Review - Week 9

Molokai, Hawaii

This week's image was taken from Sunday, March 27 daily announcement. The scenery and nature of this image really appealed to me.  I would like to get to visit Hawaii someday. 

Week 11 Reading Diary, Continued: King Arthur

Unit: Reading for Week 11 is King Arthur: Stories of Arthur along with tales of his knights and their quest for the Holy Grail.


Source: King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1902). 

Sir Galahad by Arthur Hughes

 Sir Galahad and the White Knight

•  I've noticed that in a lot of stories like this really convenient things happen.  Sir Galahad needs a shield and somebody give him one that only he can wear.

Sir Lancelot's Vision

•  I noticed that the Holy grail is spelled Graal in this story.  I wonder if this is just an older spelling.

The Adventure of Sir Percivale

•  "so that he fell dead to the earth, and Sir Percivale fell with him; then the Knight rode away."  I don't know why, but this part of the story stood out to me.  Named characters and knights don't fall as often in movies or modern stories, it's usually people like the 'red shirts.'

Sir Lancelot and the Five Hundred Knights

•  It is interesting that the other knight way able to fight so long that Sir Lancelot was to tired to even lift this arm.

Sir Gawaine and the Hermit

• I think it is interesting that Charity, fasting, and truth are lumped together.  I don't tend to think of fasting is a virtuous trait, (not that it is bad, just don't see why it is seen as something valuable).

The Adventure of Sir Bors

•  I think this story chose an interesting way for Sir Percivale and Sir Bors to meet up.  I know these are snippets of a larger stories, so it's something a little confusing to follow these mini tales.

Sir Galahad and the Mysterious Ship

•  I liked the line, "Thou man which shall enter this ship beware thou be in steadfast belief; if thou fail, I shall not help thee."  It's always interesting to see how characters react to scenarios like this.

Sir Lancelot and Sir Galahad

•  I think it is cool and interesting that Sir Lancelot finds Sir Percivale's sister, and that he finds her journal. 
• They chose to stay and live in the ship for half a year, an interesting choice.

Sir Galahad and the Graal

•  I'm a little surprised somebody managed to actually find the graal's location. 
• I also did not expect Galahad to die during this journey. 

The End of Arthur

•  This story I am familiar with, that Mordred and Arthur kill each other. 
• I like that Excalibur was returned to where it came from. 

Tech Tip: Quotemaker

Once again, I chose to do the Quotemaker tech tip challenge.  I want to share Terry Pratchett quotes with people, since he is a wonderful author. The hardest part of these tech tips is choosing which quote to post.

This week I chose to use Pinstamatic.com.  This quote maker offered less versatility than  PosterGen Quote Generator, but  it's much simpler to use.  It has templates to chose from, so everyone looks good.  The templates also make it faster to use. With PosterGen you can chose really cool combinations, but you can also chose combinations that look really bad.  Not all colors go well together. 

Generated using Pinstamatic.com

Tech Tip: Quotemaker

This week I chose to play with  PosterGen Quote Generator. This tool gave me a large variety of different fonts to play with.  I have decided to chose a quote that goes well with my quotes widget, which of course means it's from Terry Pratchett.  I definitely think I will chose this challenge again to experiment with more quote maker tools, and keep Terry Pratchett quotes as my theme for this class.

Learning Challenge: OU Mental Health - Week 9

This week for my learning challenge I focused on Health/Happiness.   I watched a few of Health and Happiness Videos.

Image From Youtube Video

There are points in everybody's life were things get hard.  Life is full of challenges and not everything goes right all the time.  Seeing some of these people's struggles makes me realize that no matter how bad things get, somebody always has it worth.

Cooper Lund on the weight of depression, ending mental illness stigma.
I feel for this person.  Sadness sucks, and depression sucks even worth.  I would just want to tell this person to hang in there, and it gets better. A remember seeing a whole campaign to fight depression and suicide thought called "It gets better."


