Week 6 Storytelling: Romeow and Juliet

When I was a little girl, I lived in a neighborhood that was home to two beloved cats. The male, a pure white American short-hair with bright blue eyes, was named Maximus and he was as sweet as he was handsome. Every day when I came home from school, Max would be waiting at the top of the street to walk with me to my door. His owner, Mr. Farrow, was the music teacher at my school and he loved Max very much.

Max, the handsome cat with white fur and blue eyes
(Wikimedia Commons)

The other cat was a beautiful female named Sweetie, with jet black fur as soft as silk and glowing green eyes that shimmered in the sun. Sweetie was hardly ever let outside because her owner, Mrs. Hamlin, was a lonely old woman and her cat was the only friend or family she had left in the world. On one of the rare occasions that Sweetie made it out of the big empty house, I happened to pass by her with Max on our daily walk home. The two felines paused when they caught sight of each other and if cats could blush, I'm sure the ebony cat would have. They sniffed around for a bit, but were soon rubbing whiskers and purring loudly. It was kitty love!

Sweetie (personal photo February 2015)

"Sweetie!" Mrs. Hamlin's voice came calling from down the road, "Sweetie Pie, come home." With a deep look of sadness on her face, Sweetie uttered one soft meow of farewell and returned home. For several days after that, Max didn't meet me at the top of the street like he always did. When I got to my front porch, I saw him in Mrs. Hamlin's yard with his front paws on the bay window from which Sweetie was peering out. The two of them would sit there like that all day, longing to be reunited. Although Sweetie cried and cried to be let outside again, Mrs. Hamlin would not hear of it.

Then, when I reached the porch after school one day, I was greeted by the sight of two felines, one jet black and the other snow white, perched on the bottom step. I was very happy to see the two together again, but something in there faces was not entirely happy. Max mewed and rubbed himself against my leg, then raised his face so that I could pet his head. It was then that I realized what was happening: the two were eloping and this would be goodbye. After amply petting both of my furry friends, I said a bittersweet goodbye and watched as they disappeared around the wooden fence framing our backyard.

It was dinnertime when I heard the soft scratches at the back door. When I opened it, I found a very distraught looking Sweetie but no Max anywhere. I took the poor thing in and cared for her as best I could. Though she ate and drank plenty, Sweetie was understandably in low spirits. I wondered what had happened to Max and wished that cats could talk so that I could figure out how to help. Day after day, Sweetie lay down on a comfy pillow and didn't stir except to eat and drink.

But one day when I came home from school, she was nowhere to be found. I searched all around my house and the neighborhood without a seeing any trace of her. Then I heard the yowling coming from the alley. I hurried around the corner just in time to see a white mass launching itself at a large orange alley cat hissing at poor Sweetie. The blur knocked the big cat sideways and continued to scratch and hiss until the brute was chased away. It was Max! He looked well-fed and taken care of so he must have been taken in by a caring person after he and Sweetie had gotten separated. The two lovebirds were happy as could be and purring loud as freight trains. They gave me a grateful glance goodbye and the two felines headed down the ally their new joyful life together at last.

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Author's Note: This is a story loosely based on the Japanese fairy tale "The Cat's Elopement" from The Violet Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1901). In the original story, the two cats, Gon and Koma, fall in love with each other and try to get one of their masters to buy the other's cat. However, neither wants to part with their beloved pet, so the two lovers are forced to elope. Unfortunately, it's not long before they get separated when a dog tries to attack them and Gon is taken in by a caring princess. The two felines are reunited when Gon saves a smaller cat, who turns out to be Koma, from being attacked by a much bigger cat and the two tell their tale to the princess, who takes Koma in as well. They all live happily ever after together.

I wanted to make my story more realistic and modern than the original, so I set it in an average neighborhood and the cats no longer talked (although, they can express emotions somewhat). I also changed the narrator from a removed third person to a more involved first person. I felt this kind of narrator would be a logical and a simple way to tell the story in a realistic manner. While the original version focused on the male cat's experience, I decided to focus more on the female cat's experience and modeled her after my own cat, Sweetie. I chose to retell "The Cat's Elopement" because I liked that the main romantic pair were not humans for once and I imagine a fairy tale would be like if cats could make their own. I chose the title because I thought it was a cute play on words that just popped into my head while I was trying to think of an original title.