Illustration by Marta Taylor, Instagram @marta.taylor.draws https://martataylordraws.wixsite.com/martataylor
Shady Cat and the Sun Dog
As you certainly know, Shady Cats love the shade on a hot day
But today was very different.
The Sun was high and bright, but there was no shade!
Oh this made Shady Cat very mad.
How could the sun be up, but there be no shade under the tree-
Or under the chair, the bench, the flowers, or table?
She searched low and high, and everything between –
Until she found the problem: Sun Dog was on the roof!
“Sun Dog!” she cried, “Mraww Mraww!”
“If you are here on the roof, that makes two suns!”
“How will I ever get any shade?”
Sun Dog jumped up and down and happy happy happy!
He wagged his tail and said,”Come play with come play with me”
So Shady Cat said,” Sun Dog! Come back at night!”
“Two suns is too much! It’s too hot for me to play.”
“Come back at night and I can play with you!”
So Sun Dog jumped for joy and ran off and Shady Cat got her shade.
She slept all day in the cool shade until night fell.
And then quick as she could, she ran inside the house and hid from Sun Dog.
Because Shady Cats do not like to play with Sun Dogs.
THE END
I started to write out some of the short ‘mitsi’ stories I tell my daughter before bed, which often feature Shady Cat, who has a striking similarity to her cat Hinata. If you don’t know about mitsi, they are basically a type of parable but without the connection to any particular morality. The beauty of a mitsi is they can be as short or long as you want, and you can change them to fit your audience as you go, or even just make the whole thing up on the spot, which is often what I do. You can read a small portion of her adventures in the link on the top the page, but understand these are just an outline- I often change the story midstream and also take cues and ideas from her as she jumps into the story. For instance, Sun Dog; Shady Cat’s nemesis, is entirely her creation- and he will be back for more soon!