OU Student on Mental Health: Ivey Dyson talking about Anxiety.
I definitely don't feel anxiety to the point Ivey does, so there is no true way to empathize.  I feel like comparing my daily anxiety to hers would cheapen what she has gone though.  I cannot understand or say I know what she's been through because it's not something I have experienced to this degree.  I am glad that she was comfortable enough to go publish with this and promote awareness for others so they know they are not alone.

Week 9 Storytelling : Forever Reaching

Pixabay - Day and Night

Forever Reaching

There was once a girl who lived in a small house with her four brothers.  The girl had golden hair and seemed to radiate light and happiness with each step she took.  Every day her brothers would go out and hunt while the girl would go out and gather fruits, nuts and berries.  In the evening they would all gather around their small table and eat a meal together as a family.  They lived happily this way for many years.

One day when the girl was out in the woods she saw a ladder leading straight up into the sky.  She stared up in wonder.  Curiosity overcame apprehension and she decided to climb up the ladder to see what wonders lay in the sky.  The girl climbed and climbed until she got to the top of the ladder. She looked around at the vast open sky before her.  Then she looked down and it was a beautiful sight.  Lost in the moment, the girl forgot to hold onto the ladder!

When the girl let go of the ladder, she drifted through the sky.  Although she could go anywhere she wanted to go in the sky, she was unable to get down or get back to the ladder.  A few years passed and the girl started to grow very lonely all alone in the sky.

One day, a pale young boy looked up and saw the radiant girl in the sky.  He fell in love with her instantly and vowed to find a way to reach her.  When he found a ladder leading up into the sky he did not hesitate.  At once he began to climb  When he reached the top of the ladder he leaped up into the sky.  He looked around hoping to catch a glimpse of the girl he loved.  He saw her on the opposite end of the sky, just as she was disappearing over the edge of the horizon. The boy decided that no distance was too far, and he immediately began to follow the girl.

At the same time, the girl spotted the boy at the edge of the sky.  From the direction she was facing, the boy seemed to be moving away from her.  The girl was delighted to see another person in the sky.  She longed for company and immediately started moving towards the boy.

The boy and the girl both perused each other, but what they failed to realize is that they were traveling in a circle.  No matter how far they travel, the boy and the girl will always be on opposite sides of the earth, forever pursuing but never reaching each other.

The radiant girl turned into the sun, and the pale boy turned into the moon.  To this very day you can look up in the sky and see them.  They are destined to chase each other across the sky until the end of time, forever lonely, forever reaching.

Author's Note
The original story tells a tale of a boy and a girl.  A boy falls in love with a girl. One day, the girl decides to climb a ladder leading into the sky.  The boy follows the girl but the girl is already floating away in the sky.  The girl becomes the sun and the boy becomes the moon.  The boy is always chasing the girl, but never catches her.
I really liked the imagery of this story.  The main difference between mine and the original, is that in my story the boy and the girl both chase each other.

Bibliography 
The Boy in the Moon is part of the Alaskan Legends unit. Story source: Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911).

Week 9 Reading Diary, Continued: Myths and Legends of Alaska

Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911).

Evening, Sky - Free illustrations on Pixabay

Origin of the Chilkat Blanket

• This story tells the reader that "In those days also, animals could take off their furry skins; then they looked just like people." This was a detail that I already figured out.  I think it should have been mentioned in the very first story in this unit instead of here.

The First Woman

•  I enjoyed the proof that the tale is true, as listed at the end of this story. 

Origin of the Winds

•  I like the idea of the sky being a wall that people can walk along. 
• The repetition in this story gives it an almost sing song feel.  It would be a good children's story.

The Land of the Dead

•  I like the variety of these stories. They all take place in the same world, but the different stories are very different.  For example, this one is a little bit darker.

The Ghost Land

•  The concept that eating food in the land of the dead will not let somebody return is a common one.  It makes me think what about this concept appeals to people?

The Lost Light

• Searching for light is a common theme among many of this units stories.  I assume this is because Alaska is far enough north that the length of nights and days is more extreme and changes.  I like stories that make me think about the culture around them. 

