When the clock struck midnight that evening, Hell Hound was lying on the floor next to her Lady’s bed, her tummy rumbling incessantly. So she got up to go search for a snack. On her way toward the staircase she saw the door to the upstairs bathroom slightly ajar. A white sparkling light was fanning out from the crack.
Score! She thought. Old Princess Leah’s food will be at my access.
So Hell Hound pushed the door wide open with her snoot. The room was certainly bright, but something was odd. The window was open, for starters, and the room was freezing. Large, heavy snowflakes were falling outside.
Hell Hound sniffed the closet. The old cat’s food was gone. Then she looked for the hidden litter box, where the cat stashes the dog delicacy snack, but the box was gone too.
This is very strange. Hell Hound thought, opening a dresser drawer.
Although she could faintly smell the old cat, the drawer was empty.
Hell Hound walked back into the hall and let out a low, crisp bark.
“Leah!”
Where could she be? The old girl was blind, crazy and very sick. She could not have gone far, but why were her things missing?
The dog was sitting in the middle of the bathroom sniffing the air in order to find clues to this mystery, when the door shut briskly. Then a ball of light whizzed past her nose and tickled it a bit.
Hell Hound fell into a sneezing fit, but out of the corner of her eye she could make out a cat’s tail and feet, literally pushing off of walls and bouncing in a kind of game. The dog cowered in fear. Surely, this ball of energ
y could not be old Princess Leah! The creature finally hit the bathroom mirror and fell into the sink. Hell Hound peered into the sink to check it out and gasped.“Hello, Hell Hound,” whispered the voice of a little girl. A young Princess Leah cat was curled up there, her coat soft and smooth again, her eyes glowing and sharp.
“Leah, HOW did you change? Are you a spirit?” Hell Hound asked, shaking slightly.
“Yes, I think so, and I am forever YOUNG!” Princess Leah seemed to levitate over the sink, and in an instant she was flying around the room again bouncing off of walls, leaving small footprints that slowly dissipated like pixie dust. She stopped at the window and stared out longingly.
Hell Hound inched closer. “HOW did this happen to you and why haven’t you left yet on that ship that you always talk about?”
Princess Leah sighed. “I am waiting for it to pick me up and take me into the sky, but I’m afraid the snowstorm has delayed it. A messenger came to tell me that a great Lion, (my Father), is awaiting my arrival, but first he has given me an important task.”
“What is it and does it involve locating meatz, because then I can help you,” stammered Hell Hound.
“My assignment is YOU, Hell Hound. I’m to help change you into a good pet. Behold! I am made NEW again! This is the great gift of Christmas for all creation. Our souls live forever because we are all loved, and so all must be JOYOUS!”
“Oh no! Because I am naughty, I will anger the great Lion, and I will not be made new?” Hell Hound shuddered at the thought.
“No, Hell Hound. The great Lion’s compassion is beyond the understanding of all creatures in this world. He loves you no matter what you do, but sometimes your actions make Him sad. He wishes you had an attitude of gratitude, and He’s concerned about what type of impact your very important life is making here.”
“Cool, then I’ll just do what I want and get loved anyway. Did you just say that I am very important?”
The cat ignored Hell Hound’s question.
“If your conscious allows you to continue to be naughty, then you are not the puppy I remember. Let’s take a look at Christmases that have passed.”
A glittering ball of yarn encircled Hell Hound, and she was lifted up into the atmosphere and through the open window with Princess Leah the Cat, who shot through the blizzard like a furry rocket.
Hell Hound howled at the moon as they passed it. The experience was invigorating, like a car trip with one’s head completely out the window.
They landed in a pile of ribbons and bows in an apartment that Hell Hound did not recognize. Princess Leah was trilling with glee and romping in the bows.
“Where are we, Leah?” asked the dog.
“At my Lady’s first apartment on the occasion of her wedding to Milk Man. The bows were strewn all over the living room carpet when she moved in and Oh! It was cat heaven.”
The princess became so entangled in her play that she forgot Hell Hound was sitting beside her.
“Um, excuse me, but what does this have to do with me?” asked the dog.
“This is but a shadow of Christmas Past. My Past. My Past! WEE!” said the cat, rolling in the ribbons.
“But, Leah, “said the dog, gently, “I thought this story was supposed to be about me.”
The cat stopped mid flip so that a giant bow twice the size of her head balanced between her ears.
“Oh, my. That’s right. Oops! Let’s go then.”
With that Hell Hound was lifted up again and catapulted through the snow storm.
They landed back at the house that Hell Hound knew and loved, but the living room looked different. On the couch was a little puppy sleeping on his Lady’s lap.
“Why, it’s me as a pup again when my Lady and I first became friends. Oh, how sad I was to leave my brother Cupcake in the shelter, but my Lady treated me just like her baby, since she had not given birth to the human litter of Christies yet.”
Princess Leah nodded. “You needed a bath every morning because you wet your cage at night, and our Lady got up early to clean you before she had to go to work. She certainly loved you. Do you remember the couch she is sitting on, Hell Hound?” asked the cat.
“Oh yes. It is gone now.”
“What happened to it?” questioned the wise spirit.
“Um, well, I peed on the cushions, and then my Lady washed the covers and aired out the foam,” the dog remembered.
“Yes, and you ate the foam while it was drying. That made our Lady cry.”
Hell Hound dropped her head low. “Yes, and that’s when I got the nickname Hell Hound.”
“Your original name was Muffin,” the cat remembered. Hell Hound didn’t answer. A small tear appeared in the dog’s eye.
“Let’s look at another Christmas," said the cat, and they whirled off into night air once again.
This time they landed outside in the snow where Big Brother, just a toddler, was eating an apple slice.
A younger, skinnier Hell Hound shot past the child, who was bundled in layers. She swiped the apple from the little boy’s hand and left him crying on his back in the snow.
“Who is that dog?" the cat demanded. "Is she starving so much that she must steal from a baby?"
Hell Hound was silent, but her tail receded between her legs because she felt bad.
She cleared her throat and tried to explain.
“When the human puppies came along, I felt less special than I had once been in the eyes of the humans. So I started behaving spitefully.”
The cat nodded. Suddenly the scene around them melted away and they were back at the window in the upstairs bathroom.
“LOOK!” shouted the cat. “MY ship has FINALLY come! Oh, look at all the RIBBONS! Goodbye Hell Hound. I will see you again.”
The cat stepped out the window onto a rainbow that formed a bridge leading to a giant ark loaded with animals. The light in the room was sucked out with the cat, until Hell Hound was left sitting in darkness sniffing the blast of cold air left in its wake.
“Hell Hound! What are you doing in here? There is not cat food to steal anymore so go back to bed,” scolded the Lady who was standing in the bathroom doorway.
She shut the window and led the dog out of the room. Hell Hound felt a rain drop hit her head. Was there a leak in the roof? She looked up at her Lady, who was wiping her eyes and leaning down to pet her.
In Memory of Princess Leah the Cat 1995-December 19, 2009 :(
3 comments:
that daniel on the post was my love for leah, not daniels, i mistakenn ly used his handle and of course you wouild suffer for the loss also..love the putz
Hi Mr. Putz, I was standing over her in the Vet's office telling myself "she's just a cat" but my tear ducts ignored me. AND she was never an easy cat to care for.
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