By Kym Kostos

Copyright

© 2014 by Kym Kostos

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

ISBN: 978-1500406875

Chapter 1 – Batty is Born

When Batty the cat was born, he was the smallest out of his six brothers and sisters. Batty was born on a farm in a barn near the hay stack in the corner. Farmer Joe had put a blanket out for Batty’s mom, Pickles. Pickles was named Pickles because she was born near a pickle barrel one summer evening.

Much like Batty’s mother Pickles, Batty was born on a warm summer night. Farmer Steve had heard Pickles howling really loud as she delivered her litter of kittens. Batty was the last to be born. Batty was a black cat with a little patch of white under his tummy. Even though Batty was the smallest, he still wanted to drink as much milk as he could from his mommy.

When Batty and his litter were old enough, Farmer Ted took the box of kittens to the park and put up a sign that read “FREE KITTENS TO A GOOD HOME”. The litter of kittens went really quick. Except for Batty. Batty was the last one left.

“Well, why won’t anyone take me home with them?” Batty thought to himself. “I’m just as good as any other cat.” Batty was sad because he thought no one wanted him.

But, then, he looked up from the box and he saw someone looking down at him smiling. It was a man. “Well, hello there little guy.” The smiling man said. “You look like you need someone to love you.” He then picked up Batty and held him and rubbed his cheek against Batty’s face. Batty was excited. Someone had finally wanted to take him home! “You are perfect!” The man said as he walked back to his car.

His new owner took him to his car and placed Batty on the car seat next to him. Batty liked feeling close to his new owner. So, he climbed up the side of the car seat and curled up around his new owner’s shoulders, where that would become his favorite place to lie when he was tired.

Batty was able to look out the window and see the big world around him as he was driven to his new home. The world was such a big place! They had driven for a while and finally the car pulled into a driveway. It was a small farmhouse with a lot of land around it. There was even a forest behind the farmhouse.

Batty’s new owner picked him up and said, “My name is Steve and I will be your new daddy. I am going to call you Batty because the movie Batman is one of my favorite movies and since you are all black and you have large ears like a bat, Batty will be the prefect name for you!” That is how Batty got his name and from then on, everyone knew him as Batty the cat.

Steve made blankets and clothes for the locals where he lived and sold his stuff at the general store in town. So when Batty entered his new home, he immediately saw the basket of yarn. “Oh what fun!” Batty thought to himself.

Steve went into the kitchen and poured Batty a saucer of milk and put out some tuna from the can for Batty. Batty could smell the tuna and ran into the kitchen and drank his milk and ate his tuna.

Since his tummy was now full, it was time for Batty to take a nap. Batty curled up on the corner of the sofa where there was a soft blanket that Steve had made and tucked his little tale in and fell fast asleep.

While Batty was sleeping, Steve had left to go to the store to get proper kitten food for Batty. After all, even though they would love to, kittens can’t live on tuna alone!

Batty was so exhausted that he didn’t hear Steve pull up in the driveway when he got home from the market. When Steve walked through the door, Batty opened his eyes and jumped up and ran to the door to greet Steve. “Well, hello there little guy. Did you have a good nap?” Steve asked Batty. Batty meowed back and rubbed up against Steve’s leg. Steve couldn’t pet Batty because he was carrying two bags of groceries. “Watch out little guy.” Steve cautioned Batty as he walked into the kitchen, so he wouldn’t step on him.

Batty moved out of the way so Steve could walk to the kitchen. Once he had put the groceries away, Steve asked Batty if he wanted to go outside to play. Batty was excited about the idea. So, Steve opened the door and Batty ran outside onto the lawn. “Now, don’t go too far.” Steve cautioned Batty once again.

Batty began to explore the yard. He chased some butterflies and grasshoppers. He went over to a patch of yellow daisies and smelled the flowers and almost got stung by a bee! He had fun exploring and soon felt another nap coming on. He found a nice shady area under the tree and soon began to doze off.

After about an hour sleeping, he awoke to another cat staring at him. This startled Batty. “Who are you?” The other cat asked Batty. It was a girl.

“I’m Batty.” Batty replied. “Who are you?” Batty asked her back.

