The Project Gutenberg EBook of My Father, the Cat, by Henry Slesar

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Title: My Father, the Cat

Author: Henry Slesar

Release Date: February 19, 2009 [EBook #28119]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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_Henry Slesar, as we have said before, is a young advertising
executive who has rapidly become one of the better known writers in
the field. Here is an off-trail story that is guaranteed to make
some of you take a very searching second look at some of the young
men you know._

my
father,
the
cat

_by HENRY SLESAR_

He wondered if I'd told her everything, and, faltering, I
had to admit that I hadn't. She was wonderful--but human.

My mother was a lovely, delicate woman from the coast of Brittany, who
was miserable sleeping on less than three mattresses, and who, it is
said, was once injured by a falling leaf in her garden. My grandfather,
a descendant of the French nobility whose family had ridden the tumbrils
of the Revolution, tended her fragile body and spirit with the same
loving care given rare, brief-blooming flowers. You may imagine from
this his attitude concerning marriage. He lived in terror of the vulgar,
heavy-handed man who would one day win my mother's heart, and at last,
this persistent dread killed him. His concern was unnecessary, however,
for my mother chose a suitor who was as free of mundane brutality as a
husband could be. Her choice was Dauphin, a remarkable white cat which
strayed onto the estate shortly after his death.

Dauphin was an unusually large Angora, and his ability to speak in
cultured French, English, and Italian was sufficient to cause my mother
to adopt him as a household pet. It did not take long for her to
realize that Dauphin deserved a higher status, and he became her friend,
protector, and confidante. He never spoke of his origin, nor where he
had acquired the classical education which made him such an entertaining
companion. After two years, it was easy for my m