MR Noah and the Cats

When Mr Noah has a meal of tabbouleh and goat’s cheese late one night, his wife blames his poor night’s sleep on indigestion. Mr Noah says that it wasn’t indigestion, but a message from God. God has told Mr Noah that He is going to flood the earth, as a punishment for all of the wild parties that the city-dwellers have. Mr Noah must build an Ark to house every kind of animal on earth, one male and one female. After grumbling a bit about how drastic it all seems and the amount of kitty litter they’ll need for the lions, Mrs Noah finally agrees and starts making curtains and cushions for the voyage.

Meanwhile, Mr Noah is mustering the animals in the nearby desert for the journey. A couple of desert cats, Urshanabi, and his wife Nisaba, are taking respite from the heat of the sand on a convenient camel. The problem for them is that they are exactly the same shade of orangey brown as the camels they are resting on, and Mr Noah can’t see them. As the camels go onto the Ark, the cats are carried in unnoticed on their backs. How will the desert cats fare as stowaways on the Ark?

This humorous and charming adaptation of the story of Noah, told with the animals’ point-of-view included, will undoubtedly appeal to younger readers. Also of interest is the story’s explanation of the origin of the cat taken from an old Mohammedan legend that describes the first cat appearing on the Ark when the lion sneezes.

Ages 6-9.