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33 pages

English

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In this sentimental, didactic fable, Masson imagines how the lone, nonsocial, domesticated animal came to share hearth and home.Billi, an Asian leopard cat, lives in a mango forest in ancient India. He enjoys his independence, but he feels pangs of loneliness and curiosity about the "two-foots." He learns their languages - Hindi, Malayam and Sanskrit - and he can "see the appeal of south India's three major religions."Billi embarks on a quest to learn more about humans by discovering what their animals think of them. A water buffalo mourns being underappreciated; a parrot bemoans his cage; a mongoose tells a chilling story about human ingratitude. Billi reminds a cow that it's worshipped by humans. "Oh, great," the cow says. "That and five rupees will get you a chapati."Nine months of travel and no truly good word for humans leaves Billi undeterred and, back home, he seeks out a young girl he'd often watched. It's not easy proving his good intentions or trying to be "the only animal to have a mutually satisfying relationship with humans," but Billi makes it happen in a story that's heartwarming not only for the passionate cat fan but for all readers.A novelette from the author of Raising the Peaceable Kingdom.

Sujets

Historical fiction

Short story

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Publié par	Untreed Reads
Date de parution	01 janvier 0001
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781611874280
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0113€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Table of Contents
Copyright
The Cat Who Came in from the Cold
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Author’s Note
The Cat Who Came in from the Cold
The Cat Who Came in from the Cold
By Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

Copyright 2012 by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
Cover Copyright 2012 by Ginny Glass and Untreed Reads Publishing
The author is hereby established as the sole holder of the copyright. Either the publisher (Untreed Reads) or author may enforce copyrights to the fullest extent.

Previously published in print, 2004 .

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold, reproduced or transmitted by any means in any form or given away to other people without specific permission from the author and/or publisher. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Also by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and Untreed Reads Publishing
Against Therapy
Raising the Peaceable Kingdom
The Assault on Truth

