Authors: Shirley Rousseau Murphy

Cat Shout for Joy (25 page)

BOOK: Cat Shout for Joy

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It was later in the evening when, yawning, Dulcie watched their friends depart, that she thought a little prayer for them all, for cats, kittens, and humans. Her purr was deep, she was content with life as she and Wilma moved the kittens into their nighttime pen beside Wilma's bed. Dulcie settled down among them, inundated by pummeling babies who did not want to go to sleep. Soothing her lively youngsters with a gentle paw, she willed herself to forget the last lingering images of Tekla's brutal assaults, of the suffering that woman had caused.

She thanked the greater powers for all their good fortune, despite the ugliness. She thought of Pan tucked up with the Firettis, the three friends comforting one another. She thought lovingly of Joe Grey stretched out in his tower staring out at the sky and she thought,
Good night, Joe, dream well
âÂand in his tower at the same moment Joe Grey bade happy dreams to Dulcie and their three babies. The late spring night tucked warmly around humans and cats, and the kittens beneath Dulcie's restraining paw drifted into sleep, safe and loved. Dulcie, looking out the bedroom windows to the night, hoped that Misto could hear the kittens' purrs and could hear her own contented rumble. And they all slept, cats and humans.

It was only much later that Dulcie woke again and rose, that she trotted out into the dark living room, leaped onto Wilma's desk, and with a quick paw she turned on the computer. She sat in its soft light thinking about Misto, thinking about the poem in her head that had been forming ever since the old cat died, the verses that wouldn't leave her, and slowly, with her forepaws squeezed small, she shared her words on the screen, her ode to Misto.

Golden spirit, you reach down

Your ghostly paw to touch the earth you love

To touch the sea

To stroke the lakes and rivers

To caress green hills and forests

To bless this mortal land you left behind.

Though you are gone,

Your spirit dances now

In bright eternity.

You are young again and strong

You whisper, “I am with you,

I am with you, still.”

You whisper,

“When your spirits join me,

You will know all secrets.

You will then fly free,

Fly paw to paw with me.

Our spirits sailing free.”

About the Author

I
n addition to
her popular Joe Grey mystery series for adults, for which she has received ten national Cat Writers' Association Awards for best novel of the year, ÂShirley Rousseau Murphy is a noted children's book author who has received five Council of Authors and Journalists Awards. Though her early young adult fantasies feature speaking animals, there is no speaking cat like Joe Grey and his wily crew.

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Also by Shirley Rousseau Murphy

Cat Cross Their Graves

The Catsworld Portal

By Shirley Rousseau Murphy and Pat J. J. Murphy

The Cat, the Devil, the Last Escape

The Cat, the Devil, and Lee Fontana

Credits

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

CAT SHOUT FOR JOY
. Copyright Â© 2016 by Shirley Rousseau Murphy. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

Art by Dobrynina/Shutterstock, Inc.

ISBN 978-Â0-Â06-Â240349-Â0

EPub Edition FEBRUARY 2016 ISBN: 9780062403513

16 17 18 19 20
OV/RRD
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Publisher

Australia

HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty. Ltd.

Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street

Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia

www.harpercollins.com.au

Canada