(Continued for Buddy's Story: part 4 . . .)
 
During the next few days Cleo and Buddy had a lot of good talks.  Cleo
explained a lot more about herself.  It seems that Cleo had always secretly
wanted to be a ferret.  This was very easy for Jeffery to understand because
who wouldn't want to be a ferret?  Anyway, Cleo had always known she was a
little different then the other cats.  The other cats would only pretend to
like their human as long as it would benefit them.  Cleo always felt that
this was wrong somehow.  She always felt that you should love your human at
all times, even at those times when the human wasn't as nice as they should
be.  She knew that humans are animals too, and they must enjoy love and
companionship as most other animals do.
 
This belief only got her into trouble.  The following is the story that she
told me.  She was taken into this house with two of her brothers and one
sister.  When they were kittens, the others would only go to their human
when they wanted something from the human.  Cleo would go over and climb up
onto the human's lap for no reason but to let the human know that she cared.
It didn't take very long before she had quite accidently become the favorite
of the human.  This didn't go over well with the three others.  They decided
to make Cleo's life uncomfortable.  They all decided that they would start
pretending that they loved the human.  Whenever Cleo would climb up on the
humans, lap, the other three would also climb up on the human's lap and push
Cleo onto the floor.  Cleo was surprised at first and then she realized,
with great sadness, that her brothers and sister were trying to make her
life miserable.  Cleo decided that she would not allow them to make her
miserable so she started finding other things to make herself happy.  This
"game" had gone on for many years now.  She was now an outcast and was the
last to do and get everything.  She had found other ways to keep herself
happy though and her brothers and sister had never been able to make her
life miserable, except once.
 
Jeffery begged Cleo to tell him about that situation and Cleo wouldn't tell
him.  Finally after a long begging period she finally told him.  She said
that they had tricked her into doing something that made the human really
mad.  The human thought that Cleo had made a terrible mess, when in fact she
had just walked into the kitchen and was standing there when the human came
around the corner.  She hadn't realized, until it was too late, that she had
been tricked into going to the kitchen.  The result was that she had to
sleep outside for two months.  But that was a long time ago and she didn't
want to think about it anymore.
 
Since their first talk, Cleo had been sneaking an extra treat to give to
Jeffery.  Jeffery was very grateful for this.  The treat was a nice relief
from the bland dry food in his dish although there was never enough for
Jeffery's desires.  Jeffery was careful though to always thank Cleo for her
help.  Cleo had told Jeffery that they must be very careful because if the
other cats found out what was happening that her life may be in danger.
Helping a ferret constituted treason as far as they were concerned.
Jeffery promised to be very careful.
 
The next day Jeffery decided to ask Cleo a question that he had been
wondering about.  When Cleo came over for their regular talk Jeffery asked
her the big question.  "Cleo, have you ever heard of raisins?" (To Be
Continued .  .  .)
 
Jason, Sammy, Doris, and Buddy
ICQ # 7528859 (Sammy's Dad)
ICQ - www.icq.com
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 2377]