A sad cat story with a happy ending

Black cats mean bad luck…
…or do they?

Abandoned by his owner on the side of a road, little Pepper must go on a journey of self-discovery. Will the little black cat embrace his own identity, or will he change the color of his fur to find a family that will love him?

You will love this touching and inspiring story about the power of friendship and the importance of acceptance and self-love.

PRAISE

READ AN EXCERPT

Chapter 1

Mr. Humphrey, who lives at number 13 on Cactus Street, woke up with a start on that Friday morning. He hadn’t slept at all during the night, and just when he finally fell asleep, the alarm went off. He sat on the edge of the bed, trying to move silently so that he didn’t wake his wife who was still asleep. He sighed. Lately he had been on a streak of bad luck that seemed to have no end, which kept him awake most nights. He looked at Ellen, who was still sleeping soundly, and envied her. He no longer remembered the last night he had slept peacefully. Now it was Friday the thirteenth, and the first thought he had was that he must get rid of the black cat and end the tide of bad luck once and for all.

He got up, washed his face, and looked in the mirror. Mr. Humphrey was a short, stocky man who almost looked like he had no neck. These characteristics were now joined by a growing lack of hair on the top of his head. Each day he had less hair. The sight of his prominent bald head made him sigh again. He had never expected to be this bald before reaching fifty. He was becoming more and more like his late father.

He opened the wardrobe, where he kept a dozen tailor-made suits. They were meticulously arranged and organized by color. There were gray, green, blue, and brown suits, but all were dark in shade. A tie organizer stood at one end of the wardrobe. It held more than a dozen ties, also organized by color. Unlike the boring suits, though, here the colors were bright and really stood out. Mr. Humphrey chose one of the gray suits and a green-and-white striped tie. It was with horror that he realized that his pants had cat hair on them. He went to get a brush and started cleaning his pants, while grinding his teeth and grumbling. When he was finished, he inspected his pants and jacket several times until he was sure there wasn’t a single hair left.

He went downstairs for breakfast. Seeing the hair on his suit had taken away his appetite, but having breakfast was a habit he could not help but follow. As he entered the kitchen, he almost tripped over Pepper, who came running from the hallway at full speed.

“Stupid cat! You almost made me fall. Leave me alone!” muttered Mr. Humphrey, as he pushed Pepper away with the tip of his slipper.

Pepper did not seem upset by Mr. Humphrey’s gesture. He swirled around, lying on his back, purring. He quickly got up because he was starting to feel hungry. Pepper might be a small cat, but he has a big appetite. He ran to his food bowl, passing close to the man’s legs again, but when he reached it, to his disappointment, he saw that it was empty. Pepper remembered that he had devoured all of the treats Ellen had filled his bowl with the night before. They’d been his favorite treats. There was not a crumb left. He looked at Mr. Humphrey, pleading for more food with his sad eyes. When that didn’t work, he started meowing at the top of his lungs.

Mr. Humphrey looked at Pepper and ignored him. It was increasingly difficult for him to look at that animal, black as coal. There was something in the darkness of his fur that made him feel uncomfortable. He turned on the coffee machine. He cut two slices of bread and placed them in the toaster. Every morning, his breakfast consisted of two slices of toasted bread with butter and a cup of coffee. His wife, from time to time, tried to convince him to eat something different, such as porridge, yogurt, or fruit, but Mr. Humphrey always refused. All his life, he had eaten toast with butter and coffee for breakfast, and he didn’t plan to change that habit.

Meanwhile, Pepper fetched one of the toy mice that Ellen had bought him and started tossing it into the air and catching it with amazing speed. He threw the mouse higher and higher and jumped higher and higher trying to catch it. Eventually, he threw it into the air with such a powerful paw that it ended up in the living room. He ran and climbed over the sofa, digging his claws into the fabric. Mr. Humphrey groaned when he saw that the cat’s claws had left a new mark on the fabric. From the top of the couch, Pepper lunged for the rug, capturing the unfortunate mouse in milliseconds. With a formidable paw, he made the mouse jump toward the curtains. Then he jumped and landed on the curtains, with his claws caught in the fabric. Mr. Humphrey snorted angrily and closed the kitchen door so he wouldn’t suffer the black cat’s antics anymore.

