At first, they viewed the ginger queen who’d stolen the heart of Mose, with suspicion, and they frequently spoke of her behind her back as ‘that Irish tinker from the land of the gypsies.’ But year after year, TKC gradually won their favour and quiet admiration. When she’d initially arrived amongst them in Jamaica, they’d quickly dumped her Irish name and started calling her ‘Mama Mose.’ By tagging her name to that of her tom, they thought that they’d be able to keep her in her place, besides constantly reminding her that any ‘respect’ she appeared to be given by them, had only been granted so long as she hung on to Mose’s coat tail.

      As TKC and Mose continued to have other litters together, she became known as ‘Mama Mose’, and he was affectionately called ‘Papa Mose’. Although TKC never publicly objected to her Jamaican name of ‘Mama Mose’, in the privacy of her own thoughts, she felt the custom to be somewhat demeaning. It angered her that by calling her ‘Mama’ they were defining ‘motherhood’ as her only valued role in life. Also, by adding her tom’s name, this merely seemed to denote her as part of his property. TKC felt angered that the only way a Jamaican queen could acquire recognition and pecking status in the community, was by virtue of playing the role of ‘Mama’ to some tom’s litter of kittens. We queens add up to much more than that! TKC thought. Surely, we bring more to this life than our capacity to breed and keep the tom’s line going! Pleasuring ‘his’ desires cannot be the most important function of any queen, surely? What makes a tom the 'be all’ of any partnership? He is only half of the relationship.

      By the time that TKC had given birth to an all-black litter of kittens, the other queens in Falmouth began to accept her as ‘one of their own’. They had started to notice the power of her independent traits and had started to respect her for the cat she really was. The reluctance that she’d often displayed towards some of their customs, of which she didn’t approve, now produced a different response from them than before. Such reluctance and disapproval had initially been viewed by them with deep suspicion and TKC was seen as being ‘some foreign queen who wasn’t trying to fit into their ways.’ But what they once viewed with suspicion, they now admired in her.

      TKC had never tried to hide her feelings whenever the status between queen and tom was being discussed by her Jamaican sisters. She always put her views up front and made her position as clear as a tom’s pride. She let the Falmouth queens know that she would never consider herself second to any tom, and whenever she spoke to others in the community, she spoke as their equal. This attitude of self-respect was also passed on to each of her daughters. TKC wasn’t slow to see the blatant discrimination practised by the Jamaican tom towards his queen. She had firmly arrived at the view that it was the cultural inclination of most black toms to be chauvinistic and downright sexist. By and large, the more she saw of the shameful and disgraceful way that they treated the opposite sex, the less she liked it!

      TKC witnessed too many Jamaican queens being treated as second-rate citizens in the community by their mostly absent toms. She watched them being frequently passed over by their tom for the next beauty on the block, and then passed around from harem to harem like second-hand goods, until no tom in the neighbourhood would give them house room or a second glance. TKC quickly came to realise that any queen who placed too much value on her level of beauty would soon fall out of her tom’s favour once her good looks began to fade. She never saw any point in joining the beauty parades of her Jamaican sisters in their bid to ‘get their man’. Often, TKC would tell her daughters never to play the tom’s game of being their beauty queen and, instead, she’d advise them to promote their personalities and inner qualities if they truly wanted a fair share in the marriage stakes.

      Never surrender your self-respect, she would constantly counsel them, or give up your independence of thought, word and deed. You’ve been created with the means to map out your own destinies and to shape the type of society in which you feel at home. Do these things for yourself and you’ll remain your own cat!

      She also warned her daughters about becoming too dependent upon the other sex. You must take hold of the reins of responsibility for your own happiness, she told them. Unless you shape your own role in the home and the community, the toms in your life will define it for you. Do not depend upon any tom to make smooth the passage of queens, because it’s not in their nature. God never made them born to do that.

      Toms were born to make love, make kittens and make war, she told them. They’ve been born to make this and that, or whatever their one-sided brains desire them to make. But we queens, on the other hand, seem destined to have been born to breed, bleed and blame. Unless we do something ourselves about this unequal order of things, we’ll never amount to anything more than the tom’s pretty plaything and the brunt of his feline frustrations.

      We queens must learn to stick together, she told them. We must stick together and watch out for each other in the tom’s market place, or else we’ll always be fed on rotten food!

      But, Mama Mose, one of her black daughters would reply, if I don’t do as he expects, I’ll never get! If I don’t see the picture his way, I’ll never get the benefit he gives to other queens.

      Then I say, let him keep his old benefits, TKC would tell her daughter, for it won’t do you any good unless he gives it to you unconditionally! Do not be tempted by the taste of any fruit he freely gives another queen. Hold out for better things, I say. Hold out for a bigger bite from the hand that holds the fruit! Hold out until you hold the winning hand. You learn to play the game by Mama’s rules, and I’ll guarantee that you’ll finish up with a much bigger mango—and you’ll not have to share it with the mouth of another queen!

      And so it was. Before TKC’s female offspring had grown into their adult coats and were ready to leave home and hit the road ahead, they’d each been coached by their independently-minded mother to own responsibility for their own lives and to hold out until the best offer came round.

      The day eventually arrived when all twelve of TKC and Mose’s black offspring prepared to leave home and go their own way. As the umbilical cord between mother and kittens was eventually severed, TKC’s tearful waterworks began to betray the feelings of loss she’d tried to hide inside her heart. Papa Mose, on the other hand, simply tried to pretend that it was just another day.

      See ya all now, Papa Mose loudly mewed, in a tone suggested to indicate the seasoned indifference of a mature tom watching his offspring leave home. He didn’t want to see them go any more than their mother did, but he was determined to maintain a masculine image.

      Don’t ya forget Papa Mose’s safety motto, he mewed, especially when ya’re in strange territory. He felt obliged to provide his brood with the traditional going-away bit of ‘must-have’ fatherly advice. Don’t ya forget, unless the other cats ya meet come from Falmouth, stay quiet and view them with suspicion. Believe nothing they say, question everything they do and trust nobody!

      TKC just couldn’t believe her ears as she listened to the kind of fatherly advice that Mose was giving them.

      Why are you filling their heads with that nonsense? she asked him in annoyance. They go off to start a new life, not a war! What gives you the right to sow suspicion where trust exists? What purpose can there possibly be for you pouring cold water on warm hearts, you pessimistic sourpuss?

      Then looking at her black offspring one last time, TKC advised them to the contrary. Ignore your father, she told them. He doesn’t know any better than a kitten carrying an old water bucket filled with holes. If you take on board his offerings of wisdom, you’ll arrive empty handed. You take your Mama’s advice though and you’ll walk through life a lot easier and with less hassle. Focus only on the future and every one of you will find your place in history. Never forget, you’re all winners. History is written by the winners!

      As TKC

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