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| Illustration by Melissa Teoh |
Baldwin was discouraged. He hid in the tall grass as he thought and
thought about yesterday’s accident.
It all happened so
quickly: he was chasing Andy, and when he reached to catch him, Baldwin found
that he was holding a tail. “Oh, me,” he
sighed. “What have I done?” Baldwin began to cry.
“Hush now, Baldwin. You
dry, those tears, ya hear,” said Andy, as he hollered out while cautiously
making his way to where Baldwin was hiding.
Baldwin sat up, and
looked over the tall grass. His eyes
grew big and round! Andy was walking
toward him. He was leaning on a cane,
and he looked . . . he looked naked without his tail.
“I know ya meant me no harm, Baldwin, but dang! Those cat
instincts are pretty powerful. Ya gotta
learn ta control ‘em. We’ve been
friends too long for us ta become enemies; besides, I need your help. I’ve got ta learn,” he paused, then
whispered, “got ta learn how ta survive without my tail.”
Andy hung his head. He was embarrassed standing there without his
handsome gray, bushy tail, but he was determined that he would be brave.
Baldwin broke through the
pained silence. “I’m really sorry, Andy.
I will help you anyway I can. I
can help you learn to balance, and help you get acorns. I’ll even keep other cats away from you if
you’ll let me.”
Andy nodded. His eyes filled with
tears as he slowly made his way back to his tree house. He stopped—turned to look at Baldwin and said,
“Thank ya, friend. First thing tomorrow
morning, we start gathering ‘em acorns.”
