The Mostly True Story of Pudding Tat, Adventuring Cat
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
brother their Uncle Tat when he was kicked by a startled plow horse She taught them not to go anywhere near cart wheels or the long blade of Farmer Willoughby’s scythe She showed them the scythe hanging on the barn wall a terrifying implement that smelled of oil and new-mown hay Stay away from humans altogether she warned Just in case one had a sack tucked inside his coat She’d learned from her own mother who had learned from hers about farmers loading kittens into a sack for drowning Yes they drowned kittens if they thought there were too many cats in the barn Her favorite lesson though was when she taught them to wash How delightful to see all five Tat kittens in a row their pink tongues combing their fur This was the one thing Pudding was good at so Mother Tat made sure to praise him for it Between the toes like Pudding Between the toes Thanks to her guidance and love the kittens thrived Their legs got leggy and their tails got taily They were always clean
Now they hunted everything mice spiders the swallows that plastered their mud nests against the rafters of the barn They did not have much success with swallows They hunted each other They were mighty hunters of the Great Race of Tats Soon they were confident enough to leave the loft and go exploring Pudding too went bumbling after them Go Take chances Mother Tat told them as she shooed them out But to Pudding she always whispered Be careful The whole barn was theirs to explore now The kittens leapt from the loft’s sudden edge to a shelf in the milking parlor from the shelf to the top of a stall and from the stall to the floor Pudding fearlessly followed his brothers and sisters by scent and sound If it was night and safe to open his eyes he trailed behind their shadowy forms Mother Tat watching from above prayed that Pudding would keep up He usually did To himself he was Fearless Pudding the First
