To Petterine
Under the roots of an old dead tree in the middle of a small wood, a little gray kitten was born. She came into the world, blind, bald, and looking not unlike a drowned rat.
“She’s ugly!” her brother declared. “She looks more like food than a cat!”
“Most cats are born bald,” the father said.
“That’s no excuse!” the brother said. “I was born with hair!”
“Blue hair!” the father scoffed.
“So? Are you discriminating against cats with blue fur?”
After a few days, the new kitten looked more like a kitten. She grew silky gray fur, and her lids opened occasionally to reveal beautiful blue eyes. She hung onto her mother, suckling milk out of her. Her parents referred to their new born kitten as Gray, after the color of her fur.
The kitten’s mother, who was called Moso, was a black and gray striped cat. She had amazing patience, and was able to put up with the most annoying aspects of her life and brush them aside with only a minimal sigh of annoyance and exasperation. The father, who was called Jripping, had fur that seemed to change color depending on where you looked at it. Jripping was plumper than Moso, although in Cat society, plumpness is not unattractive.
Blue was the name everyone used to refer to the son of Moso and Jripping. He was, as his name suggests, blue. For some reason, he had been born with blue hair. Nobody knew why. Blue himself suggested that it was probably some bizarre genetic mutation that biologists would be very interested in.
“Maybe they could give us money to study me!” He had said.
“Yes,” Jripping had said, cheerfully. “If they give us enough money, I’d be perfectly willing to let them dissect you.”
Gray grew up living a happy life. Shortly after she was born, a new animal moved into the area. He was a cat-like creature whom everyone referred to as Red Panda. His origins were very mysterious; he wouldn’t say exactly where he came from or why he was here, but he quickly became a friend of the cat family. He also took interest in watching the little gray kitten grow up. Almost everyone liked Red Panda. He was quiet and somewhat secretive, yet he was fun, intelligent, and the only sane person who wasn’t annoyed by Blue’s practical jokes.
“Exactly what are you?” Blue asked Red Panda one day. “You are not a cat; you look less like a cat than Gray did when she was born. And, you are not a panda. I have seen pictures of pandas, they are bear-like creatures that are black and white.”
“I am,” said Red Panda, “as my name suggests, a red panda.”
“But you are not shaped like panda!” Blue exclaimed. “You are somewhat cat shaped, you have a long fluffy tail, your fur is rusty red with brown stripes. Your face is fluffy white with red and brown markings. There is no way you can simply be a panda that happens to be red. I mean, I’m a blue cat, but at least I look like a cat.”
“I am a completely different species than the black and white panda.” Red Panda responded. “My species name is ‘red panda’. The humans gave us this name, only because we eat bamboo. I am actually more closely related to the raccoon than the panda.”
“Well then why don’t we call you ‘red raccoon’?”
“Well, I have actually been referred to by many different names during my life. I’ve been called Lesser Panda, Cat-bear, Bear-cat, Fire Fox, Thingy, Ailurus fulgens, and um—what else—oh yeah, The Silent Red Thing That Doesn’t Say Very Much.”
“Wow,” Blue said. “I think I’ll just call you Red Panda, although ‘Fire Fox’ is kind of cool.”
“Ehh—maybe. It’s better than Lesser Panda, I can’t deny that. I’ve never liked being referred to as ‘Lesser Panda’. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being known as ‘lesser’.”
The Cat Family lived under the tree roots of a dead tree. This was where Gray was born, and this is where she spent her very early childhood. A small gate had been constructed over the entrance to the house, so as to give the cat family the option to seal off their home from the outside world if they wished. Inside their little hole, there were tiny little light bulbs powered by an electrical line which animals had run through the area. Blue often asked his parents who provided this electricity, how it got here, why it was provided, and other such questions. Neither Moso nor Jripping were able to answer these questions, as they did not know the answers to these questions. Red Panda however had a vague idea as to where the electricity came from.
“I think it has something to do with this rabbit I know,” he said. “He’s a bit of an inventor, and I think he told me that he was responsible for wiring electricity in some primitive animal communities, but to tell the truth, I am not sure.”
