Mom Cat

Many thanks to Ronan, an artist from Ireland, for the following story.

A woman I have known for many years - Deborah - told me this story
when we met last week. Deborah is an American from Iowa, has long
bleach blonde hair, sells antique jewelry at markets in London, is in
her early fifties and has lived in the same flat in London for over 30
years. She had a cat that she called Mom for the last 15 years - whom
she loved and cherished dearly. Mom was very cute and gentle with red hair and was very popular.

Mom Cat

Mom recently passed away after a short illness. Deborah decided to bury Mom in her front garden which is very large. She roped in her pal John Boy to help and he came around one day to do the digging. John Boy is a big strong guy and works as a door man at a local bar. As John Boy dug the grave and Deborah prepared Mom for burial, a girl appeared unexpectedly from behind some bushes at the end of the long garden.

Mom Cat

Deborah described the girl as being somewhere in her early to md-twenties and as strikingly pretty with red hair that she wore in a pony tail. She also mentioned that the zipper to the girl's dress was undone. She wore high heels and was quite dressed up. Deborah reckoned that the girl was a prostitute and was also homeless and temporarily living behind the bushes at bottom of the garden. Deborah could see some blankets laid out and bags behind the bushes. The girl acted naturally and said "excuse me...what are you doing?" to Deborah and John Boy. Deborah said to her "Don't worry...we are just burying my cat". The girl goes "oh...how long did you have her?". Deborah replied "Fifteen years". The girl then said " She must have had a happy life with you...where did you get her?"

Mom Cat

Deborah looked at her and thought about it for a few seconds and then replied "Actually she came out of the same bushes you did..........maybe you are my cat re-incarnated." Then the girl said "wow" (like "meow") sounding just like Deborah's cat. Then Deborah noticed that the girl had the same two front teeth missing as her cat. And then without saying anything else the girl swaggered off out the gate and into the distance with her long red hair just like Mom's long red tail..........the end.

The Lion's Whiskers

The following is a fable from Ethiopia and was submitted by Azeb Worku Sibane, an actress, director and producer based in Addis Abba, Ethiopia.


There was a woman who was unhappy because her husband did not love her like before. At the beginning of their marriage he was always very nice with her-he worried a lot when she was a little bit tired, he brought her gifts, and he liked all the dishes that she prepared.

But unfortunately, after a while, he changed. He returned home late under pretext of having a drink with his friends or going to oversee the crops. When he returned from the market he didn’t bring any thing for her. He stopped eating at home, and when he did, he complained that all that she prepared was bland and badly cooked. The woman didn’t know how to change her husband back to how he was before.

She remembered that one old wise man, a “Debtera,” lived not far from their house, close to the church of Saint Michel. This wise man, knows a lot of things. He can read, write and prepare talismans. She thought that he could perhaps give her a charm that would return her husband’s attention and his affection.

The Lion's Whiskers

One morning she went to find the old debtera in his house. The old man welcomed her and listened to her story with attention. When she finished, he remained silent and then he said

“I will be glad to prepare for you a medicine which will make your
husband see you with the same eyes as before, but for the medicine you
must bring me three whiskers of a lion. But the whiskers must be
taken from a live lion and by your own hand.”

“How shall I do this, and, how can I find a lion? The women asked

- Farmers of the low lands said to me that there was a lion which often
comes to the heart of the valley, at the edge of the river.

She was worried by the idea of going down to the low lands, as they were known to be a dangerous area. Add to that, she has to pluck the whiskers of a live lion!...

“And what do I have to do to make this lion come close to me?” She asked.

The debtera answered, “I don’t know. The only thing I know is how to make magic medicines, not to tame a lion.”

The Lion's Whiskers

She went back home and she asked herself what she was going to do. She loved her husband, and she wanted him to love her as before-certainly the medicine of the debtera would be very effective. The next day she goes down to the bottom of the valley to taking meat in her basket. It was hot in the valley. When she heard the roar of the lion, she put the basket of the meat on a flat rock and ran away.

The following day, she returned to the same place and, at the first distant roar, she put down the meat in the same place. This time she did not run away, but she hid behind a tree not far from the place. She heard the lion arrive slowly; he was enormous. He shook his mane and opened a terrible mouth. He came to the meat;
he looked at everything around him with suspicion, then he started to eat. When he finished, he left in the direction from where he had come, calmly and the woman returned to her home.