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    The Cat Who Came in From the Cold
    The Cat Who Came in From the Cold
    The Cat Who Came in From the Cold
    Ebook78 pages1 hour

    The Cat Who Came in From the Cold

    By Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

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    About this ebook

    In this sentimental, didactic fable, Masson imagines how the lone, nonsocial, domesticated animal came to share hearth and home.

    Billi, an Asian leopard cat, lives in a mango forest in ancient India. He enjoys his independence, but he feels pangs of loneliness and curiosity about the “two-foots.” He learns their languages - Hindi, Malayam and Sanskrit - and he can “see the appeal of south India's three major religions.”

    Billi embarks on a quest to learn more about humans by discovering what their animals think of them. A water buffalo mourns being underappreciated; a parrot bemoans his cage; a mongoose tells a chilling story about human ingratitude. Billi reminds a cow that it's worshipped by humans. “Oh, great,” the cow says. “That and five rupees will get you a chapati.”

    Nine months of travel and no truly good word for humans leaves Billi undeterred and, back home, he seeks out a young girl he'd often watched. It's not easy proving his good intentions or trying to be “the only animal to have a mutually satisfying relationship with humans,” but Billi makes it happen in a story that's heartwarming not only for the passionate cat fan but for all readers.

    A novelette from the author of Raising the Peaceable Kingdom.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUntreed Reads
    Release dateAug 30, 2012
    ISBN9781611874280
    The Cat Who Came in From the Cold
    Author

    Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

    Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson is an American author. Masson is best known for his conclusions about Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis

    Read more from Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

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      Book preview

      The Cat Who Came in From the Cold - Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

      Cold

      The Cat Who Came in from the Cold

      By Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

      Copyright 2012 by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

      Cover Copyright 2012 by Ginny Glass and Untreed Reads Publishing

      The author is hereby established as the sole holder of the copyright. Either the publisher (Untreed Reads) or author may enforce copyrights to the fullest extent.

      Previously published in print, 2004.

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold, reproduced or transmitted by any means in any form or given away to other people without specific permission from the author and/or publisher. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Also by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and Untreed Reads Publishing

      Against Therapy

      Raising the Peaceable Kingdom

      The Assault on Truth

      http://www.untreedreads.com

      The Cat Who Came in from the Cold

      Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

      For Nancy Miller, my editor for twenty years

      Acknowledgments

      I want to thank Christiane Bird for helping me turn three different versions of this story into a readable whole. She did a magnificent job, and without her, this book would not be at all.

      Thanks to Robert Goldman, professor of Sanskrit at the University of California at Berkeley, for providing texts and helpful consultation.

      Finally, thanks to the many felines who have shared my home over the last sixty-three years and agreed to teach me the wisdom and beauty of the way of the cat.

      Author’s Note

      I have always been intrigued by what could possibly have induced the cat—that divinely aloof and independent creature—to choose to live among humans. I use the word choose deliberately; anyone familiar with feline ways will know that while we may have welcomed that first feline friend with open arms, it surely was the cat who chose us. Cats can’t really be coerced to do anything, of course; much of the time they seem merely to tolerate us, although when they like, their affection can bind them to us as one.

      It was in this spirit of inquiry that I set out to tell the story of Billi, an Asian leopard cat in ancient India. Drawing on the wisdom of Sanskrit texts I had studied long ago, and knowledge I have gained in recent years about the complex world of animal emotions, I have attempted to pinpoint the moment when the first cat made the choice of domestication, a moment that has opened both our species to a relationship that for thousands of years has provided mutual fulfillment, love, and respect—at least on our part—across the species barrier.

      The Cat Who Came in from the Cold

      Thousands of years ago, in the forests of south India, Billi sat on his favorite branch of his favorite mango tree in his favorite mango orchard, admiring himself. He stretched out one fine paw, then another. He washed his face. He flicked his tail. He examined his black and brown spots. How strong, how handsome, how glorious, to be an Asian leopard cat!

      A cloud passed before the sun, and Billi inched forward on his branch, the better to bask in the fading rays. He loved being so small and light. His huge cousins the lions and tigers, for all their strength and might, could never stretch out on a limb as slim as this. Or slip so easily through the forest shrub. Or pass unnoticed in and out of human villages at night. Billi closed his eyes in contentment. He dozed, dreaming of a fat, squeaking mouse trapped between his paws as he batted it back and forth. He would go hunting later, after the sun went down.

      Hurry up, Nandini, Mother is waiting.

      Billi opened one eye. Small two-foots were approaching. He peered down through the leaves, at bright flashes of red and yellow. Below walked a boy child and a girl child, their black hair shining, their thin arms and legs swinging. Billi liked to see small humans. Their high voices reminded him of springtime, their faces reminded him of the moon. Too bad they grew up to be adults.

      It’s not my fault, it’s Janaka, the girl child said. He’s still back by the river.

      Janaka! the boy child shouted, and a few moments later, a big brown dog bounded up. Barking excitedly, he ran circles around the children, as if he hadn’t seen them for days instead of minutes, and slathered them with dog kisses.

      Billi turned his face away in disgust. What was the matter with dogs? He didn’t have anything against canines per se, but the way they showered affection on their two-footed friends was ridiculous. Even worse was the way dogs had relinquished their freedom to be safely housed and fed by humans. Where was their dignity? Where was their pride? How could they give up something as priceless as independence for something as mundane as security?

      Another, darker cloud passed before the sun, and Billi shivered. It was almost October. The monsoons would be here soon.

      Only five more days until Diwali, the girl child said, as if reading his thoughts. The monsoons and Diwali, the biggest human festival of the year, always came together. Mother has already started cooking….

      Talib’s uncles and aunts are arriving tomorrow….

      The children’s voices faded away as they disappeared in the direction of their village. Billi started down from his branch. The dark clouds were rolling in now, packing the sky, and the sunshine was gone. His good mood had disappeared. He dreaded the start of the monsoon season, when huge storm clouds darkened the sky for days on end until it felt as if something terrible, something irrevocable, were about to happen. And then, when the lightning started to flash and the thunder to roar— It was like a preamble to the end of all living things, to the whole world coming apart.

      Missing his

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