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The Tuxedo Thief

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Easter licked the land with its sweet promise.

Black and white cat Ella slept on six year old Brian’s bed. Slumber soothed his influenza aches and calmed his towering temperature. Ella purred as silent thoughts drifted through her mind. Decision danced in her eyes. She left the house via her catflap.

The shop was silent, early morning errands on a destined delay. A mission beat in Ella’s heart like music. She entered the shop behind a slow customer, the automatic door softly closing behind them. Then she saw a vision of sugar solace … a bottom shelf of Easter eggs. It was so easy to seize one like a mouse, gripping the top of the box in her mouth … It was so simple to turn in to the tuxedo thief supreme.

A small black and white cat with large light green eyes in a brown wicker basket surrounded by colourful easter eggs, daffodils and purple flowers
Image by Beverly Buckley from Pixabay

Brian turned over in bed restlessly. Then as Ella pawed his arm he sat up, a dying dream replaced by cutting clarity. There was an Easter egg on his bed. He smiled, aches and pains running like soldiers to the hills of his disappearing dream. Brian unwrapped the chocolate as his smile shone like an Easter sun.

Ella’s eyes sparkled. The next day, it was back to the shop … and to a stranger’s house, where she knew a little girl cried at night. She left an Easter egg on the doorstep.

Days passed, counting down to Easter Sunday like a chocolate clock on fast forward. More and more Easter eggs mysteriously appeared on doorsteps.

Ella slept and dreamed, Easter eggs in her heart and chocolate power in her soul. The dream travelled far and wide, as other cats awoke with a mission like melted chocolate in their hearts.

For some reason, Ella’s dream only touched black and white cats, tuxedo beauties like herself. And an army of black and white ran forth to steal Easter eggs … The phenomenon reached mainstream news. What was happening to the nation’s black and white cats?

The Tuxedo Thief video footage went viral. A spring story of hope that uplifted the population. And then it was Easter. More eggs than ever appeared on waiting doorsteps, like an offering from a feline Father Easter of the night.

Then Easter was over, and the stolen egg syndrome stopped. The Tuxedo Thieves had retired.

**

It was 2192. Easter eggs shaped as cats in black and white wrapping lined the aisles. No one remembered why tuxedo cats were celebrated at Easter, they just always had been, together with bunnies and the latest Disney characters.

Gareth bought a feline egg with the last of his week’s pocket money. Then a flash of inspiration bit his heart like a jagged edge of Easter egg. He would do his Spring school project on tuxedo cat easter eggs, researching when and why the fashion started …

It was indeed a mystery, with its likely origin an old urban myth about tuxedo cats stealing Easter eggs for sick children. A fairytale turned to legend.

Gareth chuckled. He had the perfect idea. He loved creative writing, and here was a sublime story … So Gareth stayed up late night after night as his manic words turned in to “The Tuxedo Thief,” a children’s novel that would one day be published, in time for Easter and the ideal holiday gift for cat lovers and children everywhere.

Meanwhile Gareth adopted a tuxedo kitten from the local shelter. Tessa became his muse, sleeping at his side as he wrote, feline fairytale after fairytale. And in Tessa’s deep eyes, mystery moved like clouds in the wind. For her story had only just begun …

black and white cat with long white whiskers and light green eyes on top of pink blankets

A Festive Feline Tale

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By Rachel H Grant

Snow slowly fell from a dark winter sky like a huge white flower star shedding its petals. Magic hissed in the air. It was a night of potential, a hundred different stories flowering like new stars in the still sky. It was the night before Christmas …

A black cat walked through the dusting of snow, her eyes shining like lanterns. A catflap loomed ahead. The little cat began to purr, the sound of a million “have a nice day”s turned in to a song, the sound of feline miracles.

A black cat with green eyes with her paw reaching out to a green bauble
Image by iPicture from Pixabay

Yvonne came home from work to find a black cat in front of her fireplace. “Oh well, just as you are here …” Yvonne lit a fire and nursed a hot chocolate as the cat purred. “Have you a home?” wondered Yvonne. “You can stay here tonight, I wouldn’t put you out on this cold evening.”

Christmas Day dawned like a cat waking from a deep sleep, light gradually seeping in to the day as if too tired to wake up.

Yvonne stretched in bed. Christmas Day! And her first ever all on her own.

Downstairs, a Christmas miracle purred like the beginning of a happy ever after story. The black cat was gone as silently as she had appeared. In her place, there lay a small white kitten. Yvonne’s heart beat with an instant connection. The kitten became her cherished companion, a Christmas wish fallen from the stars above.

Next Christmas came round like a stone of destiny toppled by a line of dominoes. Gemma was stunned to find a black cat in her sitting-room on Christmas Eve, curled up before the wood stove as though she had always belonged here. Gemma’s heart melted as she lit the fire. A cat for Christmas, this was what she needed after a difficult year.

In the morning, the black cat was gone. In her place, a white kitten. “I will call you Snowfall,” whispered Gemma, a Christmas dream erupting like a shooting star in her heart.

The next Christmas Eve, Nina arrived home to find a black cat sleeping under a radiator. However, Nina worked for a local cat rescue and had five cats already. One phonecall later, the mystery black cat was en route to the cat shelter.

On Christmas Day, two volunteers arrived at the cat shelter. The new black cat arrival, Festive Fiona, was curled up asleep in her little bed. Next to her, was a pure white kitten.