While waiting for the bread to toast, Mr. Humphrey could not help thinking that the black cat was certainly the reason for his recent misfortune. After all, before his wife had adopted him, Mr. Humphrey’s life had been running smoothly. His business was going strong, he and his wife were happy, and the house was always clean and tidy, just as he liked it.

Then, three months ago, when he got home from work, he’d found Ellen sitting on the couch with a black cat on her lap. It was a small, slender cat with huge green eyes. At the time, Pepper must have been about six months old. Ellen’s eyes sparkled and she had a smile on her lips. His wife told him that she had gone to the shelter with a friend who was going to adopt a dog and, seeing Pepper, she could not resist bringing him home with her. The little cat started to meow as soon as he saw her at the shelter. When she picked him up and hugged him, he started purring. Ellen couldn’t say no. She pressed him to her chest, filled him with kisses and brought him home.

Upon seeing how emotional his wife was while telling the story, Mr. Humphrey didn’t have the courage to say that he did not want to keep the cat. And so, the house gained another inhabitant: Pepper, the little black cat.

For Pepper, the day Ellen adopted him was the happiest day of his life. Since then, he and Ellen were like soulmates. When Ellen was home, Pepper followed her everywhere. He watched her while she cooked, inspected the pots when she watered the plants, waited at the bathroom door while she showered, and took long naps on her lap while she watched her favorite series. Ellen took him in her arms and filled him with kisses, patted his belly, played with him, and filled his food bowl with his favorite treats. They were inseparable. They had a perfect relationship. The same could not be said of Mr. Humphrey, who tried to ignore Pepper at all costs.
On the very first day, Pepper had realized that Mr. Humphrey was not very excited about having a cat. But the Pepper decided he wasn’t going to give up. Every day, he did amazing acrobatics when he played with the mice to show Mr. Humphrey that he was a great hunter; he ran fast in the corridor to show him that he was fast as the wind; and he rubbed himself on the man’s legs to show him that he liked him, even though he was a little grumpy. But nothing seemed to melt that icy heart. Mr. Humphrey continued to avoid Pepper.

Every time he looked at the cat, Mr. Humphrey remembered his grandma and the stories she’d told him when he was little. At that time, his family lived in a small village in the countryside. His grandmother used to entertain him with tales of werewolves and vampires who visited the village when she was a child and who abducted women and children. And she also told him stories about the village witch, who had a black cat and cast spells on anyone who dared to cross her path. Little Humphrey, impressed by his grandmother’s stories, imagined a toothless and disheveled old woman dressed in black. At night, he had nightmares. He dreamt that the witch flew on her broom, with the black cat on her lap, and came to abduct him from his bed. So, every time he saw Pepper, the vision of the old witch on the broom with the black cat on her lap haunted him again.

“Meow!” complained Pepper. He was very hungry.

“Ellen will feed you when she gets up. I’m already late for work!” replied Mr. Humphrey, shaking his head and walking away while Pepper kept meowing.

“I’m talking to a cat! I must be out of my mind!”

The man drank his coffee in one gulp and swallowed the toast. He grabbed his briefcase and car keys and tried to reach the front door without Pepper covering his pants with fur. As soon as Pepper saw him in motion, he hurried to follow, trying to rub against his legs. Mr. Humphrey took a short run and leaped into the street, slamming the front door, just in time to avoid the little black cat. He was tired of having cat fur all over the house and of having to dodge the cat all the time. Although he ignored him, the cat insisted on following him everywhere, trying to get his attention.

Mr. Humphrey was the owner of a bolt and nut factory called Bolts & Nuts, Inc. (creativity was not his forte). In the past few weeks, the factory had lost several customers. They had excused themselves citing the economic crisis, but Mr. Humphrey suspected that they had gone on to buy the bolts and nuts from some Asian country that sold them at a lower price. He felt betrayed.
In addition to losing some important clients, his trusted secretary—who had worked with him for over ten years—had decided to leave. The previous month, one Monday morning, when he arrived at the office, she had been waiting for him with a long face.
“Good morning, Mr. Humphrey,” the secretary had greeted him, timidly.

“Good morning, Carol.”

“I need to talk to you. I have some news to tell you.”

“News?” Humphrey has asked, surprised. The first thought that had come to his mind was that maybe she was pregnant, which would be a drag.

