Faraway Places

by Phelicity

There's an old song about "faraway places with strange-sounding names, far away over the sea, ... calling, calling to me." Would I go?

I used to like traveling, when my mom and I traveled all over Texas back in my show-cat days. The shows were exciting, and the motels were fun. But I don't want to go back to Texas.

I used to love it on top of a mountain in the Ozarks, too; watching the deep woods and all the little creatures. I'd like to see it again now, in the winter, all covered with snow and looking like a fairyland. But I don't yearn for the mountain the way my sisfur Mewsette does. I know you can't go home again. Home is where I am now. I'm happy wherever I am.

Would I go to a far away land? Yes. I'm a good traveler. I'd have to go on a flying carpet or in a mystic bubble, though, because I do not set my paws on Bare Ground.

There is one part of the world, one only, that I really want to see. It's too dangerous to go there, and I can only dream about it. I want to because I'm a Birman, with a mystical nature, and I know all about my breed's history. If it was possible, I would travel to old Burma, which is now called Myanmar. It's next to India on the map, and near Tibet, another land I'd want to visit while I was there. I want to see the Himalayas. I want to see the old temples of Burma and Rangoon, and the blue-eyed golden goddess in them. I've seen them in pictures.

The temples are mostly made of dried earth and shaped rather like pyramids, but some are larger with many spires that were inlaid with gold. The gold has probably all been stolen now. They are not as pretty as the pagodas in Tibet. But in one of those temples lived Sinh, the first Birman. All the Sacred Cats came from there originally. I am a Sacred Cat too, and it would be so exciting to visit the places of my ancient roots. The priests are still there, the ones who came after Sinh's priest, Mun-ha. But I don't know if any Sacred Cats are still there. I want to find out. I would look very hard for the ghost of Sinh, in hopes that I might find him.

That's the faraway place that's calling to me. Yes, I would go.