Once upon a time, in a city full of traffic, houses, and people in Northern India, there lived a curious cat. For the sake of this story, lets call her Curie. Though she had a perfectly acceptable name in Cat language.
She was a very likeable, furry, black and white, one year old kitty, just on the brink of her youth. She had just one annoying habit, Curiosity. Curiosity, in itself, is not bad. But in Curie's case, curiosity often got better of her and she nosed around in people's houses, kitchens and even refrigerators, if she could get her paws into one. If a door was open just a crack, she would open it and enter, prowling around in people's living rooms, hiding beneath the couches, beds and trying to figure out what all was happening in their homes. If she was fortunate enough to get into a kitchen, she licked the utensils and tasted all uncovered dishes. Milk was her all time favorite.
People in the neighbourhood were kind and put up with Curie most of the times. Only twice in her life had she been thown out of households. Once when she had upset a pot full of hot curry that Mr. Kumar had painstakingly cooked as a surprise for his wife. And another time when she had walked on baby Neha's mat with muddy paws.
One evening, Mr. Thomas was cleaning his car. He had to go out of station with his family and just wanted to make sure that he would not have a smelly car when he got back. This was a whole new opportunity for Curie. She had never seen a car from inside. She sneaked around the car and jumped inside when Mr. Thomas was not looking.
"Amazing!", she thought to herself in cat language when she saw the numerous levers and buttons on the dashboard. Sitting on the drivers seat, she tried to reach out to the big red button but her legs were too short. She shifted slightly towards the edge of the seat and tried again. She couldn't. She shifted a little more and leaned out towards the button. And down she fell to her utmost dismay. But as you know, a cat always lands on her feet, Curie was back up in no time and jumped on the seat once again.
She gave up on the red button and decided to explore other things. The big round wheel in front of the driver's seat was most interesting and, what more, Curie could also touch it. She ran her paws along the leathery surface and mused upon the smoothness of the cover. "Wow, just look at it shine." She said to herself (in cat language, ofcourse). The feel of the leather made her aware of the hunger pangs that she had been ignoring for quite some time now. She decided to conclude her explorations and go out in search of food.
Horror struck her when she looked around. She could not see any way through which she could go out. Mr. Thomas was no where to be seen. In her preocupation, she hadn't noticed when he had locked the car and had gone back into the house. Alarmed, she looked around for any small crack that she could pry open. There was one small hole in the floor of the car. She put her paw through it and tried to feel around if there was any way to open it further. But, unfortunately, there was none. She jumped up on the driver's seat again and looked out of the window. When the night came, she saw Mr. Thomas put his luggage in the boot of a taxi. She called out to him with all her might, but he did not hear. Curie saw him and his family board the taxi and drive away. And now she truly panicked.
With no way to get out of the car, Curie tried to put her paw through the hole again, but was unsuccessful. She tried jumping out of the windows again and again, but struck the glass and fell down each time. Exhausted, she fell off to sleep.
Thankfully, the night was cool. Curie woke up early wondering whether what happened earlier was just a nightmare. But, unfortunately, she found herself locked up inside the car. So she renewed her attempts to get out of the car. The day got brighter and hotter and the car started heating up. Curie now started fearing for her life and simply sat on the drivers seat saying "Help!", "Help!". Ofcourse, no one heard, because she was speaking in Cat language. Her voice grew feebler as the day wore on.
Mr. Thomas's neighbour, Dr. Sharma, thought she must be seeing things. She was walking down the stairs when she happened to look into Mr. Thomas's car.
"What is that?" she exclaimed. "There cannot be a cat sitting on the drivers seat in Mr. Thomas's car! How did the poor thing get in?"
Dr. Sharma knocked on Mr. Thomas's door. There was no response. She knocked harder and even called out "Mr. Thomas." "Mr. Thomas". But Mr. Thomas was in train travelling towards Chennai at that moment. Dr. Sharma knocked on Mrs. Banerjee's door. Thankfully she answered.
"Hello Mrs. Banerjee. Do you know where is Mr. Thomas? He isn't home."
"Oh! don't you know? Mr. Thomas's sister has had a baby and he is off to Chennai to see her", Mrs. Banerjee replied.
"Oh no! There is a cat trapped inside Mr. Thomas's car. She will die if we don't get her out now. It is getting hotter." Dr. Sharma said, alarmed.
"What?!! How can that be possible? Let me see."
Mrs. Banerjee went out and peered inside the car. And sure enough!. There was a cat sitting on the driver's seat.
"Don't worry Dr. Sharma. I have Mr. Thomas's house keys. Let me call him up and ask where he has kept the car keys. Lets hope he has left the keys home." said Mrs. Banerjee.
So Mrs. Banerjee called up Mr. Thomas and, thankfully, he had not taken the car keys along. Mrs. Banerjee and Dr. Sharma unlocked Mr. Thomas's house and got out the car keys. As soon as they opened the car door, Curie jumped out and ran away with her tail between her legs. Who says only Dogs do that!!
Curie learnt her lesson that day.
"I will never sneak into people's homes, kitchens, refrigerators, and cars ever. I will only go if invited. Thank God I was saved today. What a way to learn a lesson!!" she said to herself (In Cat language ;-) )