“I’m Zoey.” She said and licked her paw to wipe some dirt off her face. “I live next door.” Zoey was a black and white tuxedo cat. She was black on top, had a black mask over her face, a white chin, chest, underneath her was white and her legs were white. She really looked like she was wearing a tuxedo jacket! Batty thought to himself.

“How long have you lived here?” Zoey asked Batty.

“I just got here today.” Batty said.

“Is Steve your new daddy?” Zoey asked.

“Yes. He picked me up at the park today.” Batty said proudly.

“Steve is very nice. Sometimes he puts a saucer of milk on the porch for me when my mommy is gone all day.” She said. “Matilda is my mommy and we live next door.” Zoey informed Batty. “We have a fun forest to play in, back there.” Zoey said looking towards behind the two farmhouses.

“That sounds like fun!” Batty said.

Just then Steve came outside onto the porch and began to call for Batty. “Batty! Batty!” Batty heard him and began to run towards the door.

“I’ll play with you tomorrow!” Batty looked back quickly and yelled out to Zoey.

“Okay!” Zoey replied.

“There you are little guy. I was wondering where you were.” Steve opened the door and Batty ran inside. “I see you met Zoey from next door.”

Batty had worked up an appetite and was hungry and thirsty. He was happy when he walked into the kitchen and found another saucer of milk, a bowl of water and a bowl of kitten chow. After he filled up he went into the living room. He couldn’t find Steve, so he began to wander through the farmhouse.

He found Steve in his work room sewing. “Well, hello there little guy. I see you are done eating your supper. How about a ball of yarn to play with?” Steve then rolled a ball of yarn towards Batty.

Batty had a fun time rolling the ball of yarn around for a while. Soon he tired himself out and decided to explore the rest of the house.

After awhile, he heard a noise coming from the room near the front of the house. He walked into the room and saw Steve sitting on the sofa watching a box with people and voices inside. He jumped up onto the sofa and walked over to Steve’s lap. Steve began to pet Batty. “How do you like your new home?” Steve asked him as he petted him.

“Meow!” Batty said loudly in a happy meow. Because he loved where his new home was.

Batty then climbed up on top of Steve’s shoulders and lay across them. He could feel Steve pulse on his neck and it reminded him of being near his mommy, Pickles. For the first time that day, he missed his mommy and his brothers and sisters. He wondered how they were all doing.

Then he felt Steve’s hand reach up and pet him behind the ears. Batty loved being petted behind his ears. Soon, he stopped missing his mommy and brothers and sisters and welcomed Steve’s petting.

Batty closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep for about an hour until it was ready for Steve to get up and go to bed himself. He carried Batty to the bedroom and placed him on the bed. There were two pillows on the bed. Steve pointed to the one on the opposite of where he was laying and said, “That’s your side of the bed, if you want to sleep in here.”

Batty soon found the pillow and began to knead his claws to get comfortable. He then curled up, tucked his tail in and fell fast asleep. “Good night Batty.” Steve said and turned the light out.

Chapter 2 – Batty Begins to Explore

Several months had passed and Batty was getting bigger, but not too much bigger than he was. He was still the little runt of the litter and he was very small for his age. He had become good friends with Zoey, the next door cat. They would lay in the grass, chase butterflies and other bugs.

Batty discovered that birds were fun to chase too. And sometimes, they would leave feathers that would blow in the wind and Batty loved chasing those too.

One day, Steve had left and was going to be gone al day. Batty knew this, because Steve left Batty’s bowl of water and food out on the porch and let Batty go out to play for the day. Batty loved being outdoors in the warm air. It made finding shade under a tree all the more enjoyable.

Batty was lazily lying in the grass in front of the farmhouse. Zoey came over and said hi to Batty as she always did when Matilda had let her out for fresh air. “Hi Batty.” Zoey greeted Batty.

“Hi Zoey.” Batty greeted her back.

“We should go exploring today.” Zoey said.

“Really?” Batty loved exploring. “Where?”

“Let’s go to the forest.” Zoey said.

“But, won’t we get lost?” Batty still hadn’t wandered into the forest yet. It was so big and scary.

“If we stick together, we should be fine.” Zoey informed him.

