~by Mewsette

In a tiny mountain town I know, where tourists love to go, on a steep and winding street halfway up a hill, under a rocky overhang, a pretty little shop called The Cat's Meow clings to an old flagstone landing. The proprietors of the shop are Emma, a tiny human lady with silver blue and white hair, and Josephine, a longhaired dilute calico cat. Dilute means she is also mostly silver blue and white. This is her story.

Josephine didn't mind spending her days working in the shop with Emma, because her job was seasonal. She worked April to November, but spent her winters cozily tucked away with Emma and her Napoleon in their small chalet on a hilltop. There they could lie in the warm bay window, admiring the sparkley snow on treetops and the icy lake way below.

She and Napoleon were raised together, but when Emma bought the little shop, it was Josephine who was chosen to be the shop cat. Napoleon was a huge Maine Coon cat weighing nearly 20 pounds, and Emma could not carry him from her car to the shop every day. Josephine was only 9 pounds, and friendlier with humans. Her job duties were simple; to lie on the front counter wearing her kerchief or modeling a new rhinestone collar, meow politely and allow herself to be petted more than she really liked, even by children with sticky hands. Sometimes she was crabby by the end of the day, but then, sometimes Emma was, too.

It was Josephine's seventh season in the shop, a difficult season, with torrential rains keeping tourists away much of the time, and in another way, too. Small items had been disappearing from the shop's shelves, some of them quite expensive, and this discovery worried Emma a lot. Josephine herself was becoming crabby much earlier in the day, and had taken to lying among the piles of afghans in the back corner more than greeting customers in the front.

That's why she noticed the young girl who lived in the town and had been coming into the shop often lately. The girl always came when there were a lot of people there, and stayed awhile in one spot, glancing around her. One day she saw the girl take a tiny golden clock with a cat on it from a shelf and slip it into her baggy jeans pocket. Then the girl headed out the door. Josephine watched her leave in the round mirror high in the corner, and could see Emma was busy waiting on a customer. She was very uneasy. She'd spent enough time on the counter to know people were supposed to give Emma some money before they left with something.

When the girl came in again the very next day, Josephine went to sit next to her in the aisle, as she sometimes did with customers she knew. She meowed softly as the girl picked up a little crystal cat and turned it over in her hand. The girl seemed startled by that, and looked down directly into Josephine's reproachful eyes. She put the crystal cat back on the shelf and wandered into the next aisle. Josephine followed.

There was a rack on the top shelf, filled with little kitty angel pins, 12 kinds with 12 different colored stones in them, in small hanging packages. The girl stood looking at them, and began to glance around her. Emma was talking to customers in front and the aisle was empty, except for Josephine. The girl took a package off the rack, then another, then another. Josephine meowed her loudest, crabbiest meow, and Emma looked their way. But she could see Josephine was fine, just meowing to a customer, and turned away. The girl spoke to Josephine.

"You're a pretty kitty. Why don't you go over there?" She pointed to the afghans corner, and took another package off the rack, then another, feeling for her pocket and glancing up front.

Josephine, naturally, knew the word "pretty", but she wasn't impressed. Instead she raised up and put her front paws on the girl's leg. The girl shook her off. Josephine meowed louder. The customers in front were leaving and Emma came toward them.

"May I help you, dear?" Emma asked the girl, but her smile froze when she saw all the little packages in the girl's hands. She looked down at Josephine, and heard her lovely cat hiss! Now, that was unacceptable behavior for a shop cat, and Josephine well knew it.

"Err..., umm, ...no," the girl said hurriedly, and threw all the packages onto the shelf. "I don't want these anyway." She gave Josephine a dirty look and hurried out the door.

Emma and Josephine had a short, silent exchange. No words were necessary; Emma understood. She picked her up lovingly, took off her kerchief, and they got ready to go home. It was nearly closing time, anyway. The girl, who Josephine had met and known so briefly, didn't return to the shop as long as Josephine worked there, which was yet a few more seasons. And no more items disappeared.

This is a true story, with a few liberties taken. Josephine is in her 15th year of life now, and is retired from her job at the shop. She enjoys every season lying in the bay window at home with Napoleon. Emma has a new shop cat, a young male named Webster. He's quite good at his job, but he will never match Josephine's record.