I know in the non-feline community there is an old adage that hard work pays off in the end. There are many parables and fables to illustrate this. One in particular that comes to mind is the story of the ant and the grasshopper. In Aesop’s classic fable the ant spends the warm months of the year hard at work both harvesting and storing his food. Meanwhile the grasshopper procrastinates and spends his summer vacation taking long naps and strumming his guitar (sometimes a mandolin). As predicted, when the cold season arrives the ant has everything he needs to survive and the grasshopper does not, in some versions starving to death. I think in more modern spins the grasshopper ends up dealing with a gambling problem and treating an STD. And he loses custody of his kids. Come to think of it, this fable may have morphed into a cautionary tale against dating musicians.
But I digress.
The story teaches that hard work comes with rewards and idleness comes with consequences. It’s often used in childhood education and a version of it exists in most languages, especially the romantic ones. Well, I would like to offer you a different story:
The Dog and the Cat
By: Toque
Once upon a time there was a dog and a cat. The dog was a very hard worker, the cat……not so much. The dog considered himself the security guard of the home, and took his post very seriously. The cat considered herself the boss and expected others to take her post seriously. The dog worked hard at learning new tricks in the hopes of getting treats. The cat awoke from naps and got treats. The dog brought humans slippers and newspapers in exchange for belly rubs. The humans knew better than to touch the cat’s belly, but if the cat desired, she got a scratch under the chin. The dog was trained to go to the bathroom outside. The cat trained the humans to pick up after her inside. No matter how well behaved he was, the dog was routinely told to stay off the couch. The cat used the couch as her scratching post. The dog patiently waited everyday for dinner time; the cat let people know when it was dinner time. And at dinner time the dog was chastised for anything that even remotely resembled “begging”. The cat, on the other hand, was always offered some of what everyone else was eating—as long as she sat quietly and feigned disinterest.
At the end of a long day the dog was given a “doggy bed” to curl up in, while the humans pretzeled themselves around the cat in the “human bed”.
Moral of the story? Work smart, Kittens, not hard. Find what you’re good at and exploit it. Cats just happen to be good at being cats—a dog may try but he can never compare.
Meow Meow For Now,
Toque ♥