“I don’t know if you are aware, but I always wanted to be a writer…”

Mr. Humphrey had looked at Carol, confused. A writer? What the hell! As we already mentioned, creativity was not one of Mr. Humphrey’s strengths, so he had a hard time understanding the motivation of people who engage in more artistic (or useless, as he called them) activities.

“Well…the truth is that I wrote a novel and sent it to several publishers. I spent years waiting for a positive response, but the responses were always negative. In fact, I had already given up hope …”

Mr. Humphrey had become increasingly confused. It seemed ridiculous to him that someone could work for years on something completely useless without knowing if someday she would reap the rewards of that work. When he made a bolt, he knew exactly how much it cost him to produce, at what price he was going to sell it, and what profit margin he was going to obtain. Romance and illusion meant nothing for him.

“Well, finally, last month,” Carol had continued, “I was contacted by a publishing house that wants to publish my book! It was a very difficult decision, but my husband supports me. So, I decided to quit my job to be a full-time writer.”

It was as if someone had punched Mr. Humphrey in the stomach. He’d started to feel his head spinning and had sat down abruptly in his leather chair in front of the mahogany desk. He’d looked at Carol, confused and—at the same time—offended that she was leaving Bolts & Nuts, Inc. to spend her days writing ridiculous novels.

In the weeks that followed, Carol had started to prepare to leave and Mr. Humphrey had commenced the saga of trying to find a suitable replacement. By that Friday morning, he had already interviewed more than ten candidates, but he didn’t like any of them. There were only few days left before Carol went away, and he still hadn’t found the ideal secretary.

This upset Mr. Humphrey. He was a man who liked routines. Each day, he would arrive at the office at the same time, have his coffee at the same place, have lunch at the same restaurant with the same friends and, at the end of the afternoon, he would always return home at the same time. Uncertainty and surprises disturbed him. And although he didn’t consider himself a superstitious man, he was beginning to think this recent streak of bad luck must have an origin. And it had all started when his wife had brought the black cat home! The memories of his childhood, which had been buried for so many years, came back with a brutality he hadn’t expected. And every time the black cat looked at him, with those huge green eyes, he remembered the stories his grandmother had told him in winter, by the fireplace, with a cup of tea in one hand and a rosary in the other.

On Friday the thirteenth, he entered Bolts & Nuts, Inc. at nine o’clock sharp, as he did each day. At the end of the morning, as usual, he made a survey of the factory. At one o’clock sharp, he had lunch at the same restaurant, ate the same food, and drank the same wine with the same friends. He gave the same tip to the waiter and returned to the office. The afternoon went by serenely and, for a few hours, Mr. Humphrey felt in control of his life again. Carol was leaving soon, and he still had to find a replacement for her. At least, however, the day had gone by without surprises.

When he was driving back home, something dark on the curb caught his attention. It was a stray black cat with dirty fur and several fight marks on his body.

Not another black cat!

He hit the gas and drove away at great speed, disturbed by the vision. He really had to get rid of the black cat, but he didn’t want to fight with his wife.

He was absorbed by these thoughts when, suddenly, his car has hit with violence on the left side. He lost control of the steering wheel and the car skidded uncontrollably, until it was facing sideways on the side of the road. A strong smell of gasoline hit his nostrils. He felt his heart beating very fast and started to have difficulty breathing. A hot, sticky liquid dripped down his forehead. He touched it and his fingers were covered in red. It was blood.

I’m going to die!

He took a deep breath, trying to calm down and find out what had happened. The smell of gasoline was getting stronger and stronger.

“Are you okay?” asked a young man with red hair, peeping through the passenger’s side window.

Mr. Humphrey took off his seat belt and started to get out.

“Don’t move! We already called the paramedics.”

“What happened?”

“Another car crashed and hit your.”

“Was it you who hit my car?” Mr. Humphrey asked, furious.

“No. It was that lady over there in that gray car.”

