Rainbow Village

by Chloe

One fine day in May, my friend and I were strolling through a field in Southern Ireland. We came to a ring of stones and wondered what they were. We had heard human stories that they were fairy rings and that those who walked within them were transported to the West to live with the fairies forever. Others had told us they were simply the remains of ring forts where the early Irish people lived. As we decided to explore the ring and find out for ourselves, little did we know what we would find! We stepped through the stones and it seemed that time slowed and our steps slowed with it, our paws seemed as if we were moving through glue. The atmosphere shimmered and waved before our eyes and gradually changed...suddenly we saw before us a city, a great city with lovely buildings surrounded by ramps and catwalks and many tall trees. We had never seen such a city before! There were lovely gardens full of catnip, and such an aroma..we were fairly drunk with it. The gardens surrounded ponds full of all types of fish and most peculiar of all, there were no humans! No! The city was peopled (if you'll excuse the expression) with cats! All sizes, shapes and breeds of cats! There were Siamese and Persian, Manx and tabby, Burmese and Russian Blues...all sorts of cats. And what's more they were all young and playful...we thought perhaps we were dreaming. But no, we had not gone very far into the city when we were approached by a magnificent Calico, the only older cat we had seen. Her eyes were green and full of wisdom, compassion and love. "Welcome," she said, "My name is Sidhe, and I am the leader here. How did you come to us? We get few visitors." We explained about the ring of stones and how the air shimmered and waved. "Ah," she replied, "You have discovered our secret, the true meaning of the fairy rings. Humans think that they are the doors to the West, but, in reality, they lead here to Rainbow Village. Here kitties who have never been born and known life in the real world come, here they are cared for and cherished, and never know hunger and want." Sidhe told us that we may not stay as we had a home and wonderful humans who cared for us in the real world, but we were welcome to visit awhile. She took us for a tour of the city, inside the many structures of the city there were toys galore, catwalks and ramps, and lots of stairs for kitties to run up and down. There were many, many windows for kitties to look out of if they wished to stay inside with shelfs and hammocks on which to take their ease. There were food bowls and water bowls that never emptied and stalks of dried catnip for those who wished it. All in all it was a land kities dream of, full of everything a kitty would want. At the end of our visit,Sidhe took us to a special place...she said, "Take that path, it will return you to your own world." The path was long and lined with a tall, ivied fence...we began our journey. Before we'd gone many miles, again the air shimmered and our steps slowed and suddenly we were back in our world and outside the ring of stones. Humans may think they know about fairy rings, but only we know the truth.