The Replacement Cats

“I’m just popping out to the shops, is there anything we need, Vera?”

“No, I think we’re all ok, Fred - don’t be long - the tennis is on soon”.

As Fred opened the front door, he noticed Mr Tibbens was looking up at him expectantly. This was odd, as Mr Tibbens was a cat, and generally ignored Fred, but of course hassled Vera the whole time as she would generally pamper the creature. Fred turned to go, pushing the door closed behind him, but then realised that the cat was now padding along faithfully beside him. “Well this is a turn up for the books, I must say” he thought to himself, as he rounded the corner on to the high street and was confronted with the unusual sight of a whole pavement full of people being politely followed by their pet moggies.

Mr Tibbens waited patiently outside the corner shop, and then followed Fred home.

Realising that Fred had purchased some snacks, Mr Tibbens sat up and begged.

Vera looked on in astonishment. “There’s definitely something wrong with that cat, Fred” she observed. “She’s never behaved like that before at all. She was always her own mistress, totally unbiddable. I think I better take her to the vet.”

Fred thought “why bother, she’s much better this way”, but didn’t say anything out loud.

Vera got much the same reaction from the vet, she reported when she got back.

“He said he could see the change” she said “but couldn’t see that it was a problem.”

It turned out that many cats in the area had been the subject of this mysterious syndrome, ever since that triple rainbow had landed on the park, during that weird weather the previous week.

However, the vet was much more alarmed when he got this call the next day.

“Doctor, Doctor, its an emergency - something is really quite wrong with Boy”

“Remind me, Boy is your dog, right?”

“Yes, you see, he just won’t obey us any more now”