“Have you been in the forest before?” Batty was wondering.

“Yes, I have. It’s fun to explore in the forest. We just need to stick together though, okay?” Zoey said.

“Okay.” Even though Batty had been afraid to explore the forest, he was still curious about it. It was his in his nature to be curious about things.

He got up and he and Zoey headed towards the forest. Batty felt really excited. He was going to explore and go on an adventure with his best friend Zoey. They started out on a dirt path and walked into the forest. Batty was looking up at all the tall trees. “Wow!” He said to Zoey, “This place is huge!”

“I know.” She continued to walk. “There is a meadow once we get through the forest.”

Batty began to hear all sorts of noise coming from the trees and bushes. He heard birds chirping, crickets, owls hooting and he even saw some deer running towards the creek.

“Where are they going?” Batty asked Zoey.

“Oh, over to the creek.” Then Zoey thought to herself, maybe her and Batty should walk over to the creek so she could show Batty the fish. “Follow me Batty!” She began to walk faster.

Batty kept up with her and soon they were standing on the side of the creek. “What’s this?” Batty asked.

“It’s called a creek.” She replied. “Look closely at it.”

Batty began to look closely at the creek and soon he saw frogs hopping and fish swimming! “What are those?” He asked Zoey excitedly.

“Those are frogs that you see jumping and those are fish swimming in the there. And over there is a momma duck with her baby ducklings.” Zoey informed Batty.

“Wow!” Batty thought to himself. So many new things to see and hear! He soon realized that he was missing Steve and wish Steve was there to see what he was seeing. But, he was glad that Zoey was with him.

Zoey got close enough to the side of the creek and put her paw into the water. Then Batty saw her pull something out of the water and put it on the ground. Batty ran over to Zoey to see what she had. She had caught a fish!

“See?” Zoey said. “They are fun to catch!”

“What do we do it with now?” Batty asked, never having seen a fish so close up before.

“Well, it was fun trying to catch it. I just usually push it back into the water. Like this.” Zoey then pushed the fish back into the creek and it swam away. “You try to catch one now!” Zoey told Batty.

“Sure!” Batty was already excited. Batty got close to the creek, just like Zoey had, he watched the water until he saw a fish come by. Or so he thought it was a fish. He reached into the creek to grab the fish, but the fish grabbed his paw! He quickly jumped back and the fish was grabbing onto his paw with his claws!

“Batty! That’s not a fish! That’s a crawdad! Zoey said laughing.

Batty didn’t think it was funny at all. He was a bit frightened. This thing had its claw on Batty’s paw and wasn’t letting go! Batty kept shaking his paw and finally it let go. Out of curiosity, Batty went to smell it.

“That’ll teach you from putting your paws where they don’t belong!” The angry crawdad told Batty and pinched Batty’s nose really quick with his claw and then ran back into the creek.

Batty was rubbing his nose. “What was that?” He asked still in shock.

“That was a crawdad. They are like little lobsters that live in the creek. They get angry when you pull them out of the creek. He was a really grumpy one!” Zoey said and walked over to Batty. “Did he hurt you?”

“No, I think I am okay.” Batty said rubbing his nose with his paw. “My nose just hurts a little.”

“Do you want to try to catch a fish now?” Zoey asked, still laughing.

“No, I don’t want to get another one of those clawdads.” Batty replied.

“Crawdads. They are called crawdads.” Zoey corrected him.

“They should be called clawdads because their claws hurt!” Batty said back to her.

Zoey giggled some more. “Com on, let’s go to the meadow, unless you want to drink some water from the creek?” She said.

Batty thought for a moment. It was a hot day and he was thirsty, so he cautiously moved his head to the creek and quickly drank some water. It was cool and tasted really good. But, he didn’t want to linger there anymore for fear of the crawdads coming to pinch him some more.

Batty and Zoey continued their journey through the forest. Zoey then stopped and was staring at something. Batty came up closer to see what she was looking at. There was a nest that had fallen out of the tree above it and the baby birds were alone and chirping for their mommy.

“Their mommy must have left to get some food for them and the nest fell out of the tree.” Zoey whispered.

