It was a Sunday afternoon and Mable’s owners had just set out her food. Mable began to cautiously take a few bites, but she didn’t have much time to eat because pretty soon a small black and white cat charged in through the hole in the fence, pushed Mable to the side and began gobbling down her food. When he was done he jumped over the railing on the patio and ran away as if Mable wasn’t even there.

This is what had happened every day since Connor, her owners’ son, had left for summer camp.

Sadly, her owners knew nothing about it since they went inside right after putting out her food. She wanted to go ask The Great Panjandrum for help, but the problem was: she was deadly afraid of cars and roads. She stood at the edge of the road, scared of all the cars. Finally she mustered up the courage and ran across the road. Now that she tried it, it was very easy–you just waited for a break in the cars and ran across the road.

The Great Panjandrum was reading Aristotle’s famous work On Comedy (in the Bluffton edition). He heard a scratching at his door, put his paw on the page to mark his place, and looked up. “Who is it?” he asked. A timid voice said “It’s– it’s– it’s me” and the Great Panjandrum opened the door. Mable wanted to run but again she conquered her fears and stepped inside.

The Great Panjandrum said “Hello Mable, what can I do for you?”

“How do you know my name?” she asked with a puzzled look on her face.

“Your collar says ‘Mable’” he explained.

Mable was still perplexed because she had never heard her collar say anything, but she decided to go on. She told the Great Panjandrum about her problem and he agreed to help.

The next afternoon her owners again put out her food, but this time she was much more confident. She stepped right up to her bowl and began to eat. As usual, the little black and white cat tore through the hole in the fence, pushed her away, and started to gobble down Mable’s food. This time, though, he suddenly floated up in the air, and then found himself pinned down by an enormous paw.

“Well, well” came a deep voice. “Is this your food?”

“P-P-P-Please don’t eat me!” he whimpered.

“Don’t worry, I wont eat you, but you can’t steal any more of Mable’s food.” The Great Panjandrum set Rascal down, and he ran away and never came back.

At least not in this story.