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    Elephi: The Cat with the High IQ
    Elephi: The Cat with the High IQ
    Elephi: The Cat with the High IQ
    Ebook58 pages39 minutes

    Elephi: The Cat with the High IQ

    By Jean Stafford and Erik Blegvad

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    About this ebook

    "A lighthearted concoction of extraordinary events, told with affection and humor." ― The New York Times.
    "Oh, what an admirable cat is Elephi! (And what an admirable writer is Jean Stafford!) … Don't you miss knowing Elephi. (Or Erik Blegvad's apt illustrations.)" ― Publishers Weekly.
    Elephi Pelephi Well Known Cat Formerly Kitten lives a comfortable life with a kind but dull couple who often leave him to his own devices. Being a cat with a high IQ, he longs for stimulating companionship, and when he spies a snow-covered car outside his Fifth Avenue apartment, Elephi recognizes the opportunity for an adventure. Taking advantage of an open door, the intrepid cat bolts out to the street and devises a rescue for the abandoned vehicle, a daring maneuver that leads to comic confusion and a surprising new friendship.
    Splendid black-and-white drawings that evoke New York City of the 1960s complement this classic by the winner of the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Jean Stafford is best known for her short stories, which appeared in the New Yorker and other literary magazines. Her own beloved pet inspired this tale of Elephi, Stafford's only children's book, which is clearly the work of someone who loves and understands cats.
    "The drawings by Erik Blegvad endow both cats and cars with vivid personality." — The Emerald City Book Review
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateOct 23, 2017
    ISBN9780486826158
    Elephi: The Cat with the High IQ
    Author

    Jean Stafford

    Jean Stafford (1915-79) was the author of three novels, Boston Adventure, The Mountain Lion, The Catherine Wheel, as well as several children's and nonfiction books. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1970.

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      Book preview

      Elephi - Jean Stafford

      E lephi Pelephi

      Well-Known Cat Formerly Kitten

      Elephi

      THE CAT WITH THE HIGH IQ

      Jean Stafford

      Illustrated by Erik Blegvad

      Dover Publications, Inc.

      Mineola, New York

      For Jeannie and Joey Charoux

      Copyright

      Text copyright © 1962, renewed 1990 by the Estate of Jean Stafford.

      Illustrations copyright © 1962, renewed 1990 by the Estate of Erik Blegvad

      All rights reserved.

      Bibliographical Note

      Elephi: The Cat with the High IQ, first published by Dover Publications, Inc., in 2017, is an unabridged republication of the work originally published by Dell Publishing Co., Inc., New York, in 1962. An illustration by Erik Blegvad that did not appear in the original publication is included on the inside covers of this Dover edition.

      International Standard Book Number

      ISBN-13: 978-0-486-81426-1

      ISBN-10: 0-486-81426-2

      Manufactured in the United States by LSC Communications

      81426201 2017

      www.doverpublications.com

      E lephi Pelephi Well-Known Cat Formerly Kitten sat in the bay window watching the snow. He was alone and he was lonesome. Mr. and Mrs. Cuckoo, with whom he shared his apartment, were both out. Mr. Cuckoo was at his rare book shop and Mrs. Cuckoo was at the ten cent store buying Christmas wrappings and ribbon.

      Earlier, Elephi had sat on the top of a chest of drawers supervising Madella, who ran the vacuum cleaner, as she got ready to go home. She put on her green coat and her green hat with a feather in it, her woolly taffy-colored scarf and her fleece-lined boots and then she pulled the string that turned out the light in the back hall. She said, You be good, hear? Bye-bye, Elephi, see you tomorrow. And she was gone.

      The first thing Elephi did as soon as the door was closed was to leap up and catch the end of the string and turn the light on again.

      After that, he moseyed into the kitchen and nibbled at the leaves of the sweet-potato vine in the window sill. He jumped into the sink and caught a drop of water from the faucet with his tongue. He opened a cupboard door and pulled out a roll of paper towels which he unrolled like a carpet, a bumpy and unfinished-looking carpet, to be sure, but better than none.

      Then he went into the bathroom and arranged himself in the wash basin for a nap (it was exactly the right shape for the Curled Cat position—paws tucked in, tip of tail touching tip of nose) but he found that he wasn’t sleepy.

      So he made a tour of the dining room where he found his own personal walnut. He played hockey with it until it hid.

      Next he went into the living room to look through the window at the children leaving the nursery school at the Presbyterian church across the street. They were all bundled up in red snow suits and mittens and peaked hoods and they made noises like birds as they trudged through the snow with their mothers.

      When the last child disappeared, there was nothing left for Elephi to do but watch the gentle snowflakes whirling and twirling among the spires of

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