Cat in a bag
He hadn’t been around for days now and Mrs Claus was getting worried. He was the smallest of the litter, although the feistiest one and,truth be told, he was her favourite.
But it was three days now that he had not shown up, not even during feeding times. She had asked his mother and brothers, but would only get a vague reply from his sister. She was probably just asking for more food.
She looked everywhere for him. In the toy factory, in the elves’ dorms, in the sleigh, in the kitchen, in the cupboards, in the sweet shops, everywhere. He was nowhere to be seen. And the worse part was that no-one else had seen him either.
Mrs Claus decided she had to call for reinforcements.
So she told Santa that her favourite kitten had gone missing.
“What if he’s been catnapped? He was the cutest of the lot,” she said in despair.
“No, no, he is around here somewhere,” Santa tried to reassure her.
They called out his name, rang bells and food plates, but nothing.
They even asked the reindeer, but to no avail.
As snow began to fall heavier outside, Mrs Santa became all the more worried that he was somewhere alone and cold.
But then, just as it happens with all things you look too hard for and then you find them when you stop searching – the little cat appeared on its own.
It was Santa who first spotted him when he saw his toy bag juddering on the sleigh. He knew it was not any of the toy robots, because they had no batteries installed. As he raised the opening of the bag slightly to peek inside, he saw two bright eyes staring back at him. They were accompanied by a faint “meow”. One that Mrs Claus heard, however, and rushed over just in time to see the little lion walk merrily out of the bag, unaware of all the commotion he had caused.
Sometimes it’s the smallest things that cause your heart to skip a few beats. It is only then that you acknowledge their importance.
MC's Whispers 