Another Fable, set in Billings, Montana

One thing follows another.

A fable for December 12, 2015.

Not far from where we live, a cat groomed herself.  “I am both beautiful and smart,” said Felicia.  “Nobody is as beautiful as I am.  Most people would say that I’m more lovely than even the angels in heaven.”  She was so vain she squeezed her eyes shut.

An angel heard Felicias’  boasts.  Because angels are kind and patient, she did not get angry at the cat.

“Felicia is acting like a cat,” said the angel, whose name was Rhonda.  She added, “Of course, she is not even a tenth as lovely as I am.  Felicia is actually, well, plain, compared to me,”  she added.

Then Rhonda fluffed her angelic wings to display her loveliness.  She stood taller, too.  She looked magnificent in her angelic beauty.  She got tired, though, later, slumping back when she thought nobody was watching.

Unbeknownst to both cat and angel, a mouse under the porch heard Felicia’s boasts, only the mouse did not share the belief that Felicia was beautiful at all!

On the contrary, the mouse considered her hideous beyond measure.  Ugly, actually.  Horrible.  Perfectly foul.

“Felicia is dreadful,” cried the mouse, whose name was Matt.  Becoming more emotional, Matt said, “Felicia is far worse than the devil.”

Satan, in Hell, heard what Matt said, but, as a supernatural being, was neither irritated nor angered.  “Matt is laying it down like a mouse would,” he said.  “I know I am the most horrid of all,” he added.  He adjusted his red wings and flicked his tail with pride.  “There!”

Where did that leave Felicia and Matt?  No place, really.  Felicia had become a second-rate beauty or perhaps half-ugly.  The other, Matt, was simply wrong.  Gloom settled over them.  They felt depressed.

Felicia’s owner then stepped out of the front door and sat down on the porch next to his cat.  He petted the cat gently and murmured soothing words.  Soon Felicia purred.  She felt so much better.  She didn’t mind being less beautiful than an angel when her owner petted her.  She felt like she was the supreme cat on the porch!  She was, actually.

(The mouse beneath the porch was oblivious to the activity.)  Matt trotted back down his tunnel, to his family, a mouse family burrowed under the porch:  there was mama and 14 naked little baby mice.  As long as Matt didn’t go out from under the porch he was safe.  His family rejoiced each time he returned to the nest with a morsel in his mouth to share.

Moral:  You don’t have to be either lovely or horrible to be terribly happy.