Storytelling for Week 7: Puppies vs Kitties

Back in a small town in the outskirts of London, there lived a modest family in a wooden cottage.  The family consisted of a father who was a teacher, a mother who was a nurse, and two twin boys who were in the first grade.  Although the family did not have a lot of money, they made it a point to help anyone they could.  Thus, many of the forest animals stayed around their cottage to the scraps at the end of the day.  This is how the family came to adopt a loyal mutt and a small tabby cat.  The two twin boys grew to love the cat and dog, and the boys would race home from school every day in order to teach them new tricks.  At first, the cat and dog were not used to so much attention, but they loved every minute of it and did not want to lose it.  The dog constantly went out of his way to help the boys – he would bring them big sticks to build a fort with.  The cat, on the other hand, was more concerned with the boys entertaining her and felt no need to go out of her way to help them in any way.  One rainy day, the boys found a small shivering kitten in the rain outside and asked their parents if they could take care of it until it got better.  The dog, sensing the boys’ new interest, curled around the kitten to keep it warm and licked the top of its head in a concerned way.  The cat, on the other hand, drank the warm milk that night that the boys had set aside for the kitten once the family had settled into bed.  The dog saw this and was concerned for the shivering kitten and woke the boys up to help.  However, the boys did not realize the intentions of the dog and were angry to be woken up.  Thus, the boys put the dog out in the rain for the night while the selfish cat sat inside and watched from the warmth of the fireplace.  Because of this, dogs and cats are no longer friends.

A dog and cat.

Source:  Wikipedia

Author's Note:  I chose to re-tell the "Why Dog and Cat are Enemies" story from the Chinese Fairy Tales unit The Chinese Fairy Book edited by Richard Wilhelm  and translated by Frederick Wilhelm then was published in 1921.  I kept the point of the story the same but changed the details.  I also wrote my story in third person so I could get a more over-arching view of things rather than having a limited perspective on any of the characters.