Friday a friend of mine in California posted her thoughts on Facebook. She has two young children, and wanted to shelter them from hearing the bad news that was coming out of Connecticut. I have no idea how to respond, but my girlfriend made a good suggestion. Take an extra moment today to appreciate the ones that you love.
And then I’d stumbled across my own answer on Sunday morning – a Kindle ebook for children with a much more comforting story. I discovered the true story of five little kittens who were trapped in a burning warehouse in Brooklyn – until their mother rushed in and saved them all, one by one. One reviewer on Amazon described it as “a powerful story that a young child can comprehend and enjoy.” She’d read the book to a four-year-old “whose eyes grew wider as the text progressed, yet she never showed fear, only that rapt attention of wanting to know how the story would end…”
The book received 16 five-star reviews on its web page at Amazon. (For a shortcut, point your web browser to tinyurl.com/HeroCatEbook .) But best of all, the ebook is on sale for only $1.00 if you live in one of the regions in 29 states where Amazon is offering their “Amazon Local” discounts. I discovered today that they’re using that service to offer a free “voucher” which lets you purchase 50 different ebooks for just one dollar apiece — including Hero Cat. And some of the other discounted ebooks are pretty interesting too. For another dollar, you can buy a collection of six Jane Austen novels — or a complete collection of every Sherlock Holmes story!
If you want a shortcut to all of the “Voucher” ebooks, just point your web browser to tinyurl.com/VoucherEbooks. But even without the discount, Hero Cat costs only $3.99 as a Kindle ebook. And I was touched just by reading some of the reviews. “There was one thing that was not covered…that was so touching,” wrote a woman in Alaska. The brave little cat “had many scars from her fiery rescue, but her new owner was reported to have sung the song ‘You Are So Beautiful’ to her, every day that she lived.”
I discovered that the “Hero Cat” — whose name was Scarlett — even has her own page on Wikipedia, which shares some even more touching details. “After saving the kittens she was seen to touch each of her kittens with her nose to ensure they were all there and alive…and then she collapsed unconscious.” But when news then spread of this stray cat’s motherly bravery, over 7,000 people offered to adopt her and her kittens.
Ultimately Scarlett the cat found a home with a woman who had her own story to tell. “As a result of losing her cat shortly after being injured in a traffic accident herself, she had become more compassionate and would take in only animals with special needs,” Wikipedia reports. The Kindle ebook turns the cat’s real-life adventure into “a wonderful story of Mother love and devotion,” according to the reviewer in Alaska — and she also enjoyed the book’s illustrations.
I thought it was a good way to remember a story where an entire family confronts an unexpected danger — and then safely passes through it all, thanks to the love and devotion of their mother. The best children’s books can teach us something about ourselves, like the fact that we all have more power than we think.
And it’s as good a way as any to take an extra moment to appreciate the ones that you love.