“A rabbit?” Blue asked. “Does he have a name?”
“I’m not sure,” Red Panda answered in his usual dreamy voice.
“What do you mean you’re not sure? Everyone’s got a name!”
“Well I don’t,” Red Panda said. “Other than ‘Red Panda’, I was never given a name. This rabbit is generally referred to as ‘Easter Rabbit’, but I don’t think that’s his real name.”
“The Easter Rabbit?” Blue asked curiously. He had heard of a rabbit called the Easter Rabbit who created some sort of scavenger hunt in the area during Spring.
“There are many Easter Rabbits,” Red Panda explained. “They’re all part of the World Union of Easter Rabbits and they go around on Easter Sunday and hide painted Easter Eggs. Mostly they do this for the benefit of the humans, but some do it for the animals as well.”
“I remember last Easter when I was a tiny kitten, there was the annual Spring Scavenger hunt. That was fun.”
“Yes, this particular Easter rabbit is very creative.”
The tree where the cat family lived was located in a small woodland area. A stream ran close by, tumbling happily over rocks and mud, feeding into a small lake. Gray liked to sit in front of the lake and watch the fish go by. She had once asked Blue why they didn’t go swimming to catch the fish.
“Because the water is radioactive,” Blue had explained. “If you swim in that lake you will develop bizarre mutations, and become some sort of horrible creature that will take over the world and stuff. Why do you think I’m blue?”
“Really?” Gray had asked. She had heard of weirder things, so she wasn’t completely sure if he was lying or not.
“He’s joking,” Red Panda had told her.
“No, I’m serious!” Blue smirked.
“He’s joking.” Moso had said firmly.
Now, staring into the lake, Gray wasn’t sure. She could see some sort of faint swirling shiny colors. She was almost positive that they had not been there before, and that they probably were not supposed to be there now. She leaned forward to get a closer look, and lost her footing. She fell forwards into the lake, her claws automatically extended desperately trying to latch onto anything solid. She hit the water with a splash and immediately found out why they never went swimming for fish. The water was cold and uncomfortable. She yelped a pitiful meow, and splashed around frantically with her paws trying to swim. Feeling that she was beginning to sink, she gasped frantically for breath. From this experience, Gray quickly learned that cats are not natural swimmers. She felt herself slip underwater despite her best efforts to keep afloat. Just when she had lost almost all hope, she felt something pulling her body back up to the surface. The next moment, she found that she had been dropped in a somewhat undignified way onto the lake’s muddy shore.
Cautiously getting up, she saw a dignified looking mallard duck standing in front of her. “You should be careful,” the duck told her. “If you weren’t so small I wouldn’t have been able to save you.”
“Uh, thanks,” Gray said somewhat uncertainly. She couldn’t recall seeing this duck here before, and wasn’t sure if this duck lived here or was just visiting.
“You must be Gray,” the duck said. Gray looked down at her furry gray coat.
“Um, yeah,” she said.
“I’ve met your parents, Moso and Jripping,” the duck explained. “They’re—“
He was interrupted by Red Panda, who came trundling hurriedly through the forest’s bramble. “Are you OK?” He asked Gray breathlessly. “I heard a splash, heard your meows, saw you drowning and came over as quickly as I could—oh hello—uh—Quin, that is your name, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” the duck said. “I am Quin.”
“Are you OK?” Red Panda asked Gray.
“Yeah, I’m fine, I guess,” answered Gray. “I think I really need to groom myself.”
Moso appeared now. “I’m not completely positive I want to know the answer to this question, but what did you do?”
“I fell into the lake,” answered Gray.
“Fell?” Moso asked suspiciously. “Is that perchance another word for ‘pushed into by Blue’, or ‘tried to pretend to be a penguin’? ”
“ ‘Tried to pretend to be a penguin’? ” Red Panda scoffed. “I think that’s something that Blue is more likely to do.”
“Did you thank Quin for saving your life?” Moso asked.
“Yes!” Gray said, glaring at his mother.