“Oh. What should we do?” Normally Batty would have wanted to chase them because they were birds, but they looked so small and helpless and he knew that they wouldn’t be any fun to play with. Zoey was thinking the same thing.

“Well we can’t touch them because their mommy won’t take care of them. We should go so she can come back and care for them.” They continued on their journey through the forest.

Soon, they saw the large green meadow that Zoey had told Batty about. “There it is!” Zoey yelled out. She began to run towards the meadow. Batty soon followed her and they raced to the meadow together.

When they had arrived in the middle of the green meadow they were exhausted from running. They lay down in the grass and looked up at the blue sky.

“Zoey, what’s up there?” Batty asked as they looked up at the sky.

“That’s called the sky.” She said.

“How do you know so much about things?” Batty asked.

“Well, before you came along, your daddy Steve had an older cat named Nyko. He was a wise old cat that knew a lot about the world. He would tell me stories about how the world worked and how centuries ago we were worshipped as cats in Egypt. Did you know that?” Zoey asked Batty.

Really, we were worshipped?” Batty asked.

“Yes, we were. Our ancestors used to kill the mice and stop great big plagues from happening and killing the Egyptians, so they made us into gods and goddesses. We were worshipped. Those were great times, Nyko would tell me.” Zoey said with great passion in her eyes and tears.

“Zoey, why are you sad?” Batty noticed the tears in Zoey’s eyes.

“I miss Nyko. He was my best friend in the whole world. One day, he wasn’t feeling good and he took his last walk to the forest and I never saw him again.” Zoey said sadly and hung her head.

“Steve looked for him for days and he never found him.”

“I will be your best friend now Zoey.” Batty said as he rubbed his head against Zoey’s.

“I would like that very much.” Zoey said.

Zoey and Batty spent the day playing in the meadow, smelling the flowers, chasing butterflies and other hopping and flying insects, chasing birds and just having fun in the fresh air. They had played so much that they had lost track of time and fell asleep in the meadow under a shady tree.

When they awoke it was dark and Batty was afraid. He had never been out in the dark before and so far away from home alone. . Steve had always brought him in before it was dark out. Batty was hungry and was missing Steve. He had never been out this far either and was lost. Hopefully Zoey knew how to get back.

“Zoey, are we lost?” Batty said with a scared voice.

“I am sure if we go this way, that is where the forest is and we go through the forest and we will be home.” Zoey said.

“Are you sure?” Batty asked.

“I’m pretty sure.” She said.

“Then you lead the way.” Batty said.

Zoey began to walk towards the forest where she believed that they had come through. The only problem was, the whole meadow was surrounded by forest and Zoey wasn’t quite sure which way they had come from. She didn’t want Batty to know, but she was a bit frightened too. But, she wanted to show Batty how brave she was.

They started walking through the forest, but nothing seemed familiar to Batty. It was getting darker too and the forest animals were making a lot of noises. Batty was really scared. But, he also wanted to show Zoey that he wasn’t afraid.

Batty’s tummy was growling because he hadn’t eaten since they had left earlier that day. So, now he was not only frightened, he was hungry too.

“Are you sure you know where you are going?” He asked Zoey.

“I am pretty sure home is this way.” Zoey answered. But, to Batty, she didn’t sound too sure of herself.

“I don’t remember any of this forest.” Batty said.

“There are just so many scents.” Zoey said. “I was sure we could find our way home.”

“Zoey, I’m scared.” Batty finally said.

“I know. So am I.” She replied back.

They continued to try to find their way back home. They walked for a while longer and then Batty heard in the distance a familiar voice calling his name.

“Wait! That’s Steve calling my name!” Batty said excitedly. “We need to follow his voice!”

Zoey and Batty had been walking in the wrong direction and when they heard Steve’s voice, they turned towards it and began to run. The closer to home they got the louder Steve’s voice became.

After about fifteen minutes of running, everything started to look familiar to them once again! Finally they heard, “Batty! Here boy! Come home!”

When Batty saw Steve at the opening of the forest, it was all he could do to jump into Steve’s arms! He was so relieved!

