Story: How the Cat Came to Have Nine Lives
Book: How and Why Stories
Author(s): John C. Branner
Published: 1921
Internet Archive link.

Notes: I have removed the eye-dialect and edited for punctuation and paragraphing.

Why the Cat Has Nine Lives

Everybody knows that a cat’s got nine lives, but it ain’t everybody that knows just how he come by ’em. It was this-a-way, and I want you to take notice at the start that when a mammy stands by her children and the children stands by they mammy, they’s a mighty hard lot to beat, just as sure’s you’s born.

At the start and up to the time of the flood a cat didn’t have but just one life just like the other critters. But at the time of the flood when old Mr. Noah went around to drive the critters into the ark he found a tom cat and a pussy cat and he give ’em a invite to get ready and come along with him into the ark, ’cause there’s a-goin’ to be a powerful big rain and a mighty big freshet. And the tom cat he say he’s all ready to go, and the pussy cat say she’s all ready exceptin’ she’s got to take her kittens with her, and seein’ as they ain’t yet got they eyes open she’s got to tote ’em all the way by the back of the neck, and it’s goin’ to take some time ’cause there’s eight of ’em. Old Mr. Noah he told ’em that they’d have to leave the kittens behind, ’cause they wasn’t allowed to take kittens with ’em into the ark. And the pussy cat she allow that if that was the case they’d have to excuse her, ’cause she couldn’ leave them childen without any ma nohow, and if Mr. Noah would just take a look at ’em he’d see that they was just the finest lot of kittens that he ever set his eyes on, and he’d feel obliged to take ’em along. But Mr. Noah respond that the boat didn’ belong to him, and that he was a-actin’ under orders, and the orders say that they wasn’t allowed to have more’n two cats on the boat. Then the pussy cat she explain that these was just kittens, and if the orders didn’t say nothin’ about kittens of course — and there Mr. Noah stopped her and told her she’d have to excuse him ’cause he was mighty busy and they wasn’t no time to lose, and with that he hobble off down the big road a lookin’ for the other critters and a-tellin’ ’em what to do, and a-growlin’ ’cause the women folks all want to argue and explain so much.

Well, sir, that pussy cat she make up her mind that she’s a-goin’ to get them kittens on board whether or no, and she say that it didn’t hold to reason that anybody could be so low down triflin’ that he’d want to drown such a fine lot of kittens, and that too when they didn’ so much as have they eyes open. With that she pick up one of ’em by the back of the neck and carry it up close to where the ark was a standin’, and there she put it down on the ground by the gangplank and told the Tom cat to stay there and mind it while she go back after the others. and she kept on a-fetchin’ ’em until she had all eight of ’em there in one pile.

By that time the critters was all a-marchin’ into the ark two by two, with the big ones in the front and the little ones behind accordin’ to they size, and when it come time for the cats to march in, the pussy cat pick up one of the kittens by the back of the neck and started up the gangplank alongside of the tom cat, a-meanin’ to get a pass and come back after the other ones. But just when she come up to the big front door where they all had to go in, old Mr. Noah was a standin’ there a-takin’ the tickets, and he say, “Looky here. Miss Cat, you’ll have to leave that there kitten outside; I done told you that once before.”

Well, sir, that cat she want to argue the matter, and she begin to talk so fast that Mr. Noah ain’t have a chance to say nothin’, so he just call out, “Don’t block up the road there!” and with that he shove the pussy cat and her kitten off of the gangplank, and the tom cat he had to go in by hisself ’cause the other critters was a-crowdin’ up behind.

Well, sir, the pussy cat allow that she ain’t a-goin’ to be beat out that-a-way, but by the time she get back where she left the kittens, all the critters of her size was done gone in and it look like she’s goin’ to be left out of the ark sure enough. And it wasn’t long before the rain commence to rain and the big waters begin to come up until the cat and the kittens was left a-swimmin’ around the ark a-meowin’ and a tryin’ to find a place where they could climb up and get inside.

When the pussy cat took notice that one of the kittens couldn’t hold out no longer she took it in her mouth, and when the kitten die, its life went down inside of the old cat. Then when another was about to drown she drop the dead one and took that one up, and when it die its life went down inside of the old cat too. And that went on until the kittens was all dead, all the whole eight of ’em, and the eight lives was all inside of they mammy.

Then the old cat begin to meow, and she make such a moanful sound that old Mr. Noah reach out his arm through a hole and pull up the pussy cat, ’cause he remember that they wasn’t no cat on board exceptin’ the tom cat, and he wasn’t no account nohow. And after the flood was all over and the critters all come out of the ark, all the cats that was born from that time on had nine lives in ’em, instead of just one like they started with, and that’s what make me say that when a mammy stick by her children and the children stick by they mammy, they’s mighty sure to win in the long run.

illustration by W. S. Atkinson

illustration by R. K. Culver

Photo of kittens from Public Domain Pictures https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=285086&picture=cool-kittens