“It’s OK,” Quin said. “Don’t be too hard on your daughter, Moso. She might spontaneously combust.”
Gray gave Quin an annoyed look.
Moso gently herded Gray back towards their home, Red Panda tailing behind them, and Quin coming along, chattering gently with Red Panda, who was being his usual silent self. “You shouldn’t lean over close towards the edge of the lake,” Moso bugged. “Cats are not good swimmers.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Gray said under her breath.
“Now we’ll have to dry you off. . .”
Blue was very amused to see Gray when they got back to their home.
“Wow, you look like a drowned rat, yet again!” Blue exclaimed somewhat sarcastically. Gray swiped her paw at him.
“Kittens!” Moso said in her harsh and commanding voice.
Red Panda stayed outside the cat family’s little home, listening to Quin talk while Moso fished out a raggedy towel to dry Gray off. Gray wondered if Red Panda was actually listening to a word that Quin was saying; he might have been, Red Panda often listened more than he talked.
“Ouch! Hey stop that!” Gray protested as Moso rubbed the towel over her fur. “I’m a cat! I can groom myself.”
“Lick the lake water off your body? Do you know where that’s been?”
“Don’t worry, Moso,” Quin called in from outside their home. “If the lake is poisonous, then I would have died a long time ago.”
Blue snickered.
Suddenly, a thick commanding female voice said, “Hello little tiny baby Blue cat. Is it you that I have the pleasure of thanking for the beehive that just so happened to appear in my home?” A big brown furry bear appeared, looking at Blue with great annoyance.
“Oh crap,” Blue said, and ran away as fast as he could.
The bear turned her head towards the entrance to the cat family’s little hole. “Tell your son to behave himself. His little practical jokes are driving us all mad.”
“Knock some sense into him then,” Moso suggested. “You can probably hit him harder than I can.”
“Blue can’t be stopped, Gairna,” Red Panda remarked. “He’s a force of nature. Like a hurricane.”
“Hey, woah, don’t kill him, Gairna!” Quin exclaimed to the bear, holding out his wing as though to hold her back.
“I’m not going to kill him!” Gairna said rolling her eyes. “At most I’ll just push him into the lake.”
“No.” Moso commanded, turning her stern green eyes up at Gairna. “I already have one wet kitten to deal with, I don’t need two.”
“Right,” Gairna said humbly. “Um, where’s Jripping?”
“He’s off hunting right now,” Moso answered.
“OW!” Gray screamed indignantly. “Let me groom myself!” She wiggled out of her mother’s grasp, and extended her paw in Moso’s direction, threatening to swat her if she tried to clean her again.
“Don’t even try to hit me, Gray,” Moso warned. “You—”
“Moso!” a voice called. It was Jripping. He had been hunting, and now was hurrying back to their home, apparently anxious to tell them something.
“Yes?” Moso responded, looking up. Gray began to groom herself.
“We have a visitor,” Jripping announced, “and a problem. Where’s Blue?”
“Hiding somewhere,” Gairna answered, “and as mischievous as ever.”
“I’ll go look for him,” Jripping said, somewhat peeved. “You should all go down by the waterfall, all of you. You too Red Panda, Gairna and Quin. There’s a rabbit there that has something to say.”
“A rabbit?” Red Panda’s ears perked up in interest.
“Yes,” Jripping said. “A rabbit. And a cat. And a—a penguin.”
“A penguin.” Moso repeated in disbelief.
“Yes, a penguin.” Jripping confirmed.
“A penguin,” Gray repeated with similar disbelief. “As in those black and white tuxedo wearing birds who can’t fly and stuff. Don’t they live in Antarctica?”
“Yeah, they do.”
“Then what’s a penguin doing here in a temperate woodland?”
“You can ask her when you get there,” Jripping responded. He trotted off in search of Blue.
“I guess we should look into this,” Quin said.
Red Panda said nothing, only silently nodded. Moso, Gray, Red Panda, Quin and Gairna all headed towards the waterfall. The waterfall was a ways behind the cat family’s little tree stump home, where the stream trickled gently down a rocky cliff, into a small pool before trickling into the lake.