“There you are boy.” Steve said. “You must have been lost in the forest. You need to be careful out there.” He picked up Batty to carry him home. Steve then saw Zoey. “Zoey, you better get home, Matilda is looking for you too.”

Zoey let out a meow and ran to her farmhouse, where Matilda greeted her on her porch. “Zoey! There you are!” She exclaimed. Zoey ran inside her warm house where she had dinner waiting for her.

Steve carried Batty in his arms and snuggled with his face. Batty had really missed Steve. It had felt like he had been gone for days, when in reality it had only been a day. Batty snuggled back with Steve and they went into the farmhouse. “You had me worried there little man.” Steve said.

I was worried too. Thought Batty to himself. Steve had Batty’s supper waiting for him and a saucer of milk. Batty jumped from Steve’s arms and immediately ran over to his food and milk. Batty gobbled up his food and drank his milk, then walked over to Steve who was sitting on the sofa watching the box with voices and images.

Batty climbed up on Steve’s shoulders and curled himself around his neck, as he always does. The warmth of Steve and the familiar scent of him, made Batty feel relaxed and happy and soon he fell asleep.

It was just another day in the life of Batty.

Chapter 3 – Batty Saves the Day!

It had been a year since Steve had found Batty in the park and brought him home, that one fateful day. Batty and Steve had grown very close to one another. Batty wasn’t a kitten anymore, but he was still small. But, in Batty’s eyes, he was this big lion, or so Batty liked to imagine he was.

Which is why Batty seemed to get into fights at times with the other male cats around, who were much bigger than he was. He had just got into a scuffle with the local tomcat, Rufus, who lived down the road and Batty had some scratches on his face.

Rufus was a big tomcat, who was twice Batty’s size and Rufus liked Zoey. But, Zoey didn’t like Rufus. She thought he was mean and rude and didn’t like how he picked on Batty and teased him on how small he was. Rufus was always trying to impress Zoey though and he decided to pick a fight with Batty that day.

Zoey and Batty were laying lazily in front of their favorite tree, when Rufus came up to them. Rufus began to hiss at Batty. “Oh Rufus, stop showing off.” Zoey said angrily to Rufus.

“Why do you hang out with that small little runt, when you can have a big tomcat like me to protect you?” Rufus said in his cocky voice.

“Because Batty is sweet and fun.” Zoey replied.

“Even his name is funny and dumb.” Rufus was taunting Batty now.

“Rufus, you are rude and obnoxious and I don’t like you. I remember when Nyko was around, you wouldn’t dare come into this yard without him chasing you off. He didn’t like you and I don’t like you either, so go away.” Zoey said.

By this time, Batty was getting very upset with Rufus and how he was bothering and interrupting he and Zoey’s quiet day together. Batty decided to get up and do something about it.

Batty puffed himself up to make himself look bigger and he began to hiss and growl at Rufus, to let him know he meant business. Rufus then puffed himself up as well and also began to growl and hiss. Zoey didn’t like this behavior and decided to walk onto her porch. She didn’t like seeing two cats fight, especially her best friend Batty.

Batty lunged at Rufus to show him that he wasn’t afraid of him and then Rufus attacked back. Soon a fight broke out between them. Batty was scratched up on his face and behind his ear, but got a couple of good shots on Rufus too.

Matilda had heard the two cats fighting and thought it was Zoey, so she went outside and saw Zoey on the porch and Rufus and Batty circling each other and getting ready to attack each other once again. “Rufus! Get out of here before I get the hose on you!” Rufus didn’t listen, so Matilda turned the hose on and began to spray him with it. Batty also got wet too.

Rufus ran back home. Batty was so startled by the water that he took off running into the forest. He didn’t know if Rufus was behind him or if he was being chased by the water hose that Matilda had in her hand. Batty just ran and ran until he was sure no one was chasing him.

He stopped and looked back and he was deep into the forest, alone with no one chasing him. He had never been in the forest alone before. He had always gone with Zoey and wasn’t afraid when he was with her. He decided to explore and not go back home for fear that Rufus might be there to attack him again.

Batty came up to the creek and drank some water and dipped his paw into the water and began to clean his cuts and scratches up. “Stupid Rufus.” Batty thought to himself. “He always thinks he is better than me.”

