The Mostly True Story of Pudding Tat, Adventuring Cat
deaf and toothless their mews silent Then at last they opened their watery eyes and looked around the dim old barn on the Willoughby farm In this Pudding was different too His eyes didn’t open Even so he was the first of the squirming nuzzling kittens to attempt to stand No sooner had he got up on all fours than one leg trembled and gave way and he toppled back into the hay He didn’t give up He tried again on his four white wobbly legs Eventually he succeeded They all did and grew sturdy He could open them now but preferred Soon they were tumbling over each other taking a few daring steps away from Mother Tat before rushing back They were not very brave except for Pudding Despite his closed eyes Pudding would wander away from Mother Tat and just stand there listening to the captivating sounds of the world The buzz-huff-hum twitter-thrum-scratch-squeak Open your eyes Pudding Mother Tat urged
not to which was strange They were beautiful eyes as pink as his tongue His brothers and sisters eyes meanwhile had changed from blue to green or amber During the day the sun would beam through the cracks around the hayloft doors revealing the dust and spider tapestries and long hammocks of cobwebs Then Pudding would blink violently and shrink back At night he was more comfortable but he still couldn’t see well He recognized the black void that marked the edge of the hayloft but he couldn’t tell how far away it was How would he ever catch mice Mother Tat worried when the kittens were ready to learn She was an excellent mouser An excellent teacher too While she’d been nursing her kittens the mice had taken advantage of the peace and produced their own babies Mice that were just peaking in plumpness and overrunning the barn This was how Mother Tat went about their lessons First she killed a mouse herself and divided it into five equal parts to give the kittens a taste of fresh mouse meat Other
than their special treat at Christmas the barn cats never ate human food From their very first taste they longed only for raw mouse bone-in with the fur still on it Next Mother Tat lined up her kittens in the hay She caught a mouse then opened the trap of her jaws Off it shot the kittens bounding after it Pudding too though he was always in the rear following his brothers and sisters One kitten got hold of the tail but the mouse jerked free They swarmed it Very good Mother Tat cried Well done The mouse escaped Mother Tat caught it again and divided it up as a reward for her five talented children After a few days of this Mother Tat began to tutor each of her kittens separately All of them progressed more or less as well as her previous litters Except for Pudding Without his brothers and sisters to follow Pudding used a different method He couldn’t rely on his eyes Instead when Mother Tat released the mouse he sat and listened
What are you waiting for she asked There Pudding picked out the sound he needed A tiny mouse heart beating He dashed for it but misjudging the distance ran straight into the hayloft wall The mouse escaped Pudding rubbed his stinging nose with his paw It pained Mother Tat to see Pudding fail like this again and again He was hopeless If he couldn’t catch mice in the barn where they were plentiful how would he manage in the wide world Would he even get the chance A fox would spot a white cat a mile away Or he’d fall into the river and drown Mother Tat wondered why he was giving the mouse a head start But she kept these fears to herself and hoping for the best continued to encourage him Hunting was just one skill Mother Tat taught her children They would need so much more if they were to survive She taught them the signs of an approaching storm red-sky mornings aching bones She taught them never to walk behind a horse but always in front She’d lost her own
