What Really Killed the Cat

The small cat looked across the street at the big tom cat singing to the moon. The small cat noticed all of the animals gathered around... dogs, other cats, raccoons, squirrels, and even a fruit bat. The big cat had a large group of cats up on the fence singing and playing various backyard instruments. The small cat felt lonely. "What must I do to have friends sing and hang out with me? Maybe I can impress the other animals and make them want to come over to my side of the street." The small cat began to sing louder, and strutted back and forth along the curb, dancing and twirling in the moonlight. The big cat's band only played louder. The other animals looked on feeling a little sorry for the little cat, but not about to abandon the great entertainment offered by the big cat. In despair, the small cat finally shouted out loudly, "I can do anything you can do, big cat, only better!" A silence settled among the animals on the other side of the street as they looked at the big tom cat, wondering how he would respond to such a challenge. Big cat only chuckled to himself and said, "Bring it on, little brother!"
Thus the games began - night after night, the animals gathered in the street to watch as the two cats, big and small, competed for the grand prize - "The Ultimate Cat Championship". The first event was a bone digging competition, which appealed to the dogs. Each cat must locate and dig up a bone in their yard to provide to the dogs faithfully waiting along the street. Big ran straight to a recently dug whole, by his family's pet, and quickly laid a bone at the feet of each dog in the audience. Cheers and barks resounded. Small ran around hopelessly searching for a bone, because there were no dogs in his family, and thus no bones. Small just sighed and conceded the dogs to Big. The next event appealed to the cats, who loved to sing and socialize. Big struck up his big band and played the swingingest, most howling popular song, The Catarena, while Big passed around cat-nip and feathers (which was a big hit with the felines). On the other side of the street, Small sang the old classic Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, while dancing on the fence. Unfortunately, he got his claw stuck in a slat, and fell flat on his face (which is pretty sad for a cat always lands on their feet). Things couldn't get much worse for Small, but they did. Not only did he lose the dogs and cats, but he had no trash to gather for the Raccoons, no nuts for the squirrels, or even shade trees for that matter, and no fruit trees for the bat. You probably already guessed that Big had all of these things to offer his guests. Now everyone was gathered once again on the other side of the street, rejoicing in the song, dance, fellowship and food. The party was rocking over there on Big's side, and everyone quickly forgot about poor, lonely Small. Small sat by himself once again, feeling like a failure. He looked up at the moon, and with a mournful cry said, "Well, Faithful Light, I guess it is just you and me again. I am sure glad you are still with me. What are we going to do?" "And from somewhere out there, or maybe it was in there... from somewhere near, yet far away... Small heard these words... "I am with you, and I am glad you are with me." And suddenly, Small didn't feel so small anymore. And Small didn't feel so lonely anymore. And Small didn't feel so angry anymore. And Small didn't feel so competitive anymore. What Small felt was... complete, satisfied, and full of life. He climbed up on his rickety old fence and shouted at the top of his lungs, "We are not alone! Yes! We are not alone!" And all of the animals across the street paused in a moment of hush as they looked at the lone, joyful cat across the street. And for a moment, Small didn't look so small.