On the opposite side of the road, there was a gray car, also turned sideways. Several people had gathered around the car, so Mr. Humphrey couldn’t see who was behind the wheel. He cursed under his breath, becoming more and more furious with his bad luck.
Hours later, he finally arrived at number thirteen on Cactus Street, in a cab. He had a bandage on his forehead and the little hair he had left was disheveled. The gray suit, which in the morning had been immaculate, was now dirty and wrinkled. The tie with the green-and-white stripes was now an amalgam of dirt and blood lurking from one of his coat pockets. After releasing him from the car, the paramedics had insisted on taking him to the hospital. Several tests and many hours of waiting later, they had released him. He was exhausted and furious. But when his wife asked him what had happened, he answered as calmly as he could:

“I was driving home when a car crashed into mine. It’s all right. Everything is taken care of: the car is in the automobile repair shop, the insurance will take care of everything, and at the hospital, they said this is just a bruise…”

Now that he had managed to put some order into the chaos, he felt calmer and was willing to rest on the sofa. Pepper came running from the corridor and jumped into his lap.

“How sweet, he came to support you!” said Ellen, smiling tenderly.

Mr. Humphrey managed to give a halfhearted smile, and petted Pepper’s head. The cat started purring right away. He could see the black fur getting into his dirty, wrinkled gray suit, contaminating it even more. He couldn’t stand the bad luck anymore. At that moment, he decided he couldn’t put it off any longer. He was going to get rid of the black cat once and for all!

Chapter 2

In the following days, Mr. Humphrey had several ideas to get rid of the black cat. He could tell his wife that he had developed an allergy to the cat’s hair, but she probably wouldn’t believe him. He could break a window and tell his wife the house had been robbed, and the burglars took the cat, but he didn’t want to pay for a new window. Or he could leave a window open, to see if the cat would go out and run away. He decided to try that. One day, he left the kitchen window open, but his wife noticed it right away.

“Honey, don’t leave the window open! Pepper might go out on the street and get run over by a car!”

“I’m sorry, honey. It was too stuffy in the kitchen, and I opened the window for airing. Then I forgot to close it.”

“You never forget anything!”

“I know, I must be really tired. Since the accident, I haven’t been feeling very well.”

“You should go to the doctor!”

“No need. I’ll get over it. I just need to rest.”

Pepper was as playful as ever, far from imagining the owner’s Machiavellian plans. In the evenings, after doing great stunts while chasing the mice, he jumped into Mr. Humphrey’s lap, trying to conquer that frosty heart once more.

During the day, when Pepper wasn’t chasing one of the toys, he would spend hours sitting by the living room window, watching the four-wheeled monsters go by, sometimes at high speed. In the background, there were huge buildings that reminded Pepper of the cereal boxes Ellen brought home. Buildings and cars were all Pepper could see from his station. From time to time, a neighbor would pass by with a dog on the leash and Pepper would start shaking. The memory of a dog named Brutus he had met at the animal shelter haunted him. On those occasions, he was happy to be safe inside the house.

The days went by, but Mr. Humphrey hadn’t given up on getting rid of Pepper. He hadn’t yet managed to find the perfect plan, but he felt he was very close. Finally, on the next Friday afternoon, when Mr. Humphrey returned from work at Bolts & Nuts, Inc., his wife presented him with the perfect opportunity to get rid of the cat.

“My sister called and invited us to go spend the afternoon at her house tomorrow,” said Ellen.

Mr. Humphrey scratched his head, thinking. Maybe this was it: the perfect opportunity to get rid of the cat! He didn’t like his sister-in-law at all. She was a hippie artist who painted some horrible pictures, full of splashes of color that reminded him of vomit.
“I’d love to go, but since the accident, I’ve been feeling tired. I think it’s better to stay home and rest. You go and enjoy the day with your sister!”

“Are you sure you don’t want to come?”

“Yes, I really need to take it easy. Besides, I’ll take the opportunity to ask the plumber to come fix the toilet flush.”

“Ok. Pepper will keep you company,” agreed Ellen while stroking Pepper, who had jumped into her lap.

For Mr. Humphrey, the hours remaining before Ellen’s visit to her sister seemed to stretch an eternity. He couldn’t get any shut eye during the night. Every ten minutes, he looked at his watch, only to see that time was passing excruciatingly slowly. Saturday morning was another penance. He was half-expecting his sister-in-law to call to cancel or for Ellen, for whatever reason, to decide not to go. He was so anxious that lunch didn’t sit well with him.

