Pavlov's Purr

Dribbler opens his eyes and yawns. Such a delicious sleep! He will have to do it again some time.

He stands up and stretches, making his back concave. Then he stretches again, and makes a convex curve. All appears to be in order, and working properly. He sits down and takes a quick inventory:

Four legs for walking; one at each corner. All securely attached.

Two ears for waggling.

Two eyes for watching.

One mouth for eating. And giving instructions. And issuing orders, in the manner of a dictator. Mrowr.

One nose for smelling things.

One attractive, all-in-one, hooded jumpsuit with stripes camouflage gear with integral mask and head covering

One tail for... One tail for...

One tail.

One belly full of food. Yes...

No. I must check my bowls.

Two fangs for piercing my prey.

One tongue for tasting my food. And washing. Yes.

One inexplicable, vibrating noise: No.

No?

!!!!!

* * *

Poor Dribbler! He searches amongst the sofa cushions. He peers under the bed. He shakes his head until his ears rattle. He rummages through his fur as though looking for passengers, but it is winter and he has not had fleas for months. And the inexplicable, vibrating noise is nowhere to be found. Dribbler isn’t sure what it looks like, only that he will know it when he finds it. He continues to search, poking around in dark corners and behind doors. He spends an inordinate amount of time looking under his tail. He even looks in and around his bowls, but there is no sign of the elusive purr. Not even a subdued crackle.

Dribbler is miserable without his purr. Formerly, it had seemed to well up from the depths of his being, entirely of its own volition. Only then would he know that things were going well, and to his advantage. And, when he felt things were going well and to his advantage, the sound would grow louder! It was all most wondrous strange.

How will he manage without the inexplicable vibrating device to tell him how he feels?

Dribbler wonders if he dropped it outside. He hopes not, because his territory is vast and it will take him many, many cat days to cover all of it. He is also worried that the Straggler, or someone of that ilk, will come along and try to appropriate it for themselves.

With a growing sense of unease, he begins to search outside. There are some interesting smells behind the dustbins, and it is difficult to drag himself away. But, alas, there is no inexplicable, vibrating device. He must put business before pleasure, and look elsewhere.

He noses around the top field, but he doesn't find it there. He commences to climb his favourite tree but quickly drops down to the ground, perplexed. Surely it is nearer the ground. Perhaps it is even hiding under a leaf. He looks and looks, but he cannot find it anywhere.

He wanders out onto the street and peers into the cracks between the paving stones.

At one stage, he thinks he finds it inside a fragment of half-eaten bacon sandwich lying, discarded, on the pavement. He swallows it down and for a second, he thinks he can feel it: The tiniest of vibrations behind his ribcage.

It must have been inside the sandwich! To tell the truth, he doesn't know the word for sandwich but he understands the concept of inside and outside well enough. In fact, Dribbler is so busy thinking about inside and outside, and the merits of each, that he forgets to keep tabs on the inexplicable, vibrating sensation. Sure enough, it has disappeared.

The more he searches, the more often he thinks he has found it when he hasn't. On several occasions he seems to find small traces: A rumble here, or a faint crackling over there. But when he pounces with a view to throttling it into submission, there is nothing there - just a handful of leaves, or the small skull of a dead animal, or a surprise cheese-drop under the sofa.

Where can it be?

When Dribbler spies Tallest striding towards him, he knows what to do. He will ask Tallest to help him look for it. Together they will find the mysterious vibrating device.

"Hullo, Dribbler", says Tallest, as Dribbler offers his chin to be scratched.

And there it is: A faint, thrumming sound which grows louder by the second. It seems to emanate from Dribbler's insides! Dribbler is astonished to find that he is vibrating all over.

"You put me in mind of an electric toothbrush", says Tall. "Minus the fresh, minty smell, of course."

Dribbler's response is a loud rumble. He has found his purr and he is happy. What is more, he knows that should it go missing again, Tallest will help him find it.

Found: One mysterious vibrating device.

~ The End ~

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