The Tale of a Cat’s Tail

by Kathy Benedetto

Now I am not suggesting that kitties are not truthful animals because they are. Yet sometimes their love of folly appears to hide a few pieces of the truth but just to trick not to deceive. Secrets not to be exposed while scheming a playful ruse. A decoy to their true intent. While facing you, your sweet little feline friend may be sitting stoically staring refusing to blink as if to say, “Honest, I would not lie. I don’t know how that birdie got on the floor…dead.” Yet their tail is telling a different tale. One of fast switching left to right movements and low to the ground. Their meow says, Not I,” but their tail tells a different tale. Kitty ethics plain and simple.

One evening while I was relaxing, watching TV with the front door opened, waiting for my cat named Kitty to return from her evening stroll around the neighborhood,

I heard a vicious scream. As I ran out, Kitty ran in

and up the stairs. I followed her and found her hiding under my desk. No opened wounds or visible signs of blood so I considered her safe. Only glad she was inside and away from trouble.

Later that night she did not come to bed with us. Odd but not yet a cause for alarm; but in the morning, she was gone. All her favorite places…empty. Finally, we found her buried under my husband’s office desk. Stuffed into a corner in her “bunny” position. Legs and tail tucked in while staring forward. No meows, no movement, just breathing. We tried to get her to walk. It was then that we saw her pain and stiffness in her hind quarters. She was injured badly and needed medical help. So off to the ER we went much to her distaste.

The vet examined her and found numerous animal bite marks under her fur plus a temperature of 106. After several days of antibiotics and pain medicine, she still was making no progress. She had stopped eating. She hated this place and wanted to go home. Prescriptions filled and trained in Kitty care, I brought her home.

As Kitty limped through the kitchen, she struggled up the stairs to our bedroom, pushed under the covers of our bed and soon fell asleep. A few hours later a bit more relaxed she went to her bowl and began to eat. Painstakingly she tried to convince us she was OK, but her body, especially her tail served as a truth barometer and gave us a different message. One of stay awfully close to this injured kitty. I found this language of the tail so interesting.

I Googled the subject and found that kitties always signal their true thinking in their tails. Their meow may say one thing, but their tails cannot lie.

This made me pause and ask, “God, why don’t humans have truth telling tails? Would not we be better beings if our lies were quickly exposed by a body part?” I was to receive a most unexpected answer.

Now it turns out that all prayers first go straight to God. He, after listening carefully, directs the request to the person or plan already put in place. Thus, the Kitty Council was summoned and sent to me. Through the portal somehow attached to my pet door, three kitties tumbled and spilled onto my kitchen floor. Rolling on the floor for a few seconds, they scrambled into place landing paw ready. Mobilized and prepared to become the answer to my prayer. Who are the Kitty Council (one might wonder)? Well, later I was to learn that they are a small group of wise kitties who have proven their worth and ability by many trials and near-death experiences.

Kitties who have survived their nine lives by the wisdom that is learned based on observing the behavior of both man and beast. They abide in a space between time and reality

and are always ready to do their Master Kitty’s biding.

From the floor, three gray striped kitties looked up at me with deep blue eyes. The eldest, Sir Simon stepped forward and spoke, “Allow me to introduce myself and my esteemed colleagues.”

“Please do,” I whispered back. Careful not to scare them off.

“We are the ruling members of the Kitty Council sent to answer your question. First, our heartfelt sorrow for your kitty’s injuries, but she will recover soon.”

“Thank you.” I had so many questions, but I did not want to shatter the moment. What if they are skittish, scaredy-cats?

Since I did not speak much, he continued. “My name is Sir Simon. This is Sir Sigmund and our newest member Sir Sylvester.” Each kitty raising a paw in turn. “We have served on the Council for many lives and are most fluent in the ways of kitty behavior and culture. What then is your question for us?”

“Please, Sir Kitty, how come humans don’t have a body part that registers the truth of their words like cats do with their tails?”

Immediately all three kitties raised their tails in a curved almost question mark position. Sir Simon froze in place and then finally said with cautious eyes fixed on me, “This is most unexpected.”

“Excuse us for a moment.” They turned and faced each other in a huddle of secrecy with tails intertwined. With soft mewing and slight purring, they discussed the question. “Does the Master wish us to repeat such sacred knowledge? Humans have never been trusted before with the story and according to the Kitty Code will not be until the end of the Age. Is mankind now ready to hear and accept the truth? Has the time now come for the secret hid so long ago to be revealed?” This was most puzzling to the Council indeed.

