Week 9 Story: Why Cats and Dogs aren't Friends

Why Cats and Dogs aren't Friends

(Cat and Dog Fighting from Wikipedia Commons)

There once was a man and a wife who lived in a village. They weren’t rich but they weren’t poor either. One day, foolishly, they decided to sell a valuable gold ring to increase their riches. Unbeknownst to them, the gold ring was magic and ensured that its owner would always be of comfortable wealth. After selling the gold ring they quickly became very poor. They were so poor that they were unable to provide filling meals to their pets: a dog named Rigby and a cat named Holly.

“We’re starving Rigby. It’s been months since we’ve had a filling meal,” complained Holly.

“I know. If only we could get the gold ring back. Things would be better,” replied Rigby.

“I know!” exclaimed Holly. “We could get the ring back. The new owner lives just across the river.”

“You know they keep the gold ring locked in a chest. How would we ever get it back?” Rigby questioned.

“I’ll catch a mouse and threaten to eat it. To save its life the mouse will do anything I ask. I’ll force it to chew a hole through the bottom of the trunk, grab the ring, and bring it to us,” outlined Holly.

Encouraged by their newfound plan the two set out on their adventure. Holly quickly caught a mouse and forced it to agree. Carrying the mouse in her mouth, Holly and Rigby soon reached the river.

“Oh no!” exclaimed Rigby. “How are we going to get the mouse to the house?”

“Don’t worry,” said Holly around the mouse in her mouth. “You’ll simply swim across the river and I will sit on your back with the mouse.”

Rigby quickly swam across the river and the three animals reached the house. Holly sent the mouse in and he came back out with the gold ring.

“I want to carry the ring,” whined Rigby “You got to carry the mouse all the way here. I want to help too.”

Trusting her friend, Holly agreed to the plan.

The two reached the other side of the riverbank and began to set out for home both in good spirits. Each was thinking about the big meal that awaited them when they showed their owners what they had done.

Suddenly Rigby was struck by a thought. He had done the most work. Without him how would they have crossed the river? They could never have completed the task. It wasn’t fair that he would have to share the praise equally with Holly. His mind clouded with jealousy, Rigby hatched a plan.

“Hey Holly,” Rigby prodded innocently, “Why don’t we race each other home? It will be fun!”

“Sure,” responded Holly, “You know I’m going to beat you. I can just go over the houses and you have to go all the way around.”

“We’ll see about that,” said Rigby. “On your mark. Get set. Go!”

Holly took off towards the house while Rigby walked slowly. She got home first and turned to taunt Rigby. She became more and more confused when he didn’t arrive. The man and wife found Holly sitting at the front door and scolded her for running off, putting her in her cage. An hour later Rigby came in. When the man and wife saw he had the golden ring in his mouth they began to heap praises on him. Thanking him profusely, they gave Rigby a meaty bone and a seat in front of the fire.

The next day Holly confronted Rigby.

“We got that ring together,” said Holly indignantly. “How could you take all the credit? I thought we were friends!”

“I was more important than you. Without me, you wouldn’t have crossed the river and we would never have gotten the ring. It’s not fair I would have to split the glory with you,” replied Rigby.

“You should always be happy to share your good fortune with your friend. You have shown to me that you are selfish and egotistical. We’re not friends,” replied Holly.

To this day dogs and cats don’t get along.

Author's Note: I based this story on Why the Dog and Cat are enemies from The Chinese Fairy Book by R. Wilhem. The original story goes much like the one above except it is the cat who betrays the dog. The cat beats the dog home with the ring in its mouth and takes all the credit while the dog gets beaten by the man and his wife. I switched the roles because I personally prefer cats to dogs and feel like they get a bad rep. I also took out the beating part since that seemed cruel and made the central hurt the loss of a friendship. For this story I tried to focus on writing a lot of it in dialogue since that is definitely the part of writing I struggle with the most.