Granny's Boys a story I wrote for Maya when I got the Hooligans

Now, Granny was very sad when Missy died. She felt very lonely and her lap was as empty as her heart. She missed Missy's soft grayness and the warmth of her purr. And she realized that it's hard to read a book without a purr in the background. When she came home from work at night, there was no old lady cat to greet her, no thump, thump down the stairs, no sharing how their day had gone. And Granny almost didn't want to go home at night, because Missy wasn't there.

At first Granny thought about how Maya and Mama and Dado were going to come to visit her that summer, and how Dado is allergic to cats, and how now he could come into her apartment and not get sick. And so Granny was going to wait until after they had come to visit to find a new cat to live with her. But when she mentioned to Mama how lonely she was, Mama said, "I don't know if we are going to be able to come to Alaska this summer. It may be a few years. You need to get a kitten and take care of yourself. When we come, you and Uncle Richard and Auntie Kathy can come to the hotel room to visit."

So then Granny started to think about a kitten and right away she thought, "One kitten all alone while I go to work would be as lonely as I am right now! That's not kind to do to a baby animal!" And, indeed, Missy had not started out as an only cat -- when Granny got Missy, Uncle Richard's cat Sheba and Mama's dog Samantha had been there.

So Granny started looking for a pair of kittens. But December isn't kitten season, and they were hard to find. Her friend Christina thought she had found a pair, but nothing came of it. Then her friend Rena found a pair, but they were given to someone else by accident. Oh, Granny was in despair! She wondered if she would find kittens before spring, if she would have to go home to that lonely apartment until then! Oh, she didn't know how she would stand it.

And then, Rena heard about a kitten that was coming to Juneau from Haines. And it had two brothers! And so she called the people who had the kittens, and they put the two boys in the shoe box with the little girl kitten and took them all to the air strip to fly to Juneau. Luckily the pilot of the four seat plane had a cat carrier that she was able to put the kittens in, so they didn't have to fly all that way tied up in a dark shoe box!

And so, two days before Christmas, a cat carrier was brought to Granny's apartment. And now when Granny comes home from work, she is looking forward to seeing her boys. They come thump, thump down the stairs or out from behind the couch and meow at her. They tell her about their day and she tells them about hers. And they climb and wrestle and chase toys and bathe each other and bat at the newspaper while she reads it and finally climb up and fall asleep on her bosom! And they purr so loudly, and she thinks, "Ah, magnificent thunder pussies."

And it is a very good thing Granny didn't wait until after Maya and Mama and Dado came to visit, because Dado wasn't able to come.