She whipped my father and threw the cat out the door, but later on my father sneaked out and found the cat. My father fed the cat for three weeks, but one day his mother found the cat's saucer in the cellar and she was extremely angry.

He told the cat to stay anyway, and that somehow he would bring her a saucer of milk each day. This made my father very sad, and he apologized to the cat because his mother had been so rude. Once you start feeding stray alley cats you might as well expect to feed every stray in town, and I am not going to do it!' 'Elmer Elevator,' she said to my father, 'if you think I'm going to give that cat a saucer of milk, you're very wrong. She hatedĬats, particularly ugly old alley cats. My father and the cat became good friends but my father's mother was very upset about the cat. 'We have a very nice furnace to sit by,' said my father, 'and I'm sure my mother has an extra saucer of milk.' This surprised the cat – she had never before met anyone who cared about old alley cats – but she said, 'I'd be very much obliged if I could sit by a warm furnace, and perhaps have a saucer of milk.' The cat was very drippy and uncomfortable so my father said, 'Wouldn't you like to come home with me?' One cold rainy day when my father was a little boy, he met an old alley cat on his street. TORONTO, CANADA BY RANDOM HOUSE OF CANADA, PUBLISHED IN NEW YORKīY RANDOM HOUSE, INC. RESERVED UNDER INTERNATIONAL AND PAN AMERICANĬOPYRIGHT CONVENTIONS. A Celebration of Women Writers My Father's DragonĬOPYRIGHT 1948 BY RANDOM HOUSE, INC.

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