The Boy in the Moon

•  This is a very pretty story.  I think I might write a version where they both chase each other around the earth, and never reach each other.  I like this better than having only the boy chase the girl.

Cradle Song

•  Unlike the other stories, this one has the feel of a poem.  I think it really fits this type of story.

The Wolves and the Deer

•  The deer are afraid of wolves because of laughter.  The wolves have sharp teeth and the deer have flat teeth.

The Last of the Thunderbirds

•  I like the image that was chosen for this story.  Now when I see that totem I will be reminded of this story and the Thunderbird.

Origin of the Killer Whale Crest

•  To me this story seems a little odd.  Natsiane instructs the killer wales to kill his clan members, then afterwards never to kill again.

The Discontented Grass Plant

• This story reminds me of The Stonecutter from the African Stories from Lang's Fairy Books.

Tricks of the Fox

•  This story has an interesting ending.  Fox is always clever, across most stories.

Week 9 Reading Diary: Myths and Legends of Alaska

Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911).

Raven from Wikimedia Commons

The Raven Myth: Raven's Creation

• I like how in Native American creation myths everything comes from natures. 
• It is interesting that it is Raven who made the vine and Raven is the first person the man met. 
• Raven must be somebody significant in Alaska, I like the reason why the reindeer have white bellies. 

The Raven Myth: Raven Creates the People

• I like that raven does not just shape everything and then leave man alone, he stays with man and shows him how to live in the world. 

The Raven Myth: The Skyland and the Sea

• This story has a nice root in real life. Everything that the raven describes really exists in the real world. 

The Raven Myth: Raven-Boy and the Sun

• This story is a little sad. I did not expect the story to turn so dark. 
• The image of reindeer with sharp teach is an amusing on.

The Flood

• It is interesting to see that the native american stories have something in common with christian myth. Both of them have a giant flood. 

The Origin of the Tides

• I like these myth, they all have nice imagery with them. I like to imagine the man opening a closing a hole as the tide washes in and washes out. 

Raven's Feast

• This is an interesting story because it deals with the traditions of the Alaskan people. 

Raven's Marriage

• This story makes good use of a repeated phrase. In this case it is "Who will marry me? I am a very nice man." 

Raven and the Seals

• Raven ate them all during two nights. He ate all the seals in front of the house." Wow, that is a lot of seals 

Raven and Marmot

• It was amusing that Raven wants to prove that he is not a carrion-eater by eating something that is not carrion. That only proves that he does not only eat carrion, not that he doesn't eat carrion. 

The Bringing of the Light by Raven

• This story does a good job of making the reader curious. The reader does not have any more clue where the light is than the Raven does. I prefer this approach to stories rather than stories where things are obvious to the readers but not to the characters. 

The Naming of the Birds

• It was interesting to hear about the different birds. I like that the author included a large variety of birds. 

How Raven Stole the Lake

• It is interesting to hear how things have changed.  For example in this story, it is the fact that crows used to be white. 

Tech Tip: Add the Weather to Your Sidebar

This week I added a weather widget to the sidebar of my blog.  Knowing the weather is useful.  I tried to find one from weather.gov (a website by NOAA) but was unable to find one.  I chose to use the one recommended in the tech tip assignment.

Wikimedia Commons

Review - Week 8

This week I chose an image from Monday, March 7th blog post.

Punctuation Matters

I chose this image because I have seen this letter before.  I talked about this in late middle school or early high school.  I remember sitting in English class reading this. It is kinda neat to see, since all of the words are exactly the same .

Growth Mindset : Growth Mindset Memes - Make your own - Week 8

The author of this quote is unknown.  I chose to use automotivator in order to make this meme using this image from Pixabay.
Since Laura's growth mindset memes all have cats, I decided to stick with this theme.

Week 11 Reading Diary: King Arthur

Unit: Reading for Week 11 is King Arthur: Stories of Arthur along with tales of his knights and their quest for the Holy Grail.

Knights of the round table by Evrard d'Espinques

Source: King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1902).

