Tails of the Black Cat Ranch: Volume One

By Joy Renee Williams

Have you ever had those yik-yak-yuk feelings of being lonely, abandoned, unloved and unwanted? If so, come and sit and let Teller tell you tail of Black Cat Ranch, one of the loveable, quirky resident cats. Meet young Annabelle and her seven black kitties that find themselves abandon and all alone in Prairie Country. Be encouraged by the journey of overcoming redemptive hope as they use the gifts that they have been given to help others find their way to BCR a place of healing and restoration. Enjoy listening to a tail that will uplift your heart, mind and spirit. Make new friends and join in the adventures.... the cats of BCR have been waiting for you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Mar 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098365080

Book preview

Keeper

Chapter One

Teller and Annabelle

Who am I? Fair question. My name is Teller. I am one of the black cats that resides at Black Cat Ranch. I am a teller of tails, not a tattletale, so please, do not get it confused. I record and tell all the tails of Black Cat Ranch or BCR as I like to refer to it. No event, no story, no human, no creature goes unnoticed at BCR without me making a record of it in the Book of Tails. As a teller, I have the responsibility of documenting the facts of a tail but also the joy of adding my catty purrsonality to it. It’s one of the perks of being a teller. I have my helpers, of course; it would be too much work for one cat to handle. You will learn a lot more about them later but back to me. I love three-letter words such as sun, cat, nap, sat, lap. BCR not a word per se but making up three-letter acronyms is a favorite game of mine. Sometimes I just cannot resist grouping letters together and into a song, they sort of burst out of me. It’s in my nature, an original scat cat you could say. But this tail is not all about me, no, not this one. This tail is mainly about Annabelle and how BCR was started. It is the most important tail that I know to tell. Bee-bop-a-bee-dee-do-dop, feel free to sing along.

From our cat-eye purrspective, Annabelle, a human child, was the sweetest of sweet, the kindest of kind, and the loveliest of lovely. Born into the cruelest of cruel and darkest of dark worlds. I have met many children in my life and have observed the behavior of children and what they become, when born into the world of extremes. There are the children that we cats refer to as TBs (tail benders) and are to be avoided as much as possible. TBs have been given all the love of their people, every need and every want has been granted, but remain the most unhappy, ungrateful children. The whisker pullers, the stick pokers, the let’s throw the kitty up in the air and see if it lands on its feet are all in the same family as the TBs. Then there are the children like Annabelle. I am not saying that Annabelle was by any means purrfect; she had her shortcomings and flaws like everyone. However, she was the type of child that was joyful and light despite the heaviness of poverty, peaceful amid angry words and violent actions, and compassionate when no mercy had been given to her. Choosing to love instead of hate. Annabelle was the first child of BCR and the most favored.

I wonder what kind of child are you? Curiosity and cats, you know that we go together, so don’t get puffed out by all my curious questions. What kind of teller would I be without them? When I ask what kind of child are you? you may think I am only referring to a human that has been in the world for a short time, young in years, but you would be wrong. I am referring to you. You, the one reading this tail, no matter what your human age is. You are all children to me, just some of you are taller than others and have more tails to tell. I would say that you are probably a combination, a little swirl of TBs and of love. I am also confident that you are the best type of child that will listen to my tail. So, naturally, I already like you. That’s a good thing; if you are not liked by a cat, well … let’s just say, you would never hear my tail … or see it. Ske-rip-a-pip-dip. The cats of BCR have already begun looking for you, and who knows, you might even make it into one of the BCR tails.

Oh hiss, you will have to keep me on track. One thing about us tellers is that we get to telling too many tails at once!

Back to Annabelle, let me tell you a bit more about her so you can get to know her better and we all can become friends. There is a book, and in it says, "The end of a thing is better than