Once Batty was done cleaning himself up, he decided to walk to the meadow to lay out in the sun and dry off and catch a nap. This time he remembered which way to go to get back home. There was a big oak tree that he needed to pass and then walk straight and he would arrive home. He had been in the forest enough times now to remember that.

He found a nice warm spot to lay down in and dry off and take a little nap. He slept for about an hour and then he heard the sound of crying. He wasn’t sure where it was coming from, so he got up. It sounded like a human crying.

He followed the sound and went back into the forest. When he got closer, he saw that it was a little boy crying. He was by himself. He must be lost and scared, Batty thought to himself. He got up closer to the little boy.

The little boy stopped crying and saw Batty. “Kitty.” Said the little boy. He bent over and petted Batty. “Kitty has owes.” He was pointing to Batty’s scratches. The little boy was about four or five years old.

Once the little boy started petting Batty, he stopped crying. A butterfly was fluttering by them and Batty began to chase it. The little boy thought this was funny and began to laugh as he watched Batty play. “Kitty play with butterfly.” The little boy said as he giggled and clapped his hands.

Batty saw that the little boy liked watching him play. So, Batty continued to run in circles chasing the butterfly until it flew away. Batty could tell that the little boy was hungry. So, he walked him over to an apple tree, where there were lots of apples. The tree wasn’t very tall, so Batty jumped up as high as he could go and reached out his paws and knocked an apple from the tree.

Batty could jump high because he was so small and light. He was proud of himself that he was able to knock the apple off the tree. The little boy said, “Yummy apple.” And walked over to the apple and picked it up and began to eat it. Batty jumped up and knocked another one off the tree. The little boy ended up eating three apples that Batty had knocked off the tree.

Batty had worn himself out, so he lay down under the apple tree to take a break. The little boy sat down next to him and began to pet Batty once again. He was feeling better now that he had eaten some apples.

Batty liked feeling the little boy’s hand on his fur petting him. It was a lot different than when Steve’s big hands pet him. The little boy must have been tired, because soon he laid on the grass next to Batty and fell asleep. Batty had already taken a nap, but he could sure use another one. So, he curled up with the little boy and soon he was asleep too.

Night was beginning to fall and Batty woke up. He began to nudge the sleeping little boy with his head and he woke up too. The little boy soon began to cry again. He missed his mommy and daddy and was hungry and thirsty. Batty got up and so did the boy. Batty began walking towards his home and the little boy followed.

Hopefully Steve will know what to do, Batty thought to himself. Batty led the little boy through the forest. This time, Batty knew where he was going. They passed the oak tree and they passed the creek and kept on walking.

Soon, they were approaching Batty’s farmhouse and the little boy was still following Batty. Batty ran up on his porch and began to meow loudly to Steve. Luckily, Steve was home and heard Batty and was worried about him. Matilda had told him about his scuffle with Rufus earlier.

“Batty! Are you alright?” Steve asked him. Then Steve saw the little boy. The little boy was dirty from being in the forest all day. His face was tear stained. “And who is this?” Steve walked out of the farmhouse and over to the little frightened boy.

“Timmy!” The little boy said out loud. “My name is Timmy!”

“Well, hello Timmy, where is your mommy?” Steve asked him.

The little boy began to cry and soon Steve realized that he must be lost. Steve took the little boy’s hand and led him into the farmhouse where he got the little boy some water and made him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The little boy began to gobble up the sandwich and drink the water really fast. Steve figured the little boy was very thirsty and hungry.

Since he was with Batty, he thought that maybe the little boy had been lost in the forest and that his parents were more than likely looking for him. As Timmy ate another sandwich and drank some more water, Steve called the police and told them about the little boy.

Soon, the police arrived with Timmy’s parents!

They ran over to him as they entered the farmhouse. “Oh Timmy! We had been so worried about you!” His mommy said. “I was hanging clothes outside and Timmy was playing and then he had disappeared. We live about three miles away on the other side of the forest. He must have wandered into the forest and got lost.”

Just then Batty came up to Timmy’s mommy and began to meow. “Mommy, the kitty played with a butterfly and gave me apples to eat. We sleep under the apple tree.” He began to tell his mom. Everyone was listening to his story and everyone soon realized that Batty had saved this little boy’s life!

