Once upon there was a huge, huge cat with huge huge claws. Can you picture him? Scary looking isn’t he? At least that’s what the people around him thought. His purring sounded like an earthquake and his miaowing like a roar that could tear people apart. No wonder people stayed as far away from this huge monster as they could.
Some big cats would be happy to be left alone, but not him. This big, big cat was still a tiny little kitten inside with tiny little kitten needs. He wanted nothing more than to be hugged, to be petted and lay his big head on someone’s lap. None of those things are easy to achieve when everyone is running away from you so one day the big, big cat with the tiny, tiny heart decided to go into the world to find people that were brave enough to love him.
And so he went through forests and fields, through deserts and beaches… Always on the lookout for people. Since he knew how scary he was for people, he decided to approach any new group carefully by just waving at them from a distance. A great idea if you are anything but a huge, scary-looking cat. The problem was that the people didn’t see it that way. What they saw was a threatening-looking beast waving its claws at them. As one might expect, they freaked out and did what humans do when they are unnecessarily scared, they took out their guns and started shooting at the poor creature.
This naive cat saw the people running after him while shooting and thought:
‘Wow, they finally come to me and they want to play!’
And so he started to run and jump around, sneaking up on them and showing up right behind them. As with everything in life, it’s all fun and games until somebody gets shot, and that was exactly what happened to the cat. He felt a sudden sting in his paw and got really scared. As fast as he could, he ran into the forest until he could find a place in the bushes to hide.
Right at that moment, a girl walked through the forest. She saw the bushes move up and down fiercely by the heavy breathing of the cat. As she came closer to him and he spotted her, he used his growl to scare her away, since now the big, big cat with the tiny, tiny kitten inside got scared of people. He didn’t see them as friends anymore but rather as dangerous creatures that wanted to hurt him. He growled and growled but the little girl didn’t move an inch. She was not scared of him, oh no… Why would she? Her father and mother were very mean to her every day, shouting and occasionally hitting her. What could this hairy creature possibly do to her that they hadn’t done already?
And so she came closer and looked at his bleeding paw.
‘Let’s have a look at this,’ she said while petting his big head.
‘It seems like I should take you home to take care of you.’
When the big cat heard this, his eye widened with excitement. Would he finally be able to have human friends? To spend time with them and play with them? The excitement of this prospect gave him new energy and he walked next to the girl to her home, stroking his head against her leg on the way.
As they neared the house of the little girl, her mother and father were sitting outside, waiting for the little girl with angry faces. She started to worry. What if they would yell at her for bringing this gentle creature? What if they would hurt her or him?
In that moment the big cat with the tiny kitten inside noticed the parents and he instantly got excited. Even more people to cuddle and share his home with! With great enthusiasm, he lifted his paw and started waving wildly. So wild that the parents’ eyes widened. All they knew in life was aggression and so they took the kindness of the cat for raging anger. Immediately they ran away as far as they could.
From that day on the cat and the little girl lived together in the house. She never had to worry ever again about being yelled at or beaten. And him? He could get all the cuddles he wanted and put his big paws around someone who would never ever be scared of him.