Week 9 Story: The History of the Dog and Cat

The History of the Dog and Cat

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful queen and her righteous king. They ruled the kingdom with love and grace. The king and queen used to be very poor and unlucky until one day, the king picked a rose from the most beautiful garden to give to the queen. Little did he know, it was a magical rose that was blessed by a fairy many years ago. Anyone who was in possession of one of these roses from the magic garden was to be rich and prosperous their entire lives. 

One day, the queen decided to do some spring cleaning. She was going through all of their stuff, and throwing away all the unnecessary stuff. 

"Do you think we could get rid of this rose?" the queen asked. "We have had it for over twenty years and it is really beginning to welt."

"Yeah you can toss it. I have enough wealth to buy you a million new roses, my queen," replied the king. 

So the queen threw the rose away. As soon as the trash left the castle, so did the magic. All of the sudden, everything was going wrong. They lost the castle, they lost their butlers and maids, and a few weeks later, they were on the side of the road begging for a place to stay. What had happened?

The king and queen owned a cat and a dog named Henry and Oscar, respectively. The dog and cat knew of the power in this rose. They knew that was the cause of all the chaos, but they couldn't communicate that to their owners. So they decided to make a plan of their own to restore their prosperous lives.

"Henry, I need your help. You know how you chase mice for fun? Well I think I know how to get the rose back," said Oscar, the dog. 

"What is it?" asked Henry.

"Okay, I need you to catch a mouse and scare him to the point where he will do anything you ask. Then we can have him search the dump for the rose. You know, mice have great noses."

Henry thought for a minute. "Okay, I guess that will work."

So Henry went to the alley and found a mouse, placing his paw on the mouse's neck until he agreed to follow his instructions. Henry and Oscar took their new friend to the dump where the rose was and let him go. Although he was out of Henry's reach, the fear was still there; he did not want to pull any tricks. So he searched and searched until he came upon the rose.

Even though the rose was twenty years old, it was still as beautiful as ever. Its red petals were gleaming in the sunlight. The cat quickly grabbed the rose from the mouse's mouth and said his thanks, running to find Oscar. They started on their journey back to their owners.

When they arrived, the former king and queen were crying on the curbside. They thought they escaped poverty. But Henry stuck the rose in the back pocket of the man and waited for him to notice. A few minutes later, he reached for his back pocket for a photo of his past life to make him feel better, but instead he grabbed the rose.

"Honey, I found a beautiful rose, for a beautiful woman. There is always so much beauty in this world, even in the darkest of times." 

The former queen took the rose, smelled it, and smiled. She felt so happy and thankful for her husband, regardless of the rough times they were going through.

They cuddled together with Henry and Oscar under the last blanket they had and went to sleep. The next morning, they awoke to the man's phone ringing. The woman on the phone said that his entire community over which he used to rule came together to raise money for them to return to the palace. They had raised over one million dollars and asked if their family would come back. 

The man was speechless. How did this happen? Instantly, he thought of the rose. "This must be a magical rose! It is granting all of my greatest wishes and dreams!"

The family hugged and spent a few minutes planning an extravagant return to their palace. Henry and Oscar were so happy that they were able to work together to make something great happen. Now they could go back to their beds and they would all have food to eat. 

From that point on, the dog and cat have always been best friends.

Author's Note:

This story began with a man and his wife. They had a ring of gold, but they did not know the true power of the ring, so they sold it one day. They gradually became poorer and poorer, eventually being unable to feed their dog and cat. So the dog made a deal with the cat - the cat needs to find a mouse, take it to the chest where the ring is, and chew a hole in it in order to get the ring out. Then they can return home, give the ring to their masters, and they would have money again. So the cat agrees. The cat catches a mouse, they go to the house, retrieve the ring, and begin to head home. However, the cat is much quicker than the dog, so she is able to jump on roofs while the dog must go around the houses. The cat makes it home first; she receives all the praise for bringing the ring home and the dog is beat and scolded. The cat did not say a thing, and this is why they are no longer friends.

For this story, I mainly changed the ending. I wanted it to end on a happier note. My dog and cat are best friends, so I decided that I wanted to change the storyline a little bit so they would end up being friends. I also changed the object that made them poor. Instead of it being a ring locked in a chest, I changed it to a rose being thrown away. My story emphasizes teamwork while the original story describes the dog and cat of both trying to get ahead and outdo each other. 

Bibliography:

Why Dog and Cat are Enemies from The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

Image information:

Best friends. Web Source.