“Well, I do believe we have a hero in our presence.” The police officer said, looking at Batty. He then bent over and scratched Batty behind the ears.

Soon, everyone’s attention was on Batty and he was loving it! Everyone wanted to pet Batty and tell him what a good boy he was for saving Timmy’s life and bringing him back to his mommy and daddy.

Soon, news got out that a little black cat named Batty had saved a little boy’s life who was lost in the forest and a couple of reporters came over and took photos of Batty and Batty was on the cover of the newspaper and the headline read, “Little Black Cat Saves Little Boy’s Life!” And underneath was Batty’s photo!

The next day, Zoey didn’t know what had happened, but the newspaper was on her front porch. She looked at the newspaper and saw that her best friend Batty’s picture was on the cover. She couldn’t read, so she didn’t know why her best friend would be on the cover of a newspaper.

She walked over to Batty’s yard and waited for him to come out. Soon the front door opened and Batty came bouncing out of the farmhouse and up to Zoey.

“Batty, why is your photo on the cover of the newspaper?” She asked excitedly.

Batty started walking over to their favorite tree and began to tell Zoey all about his adventures from the day before. He told her about the apple tree and how he had led the little boy back to the farmhouse and how the police were there with his mommy and daddy and how people were taking his photo and all the excitement. But, the best thing, he told Zoey, was that Steve told him that he was proud of him and that he was the best cat around. Then Steve had given him a can of tuna, some milk and his favorite… frozen vanilla yogurt!

Zoey was very impressed with her best friend. “Wow Batty! You had quite a day!” She said. “And to think, all I did was sleep on the porch all day.” She giggled.

After Batty had updated Zoey on his day before, Rufus came walking up to them. “What do you want Rufus?” Zoey said with a scowl on her face.

“Looks like the little runt saved a boy’s life.” He said with his cocky toned voice.

“He’s more of a hero than you can ever hope to be.” Zoey said.

Rufus growled and hissed at Batty, trying to start a fight as always with Batty. Usually Batty would take his bait and engage in a fight with Rufus. But, today was different. Today Batty was a hero and he soon realized that fighting with Rufus wouldn’t solve anything.

“Rufus, I don’t have time for you anymore.” Batty said, without getting up. “Why don’t you go chase a bug and leave being a hero to me.”

Zoey began to giggle. Rufus didn’t like how Batty was talking to him. He began to puff up his fur and hiss and growl at Batty, egging Batty on for a fight.

Just then, Matilda came out of the house and saw Rufus instigating a fight with Batty. “Go on Rufus! Get out of here!” She yelled as she went for the hose. Rufus knew what she was going to do next, so he took off running back home. “Dumb old cat needs to learn to leave you two alone.” Matilda said to Zoey and Batty.

She then looked down and saw the newspaper on her porch and Batty’s photo. She picked up the paper and began to read about Batty’s heroism. She was sitting on the porch reading the newspaper and didn’t see Rufus coming back up the road.

Rufus was angry that he wasn’t able to fight Batty and he was even angrier that Zoey and Batty had talked to him the way they did. He wanted revenge!

He walked over to Batty and puffed himself up once again and began to hiss and growl. Matilda heard him and stood up and was yelling at him as she walked towards him. “Rufus, leave Batty alone. He’s a hero! Something you will never be. Now go on and get out of here! Don’t make me have to take the hose to you again!”

Before Rufus left, Zoey said to him, “You know, she’s right Rufus, Batty is a hero and that’s something you will never be. So, get out of here and don’t’ come back, Batty has better things to do than to fight with you anymore.”

Rufus let out one more hiss and growl and then he felt a jet of water from the hose all over him. Matilda had hosed him with water! “I warned you Rufus!” Matilda said.

Rufus was soaking wet and took off. But he was still close enough to hear Batty and Zoey laughing at him. “Life just keeps getting better!” Batty said.

“It sure does!” Zoey said. “And with you, Batty, it will just get better!”

Batty learned that no matter how small you are, you can always make a contribution to the world, as long as you have a good heart.