Fear and Fascination

By Mewsette

Minette was a small orange, black and white kitty, who lived way out in the country with her family. Her favorite human in the family was its only child, a little girl named Sherry.

In the Fall of the year, when the weather was cool and lovely, Minette and Sherry would play outside by the big red barn in the afternoons. A small Jersey cow lived in the barn. So did three white nanny goats and some assorted banty chickens. Sherry liked the animals, but Minette was not fond of any of them.

One day when it was windy outside, Minette and Sherry went into the barn to play. That's when they discovered that there was another creature living in that barn, too! There, in the corner crawling in a wispy web as big as a pillowcase, was a huge spider!

This was no ordinary spider for, splashed across the spider's black body, brilliant patches of metallic red and bright yellow were shining, and streaks of cobalt blue. The little girl gazed in fascination at the huge spider, for she had never seen any insect so brightly colored!

Minette saw the spider too, but it frightened her. She hissed and drew back, but the little girl stepped closer to the giant web. As if she was in a trance, Sherry raised her little hand toward the bright spider. Minette hissed again, but the child did not hear her. Minette felt a terrible, cold stab of fear that Sherry was going to touch the spider and get bitten!

There was only thing Minette could do when she saw that the little girl she loved was in danger, so she did it. Gathering herself quickly, she jumped up onto Sherry's shoulder, being careful to keep her claws in so she wouldn't scratch Sherry. The force of her landing on Sherry caused the child to fall down in the hay and knock over an empty bucket, which made a great clatter!

Minette meowed, Sherry blinked, and the fearsome spider scuttled into the shadows of the corner.

"Oh, my!", Sherry said breathlessly. "Oh, that big spider scared you, didn't it, Minette? Let's go and tell Daddy about it!"

All the way back to the house, Minette trembled and meowed. She had not been frightened for herself as much as she had been for Sherry. But she agreed that telling Daddy about the spider was a very good idea! Daddies are good at protecting children who may be fascinated by the wrong thing, she thought.

Minette was right.