The Drawing of the Sword

• I knew Arthur was the son of Uther, and I knew he pulled the sword out of the stone. I guess I never realized that the stone could only be pulled out by one with the right blood instead of by someone who would make a good king.

The Questing Beast

• This section talks about how Merlin would have failed if not his obedience to Merlin's orders. Obedience in an interesting choice of work to use here.
• This story has the first mention of Morgan Le Fay “your sister shall have a child who shall destroy you and all your knights.”
• Lots of foreshadowing at the end of this story. Merlin has many prophecies.

The Sword Excalibur

• Somebody asking for a favor at an unknown time is always an ominous things, many characters in stories blindly agree to a future favor.

The Round Table

• This is an interesting story. Not a whole lot happens but it ties many pieces of the large story together. It talks about how Arthur got the round table and how he came to marry Guenevere.
• Sections like these, which fill in the gaps, are important to a story.

The Passing of Merlin

• Merline falls in love with a women, nobody is safe from their own heart.
• Even when people know prophesies, know bad tings that will happen to them, they are unable to change the course of events. Sometimes by trying to change things, they actually trigger the events themselves. I've always found it interesting when a prophesy only comes to pass because people knew about the prophesy.
• Vivian in the name of the women who tricks Merlin.

King Arthur and Morgan le Fay

• Morgan hates Arthur because he killed a knight who she loved.
• Morgan Le Fay steels only the scabbard of Excalibur, which is what Merlin told Arthur was the valuable part.
• Morgan is a very powerful magician if she can turn herself and all her men into blocks of marble.
• Morgan tried to kill Arthur by giving him an enchanted mantle covered in jewels.

The Quest of the Holy Graal

• The knights of the round table neglected many of their other duties to pursue to holy grail.
• There are conflicting stories about what the grail is.

The King's Pilgrimage

• It is interesting that half of the time Arther is refereed to as the king. To me this is a little confusing, because there have been other kings, and there are other kings in other lands.
• This story is interesting, because it is unclear is part of this story is a dream.

The Coming of the Holy Graal

• An image of the holy grail presents itself to king Arthur and the knights of the round table.
• All 150 knights of the round table decide to quest for the holy grail.

Reading Plan

Native American Folklore - Little People

Here is my reading plan for the remaining readings in the class.

Week 9: Alaska - I have learned some about native American culture, but I know very little about Alaskan culture.  I am curious to see what these stories are like.  This tale was chosen based on the stories region.

Week 10: Myths of Cherokee - This story caught my eye because the description talks about origin stories of the moon, the stars and the sky. Part of what I liked about Greek mythology is that the physics of the word and how things works is all explained away by gods.  I am curious to see where the Cherokee think the world came from.

Week 11: King Arthur - I know we only had to plan for week 9 and 10, however since this story works well with my storybook I will go ahead and list it.  I may go and do the week 11 assignment over spring break for more inspiration for my storybook.

Other tales that look interesting to me include the following:

Celtic Tales
Faerie Queene
Hunt

Blog Ideas

This week I looked at other people's blogs to get some ideas for my own.  Here are the three blogs that I liked any what parts of them captures my attention.

Color Wheel

1. Mythology & Folklore - I chose this blog for the color theme.  Everything about this blog was slightly purple.  The background for the text was a very light purple, and then blog background was a purple image, and even the heading where purple.  This game the blog a very uniform theme.  It was not however distracting and the text was still easy to read.
2. Ali's Mythology and Folklore Blog -I chose this blog because I love the background images.  The birds on either side are symmetric.  The whole blog has a very soft and welcoming feeling.
3. Alexandra's Myths - This is one of the other blogs that uses widgets.  Alexandra added a weather widget to the side of her blog.  This is something that I plan to add to my blog in the future, maybe as this week's tech tip. 

Overall I think most of the blogs I've seen have nice designs.  The style of design does not matter a whole lot to me, since there are many acceptable choices.  My only complaint or comment to other people is that occasionally text will be really hard to read.  It doesn't matter how cool your blog looks, but if the text is not readable then nobody is going to want to stay at your blog.

