My Dragon – Chapter 1 – I Meet A Cat

Chapter 1 – I Meet A Cat

One cold rainy day, when I was a little boy, I met an old cat on the street. The cat was very wet and uncomfortable, so I asked, “Would you like to come home with me?”

This surprised the cat. She had never met anyone who cared about stray cats. But, she said, “I’d love to! And could I sit by the fireplace and have a bowl of milk?”

“We have a nice fireplace to sit by,” I said, “and I’m sure my mom can pour a bowl of milk.”

I became good friends with the cat, but my mother was very upset about the cat. She hated cats, especially ugly old stray cats. “Elmer,” she said to me, “if you think I’m going to give that cat a bowl of milk, you are very wrong. If you start feeding a stray cat, every stray cat in town will come for milk. And I am not going to feed them all!”

This made me very sad, and I apologized to the cat because my mother had been so rude. I told the cat to stay anyway, and that somehow, I would bring her a bowl of milk every day. I fed the cat for three weeks, but one day, my mother found the cat’s bowl in the basement and she was extremely angry. She spanked me and threw the cat outside.

But later, I sneaked out of the house and found the cat. I went for a walk in the park with her and tried to think of nice things to talk about. I said, “When I grow up, I’m going to have an airplane. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to fly anywhere that you want to fly?”

“Would you like to fly?” asked the cat.

“I certainly would. I’d do anything if I could fly.”

“Well,” said the cat. “If you’d really like to fly, I think I know how you can.”

“You mean, you know where I could get an airplane?”

“Well, not exactly an airplane, but something even better. As you can see, I’m an old cat now. But in my younger days, I was quite a traveler. My traveling days are over but last spring, I took just one more trip. I sailed to the Island of Tangerina. I stopped at the port of Cranberry. Well, unfortunately, I missed the boat. While waiting for the next boat, I thought I’d explore a little bit. I was interested in a place called Wild Island, which I had passed on my way to Tangerina. Wild Island and Tangerina are joined together by a long string of rocks. But people never go to Wild Island because it’s mostly jungle, and very, very wild animals live there. So, I decided to go across the rocks and explore it by myself. It is truly an interesting place, but I saw something there that made me want to cry.”

About this story:

The original story is called “My Father’s Dragon” by Ruth Stiles Gannett, and the illustrations are by Ruth Chrisman Gannet. “My Father’s Dragon” is in the public domain. “My Dragon” is a simplified version by Judy Shinohara for English learners.