http://www.untreedreads.com
The Cat Who Came in from the Cold
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
For Nancy Miller, my editor for twenty years
Acknowledgments
I want to thank Christiane Bird for helping me turn three different versions of this story into a readable whole. She did a magnificent job, and without her, this book would not be at all.
Thanks to Robert Goldman, professor of Sanskrit at the University of California at Berkeley, for providing texts and helpful consultation.
Finally, thanks to the many felines who have shared my home over the last sixty-three years and agreed to teach me the wisdom and beauty of the way of the cat.
Author’s Note
I have always been intrigued by what could possibly have induced the cat-that divinely aloof and independent creature-to choose to live among humans. I use the word choose deliberately; anyone familiar with feline ways will know that while we may have welcomed that first feline friend with open arms, it surely was the cat who chose us. Cats can’t really be coerced to do anything, of course; much of the time they seem merely to tolerate us, although when they like, their affection can bind them to us as one.
It was in this spirit of inquiry that I set out to tell the story of Billi, an Asian leopard cat in ancient India. Drawing on the wisdom of Sanskrit texts I had studied long ago, and knowledge I have gained in recent years about the complex world of animal emotions, I have attempted to pinpoint the moment when the first cat made the choice of domestication, a moment that has opened both our species to a relationship that for thousands of years has provided mutual fulfillment, love, and respect-at least on our part-across the species barrier.
The Cat Who Came in from the Cold
Thousands of years ago, in the forests of south India, Billi sat on his favorite branch of his favorite mango tree in his favorite mango orchard, admiring himself. He stretched out one fine paw, then another. He washed his face. He flicked his tail. He examined his black and brown spots. How strong, how handsome, how glorious, to be an Asian leopard cat!
A cloud passed before the sun, and Billi inched forward on his branch, the better to bask in the fading rays. He loved being so small and light. His huge cousins the lions and tigers, for all their strength and might, could never stretch out on a limb as slim as this. Or slip so easily through the forest shrub. Or pass unnoticed in and out of human villages at night. Billi closed his eyes in contentment. He dozed, dreaming of a fat, squeaking mouse trapped between his paws as he batted it back and forth. He would go hunting later, after the sun went down.
“Hurry up, Nandini, Mother is waiting.”
Billi opened one eye. Small two-foots were approaching. He peered down through the leaves, at bright flashes of red and yellow. Below walked a boy child and a girl child, their black hair shining, their thin arms and legs swinging. Billi liked to see small humans. Their high voices reminded him of springtime, their faces reminded him of the moon. Too bad they grew up to be adults.
“It’s not my fault, it’s Janaka,” the girl child said. “He’s still back by the river.”
“Janaka!” the boy child shouted, and a few moments later, a big brown dog bounded up. Barking excitedly, he ran circles around the children, as if he hadn’t seen them for days instead of minutes, and slathered them with dog kisses.
Billi turned his face away in disgust. What was the matter with dogs? He didn’t have anything against canines per se, but the way they showered affection on their two-footed friends was ridiculous. Even worse was the way dogs had relinquished their freedom to be safely housed and fed by humans. Where was their dignity? Where was their pride? How could they give up something as priceless as independence for something as mundane as security?
Another, darker cloud passed before the sun, and Billi shivered. It was almost October. The monsoons would be here soon.
“Only five more days until Diwali,” the girl child said, as if reading his thoughts. The monsoons and Diwali, the biggest human festival of the year, always came together. “Mother has already started cooking…. ”
“Talib’s uncles and aunts are arriving tomorrow….”
The children’s voices faded away as they disappeared in the direction of their village. Billi started down from his branch. The dark clouds were rolling in now, packing the sky, and the sunshine was gone. His good mood had disappeared. He dreaded the start of the monsoon season, when huge storm clouds darkened the sky for days on end until it felt as if something terrible, something irrevocable, were about to happen. And then, when the lightning started to flash and the thunder to roar- It was like a preamble to the end of all living things, to the whole world coming apart.
Missing his footing, Billi was astonished to find himself suddenly falling. What in the name of Krishna-? he wondered as the world rushed past. How had he miscalculated his step so badly? He twisted his body and stretched out his front legs just in time to land on them gracefully, arching his back to absorb the shock. Landing safely from a fall was child’s play, really-he couldn’t understand why so many other animals got so badly hurt, even after a short fall from a low branch.
Still, it was embarrassing-a grown cat falling for no good reason. Surreptitiously Billi looked around, to see if anyone had been watching, and started licking his paws and grooming his pelt, feigning nonchalance, just in case-
“I saw that.”
Billi stiffened. Who said that?
“You fell off the tree.” The big brown dog was back.
“I did not,” Billi said.
The dog just grinned, wagging his tail, and Billi continued passing his paws over his face and chest, determined to hide his embarrassment by cleaning off a few specks of dust.
“How can you be such a fool about humans?” he asked the dog when he was finished.
The dog was now rolling around in the dirt, his long pink tongue hanging out. “What do you mean?” he said. “They’re my friends. We have fun together.”
“But you’re their slave.”
“Says who?” the dog said. “I think it’s the other way around. They feed me and play with me and take me for walks. All I have to do is be happy and wag my tail.”
A whistle came from the village and the dog sat up. “Gotta go in a minute,” he said.
“See what I mean?” Billi said.
“Well, it’s a lot more fun hanging out with them than it is with you,” the dog said. “You apparently only want to be by yourself.”
“And what’s wrong with that?” But Billi was talking to the air. The dog had already run off. What an idiot! Billi thought. He obviously knows nothing about cats. It’s true that I like being alone-we cats relish our independence, but we also like to play and to explore and to watch. We’re curious about everything that moves and everything that doesn’t. We smell every flower, watch every butterfly, examine every tree. We chase after shadows and insects just for the joy of running, and bat sticks and nuts around just for the pleasure of play. I know and appreciate this forest thoroughly-much better than that crude dog.
Haughtily, Billi raised his tail straight in the air and padded down the path toward his evening hunting grounds and home cave. Twilight was descending, and the night sounds and smells of the forest were beginning. The calls of the parrots, the chattering of the monkeys, the croaking of the frogs. The perfume of the breezes, the moisture of the mists, the musk of the loam beneath his paws. All was right in the world. He lived in paradise.
Billi wished at that moment, resting on the soft dirt floor of his cave, that he could share his contentment with someone-he had an almost unbearable urge to purr-but here was the problem, here, perhaps-just perhaps-the dog was right…. Cats not only liked to be alone, they had to be alone, it was part of their nature, and this meant that there was never anyone around to purr to or to talk to. No cat that Billi knew of lived among other cats, let alone other animals, except in early childhood. Why was that? he wondered. And was that really a good situation? Being a slave to the two-foots was one thing, but having another animal around to talk to and play with now and again…surely that was something else.
Billi thought back to his childhood. Like most cats, he had never known his father and had barely known his mother and siblings. After all, they’d lived together for only six short months, during which time his mother was often out hunting, leaving Billi and his sisters and brothers alone for hours on end. They’d all played tag together-he felt happy, remembering that-and rolled over and