The
Vampire Cat
By Cristina
Mejia
Author's Note: For
this story, I kept to the original in the beginning. I liked the
general idea of the cat licking its owner's feet, but I made a few
changes so I could incorporate the vampire idea. I did keep the idea of
the woman falling asleep in front of the fire. I think it makes it have
a "real" feeling to it. There are several different versions of this
myth in which the woman dies of blood poisoning or sometimes the woman
gets an infection. Either way, many people believe if their cat starts
to lick their feet, this is a sign they should get rid of the cat.
The setting of the story continues to take place at the grandpa cat’s
farm house. He will tell his grand-kittens another story- keep in mind
he is renewing one of his nine lives every time.
“Come on, Grampy, let’s start already!” shouted Mona. She knew this was
her favorite story, since she had heard it before.
“Now, now. No need to shout,” Grandpa said calmly. “We will start today
with the story of the Vampire Cat. This is an old story that involves a
mysterious cat named Oliver. See, Oliver really was a nice cat. He just
happened to be showing too much affection to his needy human friend
when it all started.”
“Grandpa, where was the farm he lived on? Do you think…” asked Tophers.
“Tophers, shut up! That doesn’t even have anything to do with this
story,” interrupted Frankie.
“Okay, little ones. Why don’t we continue on with the story? Then we
can talk about the farm later,” Grandpa said, intervening.
He continued, “See, Oliver’s human friend, Angela, loved to relax in
front of the fireplace in the evening. Since she usually had a long day
of work, she would come home and sit with him. This is a human’s way of
unwinding.”
“This particular day was special. It was Halloween,” explained Grandpa.
“This holiday is for me since I’m a black cat!” exclaimed Jonnie.
“I wouldn't be so quick to tell people that this day is for you,
Jonnie,” Grandpa warned her. “Let me remind you that some people think
vampires are disguised as cats during certain times of the year.”
“So it happened that the human sat down in her recliner. Being so
tired, she fell off to sleep in a dash. Poor little Oliver was hungry.
It would be another two hours before another human arrived to give him
food. So, Oliver did what any cat would do: he started licking her
feet.” Grandpa stopped suddenly.
“What’s wrong,Grandma?” questioned Frankie.
“This is just one of my favorite stories, so it gives me the shivers!”
exclaimed Grandpa. He continued, “Anyhow, Oliver soon came to realize
that he wasn’t going to be able to wake Angela up. So, he gave her a
little nibble on the toe. The human woke up with a scream! She got up
from the chair in a hurry. Oliver ran over to his food sack and nudged
it with his nose. The human let him outside as she filled up his bowl.
She left the door open just a tad, so Oliver could get back in. Then,
Angela went back to sleep in the chair.”
“Is that is? That’s not scary!” yelled Tophers. “That was a stupid
story!”
“He’s not done, fur-ball!” Mona yelled back.
“Girls, girls, calm down. No, I am not finished and we will never be
finished if you don’t stop interrupting,” Grandpa said firmly.
“Sorry,” they replied.
“Anyhow, after Oliver was done eating, he moseyed around the yard. A
few hours later, he figured he would go back into the house. This is
when he saw what had happened. The human had a stream of blood coming
from her ankle. Oliver ran over to see what happened,” Grandpa said
quivering.
After taking a deep breath, Grandpa continued, “She had been bit by
something. Oliver searched around to see if he could find what it was.
Suddenly, he saw the end of a tail, slithering behind the couch! He ran
over and snatched it up. It was a snake that must have come in through
the open door. Oliver took one swipe at the snake and cut off its head.
Oliver then dragged it outside.”
“Oliver went back into the house to check on the human. He tried to
clean her wound like he would if it were on him. He licked the bite,
but it still poured blood since it was so deep. Then, he heard the keys
rattle at the front door. Katie, the second human, entered in from the
front door. She saw the blood that was all over Oliver’s face. Then, a
single little drop fell from his whiskers. Katie snatched Oliver up and
threw him outside, then slammed the door abruptly,” Grandpa concluded.
“Wow! It was better than I thought,” Tophers apologized. “Then what
happened?” she pondered.
“Well, Katie tried and tried to wake Angela up, but she never could.
See, Angela had bled to death since the wound was so deep. As for
Oliver, no one has seen him since. Everyone tried looking for him. They
wanted to kill poor Oliver, but he knew he had to leave his family
behind or he would lose all of his lives for good,” Grandpa said.
“So, Grandpa, this is why you told Jonnie to be careful?” Frankie
questioned.
“Yes, little one. See humans tend to believe everything they hear.
Since they were once told vampires are disguised at cats, this is why
they wanted to find poor Oliver and kill him,especially since this
night was Halloween,” Grandpa concluded.
“Gee, Grandpa, I never thought about that,” Jonnie stated.
“Little ones, this is why I tell you to be very careful around humans.
You never know what they might think of you or when they can turn on
you. Oliver was just trying to do a good thing, much like Zoe. Humans
sometimes only see the first thing they want to see. Do you think they
ever found the snake that bit Angela? Probably not. They just saw the
blood on Oliver and thought he did it,” Grandpa said.
“Grandpa, can you tell us another one?” asked Frankie.
“Not today. But I can tell you about The Return
of Oliver?” Grandpa asked.
“Yeah!” the little kittens exclaimed.
Storybook Coverpage
Home
Story 1:Bad Luck Cats?
Story 2: The Cat and the Baby's Soul
Bibliograpghy Informaion:
The Cat in
Urban Mythology: The Foot-Licking Cat by Sarah Hartwell, 1995
Image Information:
"Scary Cat" provided by Joshb60796 at :Photobucket
If you have any questions about the story you read or you would like
any additional information, please feel free to email me.
