Week 6 Storytelling: Puss in Boots

Michael was the youngest of three sons. His parents were poor farmers in Oklahoma who barely managed to scrape by when they had good seasons. When they died, Michael and his brothers were forced to sell their farm to pay off their parents debt. The only thing he managed to keep was the old family barn cat. His brothers saw that there was nothing left for them in their hometown and decided to move on. Michael spent his days locked inside his trailer daydreaming and lamenting to his cat.

Michael's cat, from Bahrat International

One early Sunday morning, Michael heard his cat said to him "If you don't want to have any more worries, just get me a pair of scissors, a plastic bag, and a pair of boots". Michael knew the cat was smart but he was second guessing whether or not he was dreaming or had has cat actually spoken to him. A few days later, Michael was feeling bored and sad after an unsuccessful morning of job applications, so he decided to indulge his cats request. He fashioned up some boots and dug the scissors out from the junk drawer then placed them in front of his cat with the bag, who proceeded to do absolutely nothing.

That night, the cat stole out of the trailer with his new belongings, determined to find his owner a new job. The next morning when Michael woke up he was even more dejected than usual when he thought his cat had abandoned him. He still drove to town, somehow even more determined than usual to succeed in his daily grind despite all of his recent setbacks weighing on him.

His cat had arrived in town the night before and broken into the hardware store where he knew Michael would be applying the next morning. He was prepared to do whatever it would take. His new boots kept his feet from slipping while he climbed to the top of the managers filing cabinets to wait and hide. When Michael arrived he waited patiently as the manager interviewed another man for the stockroom position. Michael gave his usual spiel about how he had fallen on hard times after his parents death and was now looking for a new job. However, the manager was not impressed and Michael knew it. He went home after another long day of failure.


The cat laid hidden in the office all day while he waited for the manager to leave. He knew that the manager would call back the first man who interviewed that morning and offer him the job. So, using the scissors, he cut the first mans application into a thousand pieces. He carefully put the pieces in the bag so that there would be no evidence. He now knew that the manager would have no choice but to hire Micheal to fill the position. The cat then collected his bag and crept back out of the store. The next morning, Michael received the phone call he had been waiting weeks for. He was hired to start work the next day. He shared a glance of happiness with his cat, not knowing the bad things that his cat had done to help him.

Author's Note: For my story this week, I was inspired by Andrew Lang's collection of European Fairy Tales, specifically by Puss in Boots. I decided to keep most of the themes and motivations from the original story line for my telling. The main things I updated and changed for my story was to bring it into modern times and I hope make it more relevant to the struggles of us who are graduating soon. 

I decided to cut out the romance element of the story line, and have the cat help our hero simply find a job. The cat still does an objectively bad thing to help his owner in this version, the man whose resume he cut up was more qualified than Michael. I felt that this was an important element from the original. The owner of the cat is either innocent or ignorant in either version depending on the readers interpretation. The cat is definitely malicious though, even if he comes from a place of wanting to help his owner. I also decided to remove the cat actually speaking to anyone to preserve some element of realism, Michael is convinced that his boredom is getting to the better of him. Thanks for reading. 

European Fairy Tales by Andrew Lang