April and Jasmine looked at each other, a knowing smile in their eyes. “So which one do you want?” It was a Christmas wish come true for Fiona and the surprise kitten, the first day in what would be their new homes.

Fiona slept in front of the fire that night, a Christmas purr in her chest. It was a forever home. She never strayed again, and no more impossible white kittens appeared in her wake.

Until the day she died one Christmas Eve many years later. April cried herself to sleep that night. In the morning, there was a white kitten in front of the fireplace. The kitten opened its eyes and purred. April’s tears flowed as a smile fingered her face. “I will call you Christmas Chloe.” For each time a cat leaves your life, it sends another in its place, a hello from heaven that will never leave your side.

A white kitten with blue eyes among pink and white baubles
Image by MsKuhn from Pixabay

So this Christmas, believe in feline magic and let festive miracles light your way. Look up to the stars, hear their secret song, and dream of white kittens and so so much more …. Merry Christmas, may an enchanted black cat cross your path and grant you wonders, and may 2026 deliver all your deepest wishes and more.

Feather Friends

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By Rachel H Grant

The sun sparkled like a precious jewel in the sky. A feather landed at the chip shop door, a tiny hello from heaven. The sea shushed weary woes, seagulls playing in its waves like children who knew tomorrow, living for the unwinding wonder of today. Seagull cries punctuated the peace all around, a song of the soul.

a seagull on a seashore with white topped waves behind it
Image by Gosia K. from Pixabay

Tommy hid behind a bin. The heat brushed his grey and white fur like a rough feather. His ten-week-old heart drummed inside. His shining kitten eyes saw so much … yet understood so little.

One thing however he did understand, a feather flying in between his thoughts, impossible to brush away.

He was lost.

a grey and white kitten with a white chest in a bush
Image by Didier from Pixabay

A family had taken him to their home, where he had chased a ball to their cries of delight, and learnt to purr on demand. Then he found the open window and a new game! Tommy had not been prepared for the noise of the outside world. At first he ran and ran, until he realised the noise was everywhere. And he was suddenly nowhere, home a mirage on a distant horizon. Fear frolicked in his heart like a feather in freefall.

Hunger tickled his stomach, a teasing feather. Then he heard it. Like a poem of feathers, or the hymn of your heart, a cry that spoke to you, louder than a cat mother’s purr but just as soothing …

The seagull cried again. Tommy ventured out from behind the bin. The bird above regarded him with eyes like black suns.

Then the bird dropped down, cawing gently, feathers shining in the sun. Tommy closed his eyes and purred, a fearful feather in his throat.

“I am Sam,” said the bird in his head. “You look hungry. Follow me.”

The bird flew above as Tommy walked timidly down the street, his heart crying like a seagull in a storm.

Then one of Sam’s feathers fell at his feet, a white portent of purrs to come. Tommy collected it in his mouth, comforted by its sun-kissed beauty.

Seagull Sam landed on top of a small building with tables outside. If Tommy were able to read the sign, he would know that this was Feather Fish and Chips Takeaway and Café. His nostrils were tickled by the smell of fish, an alluring aroma that gave him the confidence to edge ever closer to the open door …

“What a cute kitten!” The words scratched his ears like tiny feathers. “Here, Smoky, have some fish!”

Tommy could not believe it, food for his somersaulting stomach. Sam flew down and joined him. “You’ll likely get food every day,” he advised. “This is THE place to hang out, trust me.”

So a seagull and a kitten came to spend days together at the fish and chip shop, two stray feathers brought together by a winning wind.

Most of the chip shop customers incorrectly concluded that the kitten belonged to its owners; this did not stop them taking multiple photographs. Images of a kitten sleeping against a seagull went viral on social media, gaining national attention. Hashtag FeatherPair trended on all platforms.

It did not take long for Tommy’s adopted family to see the photographs. Mrs Finch stormed to the chip shop, how dare they steal her kitten? Tommy was thrust in to a cat carrier, like a feather torn from a bird. He cried piteously, a feather thrown to the skies by a winter wind.

Then he was back home. Tommy spied Sam in the garden. He had followed them! Perhaps it was good to be back … now that Sam was here too.

Sam tapped at the window. Tommy leapt up to the windowsill, desperate to include his friend in his happy homecoming.

Mrs Finch however had other ideas. No seagull was welcome in her garden! She ran outside brandishing a pan, banging it with a spoon. “Begone!” she cried, dark feathers falling from her eyes.

Seagull Sam flew to a neighbouring house rooftop, sad but unsurprised by Mrs Finch’s reaction to him. Tommy was horrified. Taking a fleeting chance like a feather in the wind, he dashed out of the open door, and raced down the street. Sam flew above him. Eventually, they stopped next to a different fish and chip shop.

“We are safe now,” said Sam.

“I never wish to lose you,” confided Tommy with feather tears in his eyes.

And so Tommy and Sam wandered from chip shop to chip shop, never staying in one place too long. Tommy jumped in vans and Sam followed, town after town, village after village, they flew along the coast like feathers on the wind.

And like two feathers, they knew they would drift forever. Life was a feather too soon gone … life was for being together. The feather of fate sung in the seagull’s haunting cry, and the kitten’s mysterious meow. And the feathers of the future beckoned them ever onwards, the sun of all their tomorrows shining bright in their hearts.