Calico cat Anna loved to play with autumn leaves, shimmering shades of orange and gold that matched her own fur. Today she danced in a large drifting pile of green and gold, overjoyed as the leaves rose in a cloud around her.
Then leaves fell around her, whispering in the wind and calming her mind. This place was magical. She picked up a leaf in her mouth. To her astonishment it began to wriggle. Dropping the leaf, she watched in disbelief as the leaf formed a head and wings. It had turned in to an orange bird! It chirped then flew in to the sky and was gone.
Anna continued to play. Every time she picked up a leaf, it metamorphosed in to a bird. Magic misted in Anna’s eyes. This was such fun. Then she had an idea. Taking a leaf in her mouth, she jumped in the air as leaves swirled around her, forming another portal.
She arrived back in her garden, the leaf still in her mouth. It did not twitch, it had not changed. Gently, she placed the orange leaf on the grass. It finally moved, and then began to grow. Anna stared in fascination. Only this leaf did not turn in to a bird … it grew and grew in to a ginger kitten! Anna purred in delicious delight. “I will call you Autumn!” she whispered to the young cat.
Autumn became her best friend, a companion of shared secrets and a love of leaves. Anna never again located a magic portal, but she no longer needed to. The magic had found her and would never leave, a burning light of joy swirling in her heart like an autumn leaf.
For the beauty of autumn never dies, its colours like a painting deep within, a memory of magic that lasts forever.
The sky dawned cup cake icing coloured pink. Stephanie jumped out of bed with a candy pink smile in her heart. Today felt different …
It had been a challenging yet rewarding year as new owner of the Curious Cupcakes café. Stephanie loved her job, savouring each minute like a cupcake melting deep inside.
When she arrived at the café today, concern and delight danced together in her heart … there was a tiny tabby cat at the door. She stroked the cat, who followed her inside. And then refused to leave.
Daisy the cat became a popular fixture in the café. Stephanie did circulate her photo on social media, but no owner came forward. And Daisy was so happy sitting on a bed in the window, there really was no need to rehome her.
Curious Cupcakes now had a mascot, a real live cat. The customers loved her. Stephanie had never been happier, Daisy brought new meaning to her life. And the little cat purred all day, a hymn of hope in her eyes, a symbol of serenity in the busy café.
Then mystery tangoed with sugar … the icing on Stephanie’s popular cupcakes changed shape. Each cupcake now wore a cat on top, a frozen feline fanfare.
Stephanie stared, transfixed. How had this happened? Magic licked her heart like a cat tasting milk for the first time.
However the customers loved these feline freckled fancies. They sold out each morning, like pollen on the wind they all found their home. And magic meowed like a mist clearing to reveal a sunny day …
… Every single person who ate a cat painted cake, would later find a kitten on their doorstep. Suddenly tens of people had a new kitten. Where had they come from? It was a mystery.
Stephanie baked more cakes, again the icing changed in to a cat picture. More customers came … and more lost kittens found a new home.
Mystery and magic hissed in the air, a song of the supernatural. Kittens appeared on doorsteps like a plague of mice descending on the town … only mice of the sweetest cupcake variety, kittens who would melt any heart, like a cupcake cooking inside.
Then the cupcake icing stopped sliding in to a cat shape. Daisy slept on the windowsill as though oblivious to recent cupcake crazy events. However there was a knowing twinkle in her eye, and a conspiratorial twitch of a whisker.
The mystery remained to this day as an urban tale. Was there really a coffee shop where a cupcake chose you a kitten? It sounded impossible, an urban tale on demented drugs …
Then one day ten year old Cara arrived at the café, delight in her eyes at the sight of so many cupcakes. Nicknamed Cupcake Cara, cupcakes were the great love of her life. The family had travelled from a neighbouring village, on a quest to find the best cupcakes in the county. They were not disappointed.
Cara chose a cupcake at the back of the display. “Look Mum! I have the only one with a cat on top!” Her mother looked at the cake in dismay, it did indeed sport a cat. Cara had wanted a kitten for a year, but her parents were not so keen.
Then Cara noticed the cat on the windowsill. “What a beautiful puss!” She rushed over and stroked Daisy, who purred with a smile in her green eyes.
That evening, Cara asked again for a cat, and was refused. However the next morning, they had a visitor. A cat was on the doorstep and refused to move, and then jumped through the open door to the house.
“Why it’s the cat from the café! She’s followed us here.” Delight nibbled on Cara’s heart, a beating cupcake of joy.
“We must return her,” declared Cara’s mother. “She is not ours.”
However when Stephanie heard the story, she said they could keep the cat. After all, cats choose their owners … and their cupcakes too.
So Daisy had a new home, and Cara a new best friend. Her mother taught her to make cupcakes, as Cara gigged with sugar-tinged joy. “Let’s make cat shaped icing on top!” she declared. “Just like the one I had at the wonderful café.”
Later Cara deposited a cat painted cupcake at every house in her cul de sac. The warm sugar glow of a good deed glowed within, like a cat’s purr trying to break free.
Cara skipped home to Daisy, unaware of the many feline eyes watching her from behind bushes, oblivious to the kittens there getting ready … to be an early morning doorstep surprise.
Magic meows lilted on the wind. A pink cupcake sunrise greeted the new day. Kittens purred their song of everlasting sweetness, a cupcake of life that knows no end, new stories baking like cupcakes in an oven, a happy ever after of melting magic moments.
