Cat With A Passport

By Maneesha P Lassiter

Cat with a Passport, by Maneesha Lassiter, follows the adventurous journey of Coco, an inquisitive and intuitive orange tabby cat. After separation from her mother, she has a brief stay at an adoption center where she learns resourceful tactics from a Persian cat named S

• Language: English
• Publisher: MPL Publishing
• Release date: Apr 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9789334041293

Book preview

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This is a work of fiction written by the author.

CAT WITH A PASSPORT. Copyright © 2024 by Maneesha Pawar Lassiter

All rights reserved.

Cover illustration by Christine H. Gottberg

ISBN 9789359674605

Published by MPL Publishing 2024

Contents

Gratitude & Dedication

Unclaimed Baggage

The Forbidden Tunnel

Passport Research

Stranger in a Shelter

Shelter

Adoption

An Encounter with Rosy

My Name

Haunted House Adventure

My Own Apartment

Passport Delivery

Gemstone Delivery

Curry Soup

Shoes Don’t Lie

The Storm

An Act of Disappearing

This Beautiful Dream

Author’s Note

Author’s Diary, India 2023

About the Author

Gratitude & Dedication

This story is dedicated to my late grandmother Meera V. Sathe. I also dedicate this story to my parents Kavi and Madhuri Pawar, Aunt Anjali Ravi, sister Damini Goel and niece Twisha Goel who all currently live in India.

I’m grateful to my sister Damini and her husband Tarun, for offering their quiet and spacious flat in Bengaluru for me to finish this book. It was the perfectly conducive spot for early morning writing and reflection on home and family.

I deeply thank my art teachers Tracie Fracasso from Raleigh and Vinod Kumar from Bengaluru for their encouragement and for their invaluable input for design and layout ideas to brainstorm for the cover illustrations for my book.

I appreciate the students at Conn Magnet Elementary school who listened to the first chapter attentively and gave me important feedback that I was missing in the story which helped me develop my characters even more strongly. The quality of instructional education shared in the class from my peers and the syllabus in school during EL time was the perfect platform for my creativity to flow.

Lastly, I thank Coco, my dear orange tabby cat and my dear husband Rick who has been my strongest support in every way to listen to the story repetitively, to offer feedback, and to help edit and research steps involved in how to make this dream of publishing my first book come true.

1

Unclaimed Baggage

Hi! My name is Coco.

I am an orange tabby cat, three months old, with amber-colored eyes and a fluffy white chest as soft as goose down. My cat mother gave birth to me in a shoebox in the unclaimed baggage section next to the airport terminal. I share my shoebox home with my mother and cat brother, Simba. We have the same mother and were born on the same day, but my brother and I are very different from each other; I am complex, he is simple. He’s almost three times my size and keeps to himself, while I love making new friends. I have an M on my forehead, whereas he has a W. We are the Orange Tabby cat family, and our address is Unclaimed Baggage Section, Raleigh-Durham International Airport, USA.

Each time a baggage that is not claimed arrives we get excited to explore its smell, size and texture. We are always curious to know what’s inside. First, we investigate. Second, we climb on it and scratch it. And third, we play chase. We do this repeatedly and never get tired.

If we are not playing hide and seek around and between so many bags, we are most likely napping or studying. Instead of sending us to the local cat school my mother has decided to teach us everything herself. She shows us how to tidy ourselves, sharpen our claws and how to be independent. She protects us with her fierce fangs and hisses at people when they come too close to us. I try to hiss but, so far, nothing happens. Our current home-school study topic is ‘How to catch a fly for small meals’.

First, we pretend not to see the fly. Second, we become still as a fly. And third, we attack!

If Simba and I have had a good day, we cuddle up and lay in our mother’s lap while she gives us a belly rub. We joke about flying to Egypt, Spain, France, Italy and India for a vacation. My mother tells us fascinating stories about the rich cultural heritage of all these countries.

Simba asks in a flat tone, Mom, are these places real or are you just making them up?

While looking for fleas, Mom combs Simba gently with her paws and purrs softly into Simba’s ears, Yes, these places are real.

If these places are real, how are they different from our home, asks Simba.

Mom looks at Simba and explains, Each land has its own unique and precious way of enjoying life. They all have different landscapes, weather, language, fashion styles, and cuisines. Each culture has its own famous foods that taste and smell amazing, and even the air smells special.

Food??? Yum!!! Simba immediately thinks about various kinds of cat food. His mouth begins to water.

Unique and precious, I imitate mom and repeat these words a few times and immediately submerge myself into a dreamlike state. I ask Mom another question. "Ummmmmm Mom, I want to know more about India, I want to know about all these unique and precious places. We are so close to the airport; can