Today, there was a small crowd of animals clustered around the waterfall, talking about something. In the center of it all was a large dirty white rabbit, a pure white cat with a peculiar purple bow around her neck, and a penguin. The penguin looked very much out of place in this woodland setting.
The crowd surrounding these three peculiar animals seemed a little bit panicky. Red Panda attempted to peer over the heads of the taller forest folk to get a better view of the visitors.
“Penguin!” he cried out suddenly to the penguin. “Hey Penguin!” He craned his neck above the crowd, and accidentally got pushed by a raccoon in front of him.
“Whoops, sorry there,” the raccoon said apologetically. “Didn’t see you,”
Red Panda continued to call out to the penguin, despite Moso’s quizzical looks. “Something’s not right if the three of them are here,” Red Panda said to Moso, Gray, Quin and Gairna.
“Who are they?” Quin asked.
“Friends of mine. Come on, we need to get to the front of this crowd.”
“Uh-huh,” Gairna scooped up Red Panda in one paw, and placed him on his back with the smallest squeak. “Coming through, coming through, make way, bear and red panda thingy coming through.” The crowd, although unwilling to get out of the way for a little red panda, eagerly jostled out of the way for the big bear. Moso, Gray and Quin followed in Gairna’s footsteps feeling kind of small.
“Hey Penguin!” Red Panda called to the penguin.
The penguin looked up at Red Panda on Gairna’s long furry back, and said in a crisp cool female voice “Oh hey, Red Panda, this is your community now, isn’t it. Good to see you again!”
“Oh hello Red Panda,” the rabbit said. “I was wondering when I might see you.”
From behind them now came a sudden disturbance, as Jripping’s voice was now heard yelling “Moso, Gray, you there?”
“Uh, Yeah,” Moso yelled back, a little surprised at the sense of urgency in Jripping’s voice. “We’re here.”
Jripping came jostling through the crowd with Blue in tow. Gairna gave Blue a brief look of annoyance. Blue stared at the penguin and then looked at Moso. “What’s going on here?”
By this time the crowd of animals had gotten larger, and a lot of people were wondering the same thing.
“OK,” the rabbit cleared his throat and yelled desperately over everyone’s voices. “Here’s what’s happening. In one month, humans will come and knock down this forest to construct a residential community.”
There was a stunned silence, which immediately erupted into a huge outcry.
“Calm down, CALM DOWN!” the rabbit screamed. “An official complaint has been filed, but the humans seem to have chosen to ignore it.”
“We should declare war on these humans!” one of the animals, a large stout badger screamed. A shout of agreement followed.
“No, No, NO!” the rabbit yelled desperately, but his voice was too soft.
“Everybody SHUT UP!” the penguin screamed in a loud voice. Everyone obeyed. “You can’t go declaring war on humans, they’re too powerful. Like it or not, in one month the humans will come and knock this wood down with big yellow bulldozers, and if you’re still around you’ll get bulldozed down too.”
“We must be able to reason with them,” Quin said.
“Good luck,” the rabbit responded.
“What do we do?” Moso asked.
“I will help you evacuate,” the rabbit promised. “My name is—well they call me Easter Rabbit. I—”
“Oh, you’re the Easter Rabbit!” Blue interrupted suddenly.
“Yes, one of many,” Easter Rabbit admitted.
“Oh cool, it’s the Easter Rabbit!” the raccoon said, genuinely interested.
“I know a lot of animal refugees; I can help you find a new home,” Easter Rabbit explained.
“Listen to him,” Red Panda said suddenly. As Red Panda was usually quiet, his sudden outburst surprised everyone. All the animals looked up attentively at Red Panda who was still sitting on Gairna’s back. “You can trust Easter Rabbit. He has traveled all over the world, from the north pole to the south pole, from Asia to Central America. He found me living alone and surrounded by enemies in a bamboo forest in Asia, and he brought me here to this continent, to this forest to live. Just as he found me a new home, you can trust him to find you a new home.”
