Cat in a Box
A story for children 4-8 on displacement and finding home
Galina spies
a cat
in a box
on the sidewalk
on a cold, rainy day.
There’s a sign: “I’m Louie. I need a home.”
Galina stops.
Leave a cat
in a box
in the rain?
Galina shivers,
remembering frigid nights
and her own box in the rain,
and yearns for her sweet, silky cat
that vanished.
She peeks through a hole
and wrinkles her nose
at a shivering lump
of stinky wet clumps
of long, raggedy brown
and orange fur.
She doesn’t want an ugly cat
but the rain
becomes icy needles.
She takes the box.
In the house she unfolds the flaps.
Louie huddles in the soggy box.
“Nice kitty,” Galina croons.
Claws out, he swats
and misses.
Galina jumps back.
S-l-o-w-l-y
she stretches her hand.
Louie snarls like a tiger,
then bolts.
On the sofa Galina pouts,
clutching a pillow.
The devil cat streaks by.
She ponders
putting him back outside,
but now a gale
blows sideways.
Galina’s lip shakes,
and the sofa cushion
catches her tears.
Then . . .
whomp!
Books and toys
fly to the floor.
Galina stares
into angry yellow eyes.
Suddenly she laughs.
She knows what made
her gray cat happy!
She finds
two plastic dishes
and a bottle cap.
Galina fills one dish with water.
Louie slurps,
then purrs a tiny purr.
Galina smiles
as she spoons left-over tuna
into the other dish
and grins
as Louie devours it.
He polishes the bowl with his tongue,
then licks a paw
and cleans the raggedy clumps
of brown and orange fur
until his long coat gleams like velvet.
Galina crouches
and flicks the bottle cap.
It bounces
across the floor
and Louie pounces.
They play again,
and again,
and again.
Tired, Galina sits.
She pats her lap.
She holds her breath.
At last
Louie climbs up
and settles down.
Galina runs her hand
down his beautiful tiger coat.
“Welcome home,” she whispers.
For Parents, Teachers, and Others
In my first draft, this was a funny story about a woman who knew nothing about cats but adopted one anyway, and how the cat taught her what he needed. It was full of typical cat antics such as hiding behind sofa pillows and pushing things off shelves.
Then came the Russia-Ukraine war, and my mentor suggesting that I make the story more edgy. This was the result.
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However, I write this page almost two months into the Hamas-Israel war. I considered changing the child’s name from Galina—a Ukranian name—to Nechama, a Hebrew name meaning comfort. But Nechama is hard for English-speakers to pronounce, Nehama doesn’t feel right, and anyway Israel’s displaced are promptly housed, not freezing in cardboard boxes during sleety weather.
Some 300,000 Israelis have been made temporarily homeless due to the relentless rocket attacks that occurred for 50 days until the hostage/prisoner exchange ceasefire, and some of their homes have been destroyed. Countless pets have been abandoned; they can rarely be taken to shelters. Additionally, terrorists on October 7th almost totally destroyed several communities and damaged homes in others. The survivors of those attacks have lost everything, including friends and loved ones.
Losing one’s home is traumatic for everyone, especially children, and for animals as well. What redeems us is love, both giving it and receiving it.
Questions about Cat in a Box
Why, on a cold and rainy day, did Galina stop when she saw the box with the cat?
She missed the cat she used to have
She knew what it was like to be homeless
It was a miserably cold, wet day and she felt sorry for the homeless cat
2. How do you know Galina was once homeless?
She remembered her own box in the rain
3. Why does Galina think of the cat as “devil cat?”
He tried to claw her, he snarled at he, and he ran crazily around the house.
4. Why doesn’t she put the cat back outside?
The weather is getting worse and she couldn’t do that to the cat, even though she thinks he is ugly and wouldn’t be a good pet.
5. How does she resolve the problem?
She does for him what made her lost cat happy: she feeds him and plays with him until they are friends.
6. Do you think anything in this story would help with a person, not just a cat?
Yes, when we need help we generally appreciate anyone who gives it, and when we voluntarily give help we feel good, which helps us like the person we help. The same is generally true with animals.
Refugees and the United Nations
As part of the context of this story and understanding the Hamas-Israel war, it helps to understand a bit about refugees, especially Palestinian refugees.
The United Nations has two refugee departments. According to the UNHRC home page, “the UN Refugee Agency works to ensure that everybody has the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge, having fled violence, persecution, or war at home. …We help to save lives and build better futures for millions forced from their homes.”
They also say, “We also work to ensure that stateless people are granted a nationality so they can access basic rights, such as education and health care.”
But there is a second refugee agency, UNRWA, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. If you check out this website you will be asked to donate, and you will be given a slide show of the disaster that is now northern Gaza. Nothing mentions that Hamas started this war.
According to this webpage, “UNRWA human development and humanitarian services encompass primary and vocational education, primary health care, relief and social services, infrastructure and camp improvement, microfinance and emergency response, including in situations of armed conflict.” Note that although they were founded in 1949, they have kept the Palestinians in camps while facilitating resettlement for all other refugees.
Note that five of the six reports in the box are clearly about the war. The inclusion of the news release at the bottom right of this page suggests to the casual reader that violence against women and girls is part of the situation, i.e., Israeli soldiers are raping. In Jewish law, sex is considered holy in marriage, and is strongly discouraged outside of it. Reports of Israeli soldiers raping are extremely rare. However, rape was used extensively by terrorists during Hamas’s October 7 massacre. Some Jewish women were raped with so much force that their pelvises were broken, while many other Jewish women and girls were killed either before or after they were raped.
So when one is thinking or talking about the Palestinian refugees, the story must be kept in context. The UN is 100% responsible for the existence, now 75 years after the start of the Palestinian refugee situation, of refugee camps. Before the PLO took control of the so-called “occupied territories” they prevented Israel from resettling refugees in new towns. They have deliberately kept the Palestinians as refugees. Refugees from all other conflicts and situations have been resettled by the UNHRC.
UNRWA is responsible for education both in Gaza and in the PLO-controlled areas. The textbooks and curricula that they publish and use in the schools have taught generations of Palestinians to hate Israel and to aspire to martyrdom.
So sweet! 🐾❤️🩹