After lunch, Ellen finally left. Mr. Humphrey, who had exchanged his usual dark suit and tie for some sweatpants and a t-shirt, went up to the first floor and fixed the toilet himself. Then he put Pepper in the carrier. He looked out the window to make sure that there were no neighbors around. Then he took Pepper to the car. He breathed deeply several times, trying to calm down. He got in and sat behind the wheel. After several minutes, he plucked up enough courage. He turn the key in the ignition and took off. He was driving slowly, because he didn’t want to run the risk of having another car accident and having to explain to his wife what he was doing with the cat in the car. He drove for more than an hour, driving Pepper further and further away from his home, his wife, and his life.
“You know,” he said to Pepper, “I’m sorry, but ever since you came home, bad luck has followed me. It’s your ancestors’ fault. Did you know that in the Middle Ages, black cats were the companions of witches and had connections with the Devil? It’s not that I believe in witches and the Devil, but there is something wrong with black cats!”

Pepper stuck his ears up, listening to Mr. Humphrey speak. The man had always seemed strange to him, but today he was particularly strange. This talk about witches and the Devil was very weird. Pepper felt his back arch and his hair bristle, while the man ranted on, pontificating on what was clearly paranoia.

“The truth is, I can’t stand any more setbacks and surprises. So, you’ll have to leave. I’ll tell Ellen you ran away when the plumber came in. She’ll look everywhere for you, and then when she doesn’t find you, she’ll cry. And I’ll be there for her. I’m sorry, little cat, but you have to go away!” Mr. Humphrey almost seemed to be trying to convince himself of the worthiness of his ploy.

The sun was already starting to descend on the horizon when Mr. Humphrey stopped the car on the side of a road, in the middle of nowhere. He took Pepper out of the carrier and put him on the ground. Pepper, who wasn’t used to being outside, or the touch of the hot tar on his paws, tried to get back into the car, but Humphrey put him back on the ground, this time further away. While Pepper was trying to figure out what was happening, Mr. Humphrey ran to the car, got in, and closed the door. He drove away at full speed, quickly fleeing the crime scene.

Pepper stayed still on the side of the road, trying to understand what had just happened. Maybe it was all a mistake, and his owner would come back…He looked around, curious. There were no houses or buildings as far as his eyes could see. Big trees, their branches covered in reddish autumn leaves, flanked the road. In the distance, he heard birds singing and other noises that he couldn’t identify. Several four-wheeled monsters, like the one that had brought him, drove by at full speed, scaring him more and more. Not knowing what to do, the little green-eyed black cat stood on the side of the road for a long time.

Time went by. The sun was descending further and further beyond the horizon. Pepper was still waiting for his owner because he believed that all of this was just a mistake or a joke. Suddenly, he heard a huge snore, and at the end of the road, he glimpsed a gigantic monster. Not a four-wheeled monster, like the one Humphrey had brought him in, but a much bigger monster with more wheels. So many, in fact, that he couldn’t even count them. Pepper retreated, scared, while the truck passed by at full speed, making the ground shake.

Then a red four-wheeled monster was approaching, with loud music coming from inside. When Pepper realized that this car was drifting dangerously to the side of the road to try to run him over, he jumped back and managed to dodge it at the last second. Confused and scared, he stood still among the weeds. The driver hit the brakes furiously and stopped a few meters ahead. Two young men came out holding beer cans in their hands. One had a face covered with horrible pimples, full of white pus. The other one was wearing an old yellow t-shirt, which barely covered his big belly.

“Look, there it is! I bet I can hit it with a rock!” said the one with the pimples.

“I doubt it!”

“You’ll see…”

The guy with the pimples bent down to pick up a rock and started aiming at Pepper. He held the stone in his hand while he tried to calculate the best trajectory to hit him. The stone flew, at full speed, passing a few centimeters from Pepper, who kept still. He wanted to escape, but it seemed like his whole body was paralyzed. He felt his hair bristle and his tail stiffen. He tried to run, but his muscles wouldn’t obey him.

“I knew you would miss it!” laughed the guy in the yellow t-shirt.

Pepper knew he couldn’t stay there anymore. He looked around and saw trees everywhere. There wasn’t a single house in sight where he could take refuge. The little cat, who had never left the comfort of Ellen’s house since his adoption, hesitated, not knowing what to do. Then he saw the guy with the pimples crouch down to pick up another stone.