Stipes, the puffed-up cat

Stipes was a lovely, but a very puffed-up little cat. She lived in a big family house, as the pet of a girl, named Kate, and all day she did nothing else, but looking at herself in the mirror and admiring her looks. Stipes was astonished by her looks. She loved every single whisker she had on her face, and she loved every stripe on her fur that highlighted how long her tail is. She admired her pink little paws on her white little legs, and when she had enough of this, she could spend hours looking at her slim figure and her graceful walk.

Stripes was sure that Kate loved her more than anything, because of her looks. That’s why she spent all her remaining time tidying herself and bathing herself. Every day went like this, and when Kate came home, she hugged Stripes tightly.

Every time she was hugged, Stripes was convinced that all the kitty tidying wasn’t in vain.

It happened one day that after Kate has gone to school, a little fly flew on the mirror, in front of which Stripes was admiring herself. The fly was not just any fly, but one of the cheeky ones. Stripes tried to make it go away, but the fly came back to the mirror every time.

“Go away, you silly fly” meowed Stipes, but the fly didn’t listen.

Every time Stipes raised her paw, the fly flew away, but then flew back directly to the mirror.

Stripes became very annoyed, and the fly, who was bored until now, became happy about this. He started to fly around Stripes, so the kitten stopped looking at herself and started chasing the fly. She ran across the room, into the living room, and from there to the kitchen, then out of the kitchen, to the bathroom, where she admired her flawless looks once again in the mirror, and then she raced out of there, too. She chased the fly across the whole house. Then the fly flew outside and Stipes followed him.

But she shouldn’t have done it. Because she was concentrating on the fly so much so, that she didn’t notice the puddle in the middle of the garden. She trotted directly into it, and became muddy from head to toe.

Her tasselled ears, became muddy, her lovely face was smeared and her tail, legs and paws became dirty. Stripes couldn’t have been dirtier. She looked like a little, fury, bundle of mud.

After the accident, Stripes didn’t care about the fly anymore. She was preoccupied with what to do next.

First thing’s first, she looked at herself in the mirror.

“Oh, no. I look hideous” she said, and started crying.

She was so sad, that she spent the rest of the afternoon crying, and when she tried to calm down, she noticed herself in the mirror, and started crying again. She felt that she was no longer lovable, not while looking like this. She was afraid, that Kate will not hug her when she came home from school, as she used to.

She cried and cried, until Kate came home.

“Stripes, here kitty-kitty” called out Kate, but it took her a while to find her pet, because Stripes hid away into the darkest corner of the room. But Kate didn’t rest until she found her cat, she looked everywhere, and finally, she found her little pet.

“Stripes, what happened to you?” she asked gently, and hugged the little, furry bundle of mud. The kitten wasn’t expecting this. She sniffed in surprise, and waited for what was coming next. But Kate caressed the kitten until it wasn’t trembling anymore, and then asked again:

“Why are you crying?”

“I trotted into the mud, and I thought you will stop loving me, because I look so ugly.”

“But you are not ugly at all. I love you, even when you are muddy, because you are my little kitten” Kate was reassuring Stripes.

“Really?” asked the cat.

“Really. And I will help you get all cleaned up” said Kate and took her pet into the bathtub and gave it a bath. From there on, Stripes never worried about her looks, because she knew, that Kate will love her anyway.

 

Do you look at yourself in the mirror often?

What do you like the most on yourself?

What is it that you don’t like on yourself?