Breaking from the huddle, Sir Sigmund questioned my understanding of what had occurred in the Garden during the fall of man. I answered telling the well-known apple deception story.

“Yes, but what happened next?” quizzed Sir Sylvester.

I continued that when Adam and Eve were deceived by the serpent, God punished the serpent by condemning it to a life of crawling on the ground. One must assume it lost its legs and feet because of the lie told. Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden never to return and were cursed with hard work and painful child-bearing labor; and oh, yes, and for the first time they must have discovered the sensation of being cold, horrified and embarrassed, for suddenly they were naked.”

“Yes, yes. That part of the story is well-known. However, there is an undisclosed piece that was not circulated onto the humans. A secret only the animals kept.” I bent my ear forward to listen, but Sir Sylvester stopped abruptly when Sir Simon signaled him back into the huddle.

Sir Simon and Sir Sigmund held their peace knowing full well the second half of the story.

“Why don’t they remember?”

Sir Sylvester asked. Sir Simon proceeded to finish the story for Sir Sylvester using only the ancient language.

“Humans were now condemned and could no longer be trusted since they sought to be equal with God and attempted to lie to Him. Besides the guilt and bruised self-image, they lost their direct connection to the Truth. Physically, their fur and claws receded and worst of all their tales fell off. As a sign of their arrogance, they were forced to walk with only two legs. Hands and arms replaced their front legs and paws in order to serve their punishment of now having to work for what was once provided for them. Worst of all, they lost a large portion of their brain capacity and with it the ability to understand the ancient language of truth that now only the animals spoke.

With this inferior body and mind, they were now free to lie at will.

“It was as if their brain shrank with the introduction of the lie,” added Sir Sigmund.

“Well said,” continued Sir Simon. “And it seems to continue to shrink every time a lie is believed. It is why the Master hates lies so much. Shaking his head he reached into his memory and whispered to himself.

” A lie quickly told,

A flash of the truth.

Simple and insignificant,

yet baring an eternal gravity.”

Any lie, every lie when spoken continues to dismantle a part of creation.”

“How horrible!” hissed Sir Sylvester tail twitching abruptly back and forth.

“The irony in all this,” smirked Sir Sigmund, “is that the fall of man is the story of his tail falling off, and they haven’t even connected the two from its title. Never curiously asking, “What fell?”

“Such ghastly business!” agreed Sir Sylvester.

“Unruffle your fur, Kitties. All is not lost,” Sir Simon interrupted. “Remember the compassion of the Master for His creatures. He has designed a greater story for their best is yet to come.

For even with the loss of the tail each human was allocated the gift of a new body part… knees. Knees that bend towards humility

An earnest plea goes a long way with humans — **Knees that bend towards humility.**

with the hope that one day all mankind will surrender the fantasy of deception and will ache for what was lost and will return hands to the ground, bow their knees, and confess their need of speaking only the Truth. In this simple confession, their paws and former posture will be restored so that mankind can once again walk humbly with their God on all fours as was first intended. Their worst fear becoming their greatest blessing in the form of a Savior, who will finally rejuvenate all that was ruined.

“What about their fur and tails?”

“They will be transformed with unsullied new bodies spotless in both tail and fur.”

“Are they ready for humility?”

To remember once again. Is it time for them to get their brains back?” Sir Sylvester asked impatiently.

“We will see,” Sir Simon answered almost into space and beyond the moment.

Sir Simon once again turned to address me. “Your question is a good one, the answer has been carefully considered; but first let me respond with a probe of my own. “What is it that is lost in a lie?”

“I don’t know,” I confessed. “It seems foolish to be sure.” But the expressions on their faces divulged that I had given the wrong answer. Yet, I stood hopeful to hear at least a slice of the ancient story.

“A truthful answer but not an insightful one,” judged Sir Sylvester.

“Yes, you still lack the wisdom needed; we are truly sorry for you,” sighed Sir Sigmund.

“No, you still lack the capacity to be a vessel of Truth,” ruled Sir Simon. “More preparation in character work needed before your soul will be equipped to grasp even simple Truth.”

Feeling weak-kneed, I sat down at the nearby kitchen chair in disbelief.

The three kitties came forward to lick my disappointed hand which just hung at my side. “Remember with the Master there is always hope, always a plan,” offered Sir Simon.

Speechless, suddenly aware of how inferior I was next to my furry friends. Lost, but not sure how or why. Holding onto a secret no one would ever believe. I stood as the Council exited single file out my pet door.