Page 30 - Fables volume 1

How the Cats Took Care of Complaints

Bertrand, who had been trying to look interested in Fiedler’s
discourse, suddenly realized that a cat had silently entered the study
and was sitting at his feet, looking up at him. It was a calico tabby with
distinctive markings, white paws and large green eyes.
“Arrh mrraw. Meowr,” said Fiedler.
“Prrreow,” replied the cat.
“This is Sharlena, Mr. Bertrand. She was born here at the
foundation about a year ago, and is one of the finest cats you’ll ever
meet. She’s very friendly, too. In fact, if you’ll put your briefcase down
for a minute, she’ll probably jump right into your lap. Then you can
examine her more closely for any evidence of cruelty.”
Bertrand looked down at the cat. She stared up at him, and then
slowly closed and opened her eyes. Her lips parted slightly and she
uttered a small purring cry. Bertrand thought he had never seen a
more beautiful cat. He hesitated for a moment, trying to remember
why he was in a hurry to leave; then he put his briefcase on the floor
and the folder on top of it. The cat leapt lightly onto his lap and curled
up, purring. Bertrand’s right hand went slowly to her head and began
stroking the fur on her neck and shoulders. She looked up at him
lazily, clearly enjoying the contact. Fiedler’s voice came into his
consciousness again, but as from a great distance.
“…had led me to believe that cats have relatively as much untapped
potential as the average person, including all the hard-wired behavior
of their degenerate descendants, the dogs. In other words, socially
controllable responses normally latent in an animal physically adapted
to solitary predation could be elicited and modified. Perhaps the
ancients knew this; I personally am skeptical of the mystical literature
portraying cats as guardians of Egyptian temples, witches’ familiars,
and so forth; but the sheer weight of such tradition must reflect on
something beyond the distorted fantasies of the human mind. Just
what the limits of feline ability really are has never been systematically
explored—certainly not by rat psychologists painfully probing their
subjects’ brains with electrodes and hunger-driven maze-solving.”
“At any rate, Mr. Bertrand, what Mrs. Oliphant conceived intuitively
in an ethical fashion, I have been empirically developing thanks to her
munificence. Like her, I am deeply touched by both the astonishing
power and beauty of cats and their abominable status in human

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