Although I liked the blogs I sited above, they work well for a different person's personality.  I put thought and effort into the look of my blog initially, so there really isn't anything I want to change about it.  I will add a weather widget to the side and use that as one of my tech tips. 

Time Management

My goal for this class was to stay ahead so that I can finish early.  By doing at least 10 points of extra credit every week, I have managed to get 293 / 450 of my total points.  I plan to continue working at this pace.  If I do all of my assignments plus 10 points of extra credit the here is how many point I will have at the end of the following three weeks:
Week 8 : 333
Week 9 : 373
Week 10 : 413

My Schedule:

• Monday: Reading 1 - 1 hr
• Tuesday: Reading 2 - 1 hr
• Wednesday: Story Writing - 1 hr
• Friday:  Blog comments +  Extra credit blog comments + Project Feedback - 2 hr
• Sunday: Project + Learning challenge + tech tip + review - 3hr

I knew going into this class that my 2 graduate classes would take up a significant amount of my time.  I want to really be able to dedicate more of my attention to these classes for the last 5 weeks of school. My time management plan is to get done with this class first, since it is the most predictable, assignments are posted ahead of time, and I can make good estimates. It is much harder to estimate how long a programming project will take, which makes it more difficult to practice good time management skills.

Yesterday's Junk

Week 7 Review

This week's image was taken from Thursday, March 3rd blog post.

Claws and Clauses

I thought this image was cute, and I always appreciate a good pun. Turns out you can make a lot of different puns with grammar jokes.

Week 7 Storytelling : The Tanuki and the Fox

Tanuki - Wikimedia

The Tanuki and the Fox

Once upon a time there lived a Tanuki with his wife the fox.  They were called Tanuki and Fox, named after their primary forms.  Every morning they would go out into the wilderness and gather berries, nuts, and insects.  Sometimes they would get lucky a bring home a rodent they had killed.  Each evening they would return to their happy home and share the food with their son. 

Tanuki and Fox lived like this for many years, working hard all day to gather food, and returning to their son in the evening.  One year, there was a terrible drought.  Berries and nuts were very scarce that year. Any rodents they did catch were all scrawny, hardly any real meat on them to eat.  The rodents were suffering from the same food shortage that Tanuki and Fox were suffering from.

One day Tanuki had an idea.  There was a human village not to far from the couple's home.  The village was full of hunters who prized Tanuki and Fox furs above all others.  Tanuki told him wife that she should shape-shift into a human, and sell him in the market.  He would play dead and be sure not to move.  Tanuki would escape sometime after he was sold while Fox used the money to buy some food. 

The next day, Tanuki practiced his control, he let himself be moved around while staying perfectly limp. He slowed his breathing and relaxed all of his muscles.  He then let himself be slung over the shoulder of Fox, in her human form. 

When fox walked into the village, all kinds of eyes turned toward her, or rather towards her shoulder.  Tanukis were fairly rare and all the more prized because of it.  She went into the middle of town square and asked people what they were willing to pay.  Many people wanted a tanuki fur, so there were many offers and many bids.  The prices grew higher and higher until finally Fox sold Tanuki to a rich merchant.  She then proceeded to buy some food with the coin. 

Meanwhile, the rich merchant carried Tanuki to his home.  The merchant was quite excited with his buy, and he wanted to skin the animal right away.  He set Tanuki down on his workbench and went to fetch his tools.  Tanuki had expected to have some time alone where he could try to find an escape route.  He was dreadfully scarred. The merchant was gone less than a minute before he returned with his tools.  He reached out, planning to grab Tanuki by the tale but Tanuki leaped away. The merchant grew angry and chased after Tanuki, but the animal was too fast for him. Tanuki ran along the workbench jumped towards the window.  His clawn caught the window sill and the scurried free.

Tanuki met up with his wife that evening and told her what had happened.  Fox was horrified to hear what almost became of her husband.  They both agreed never to do such a thing again. Their lives were worth too much.  The food and money lasted the family until the next rain.  Once the rain started to fall again, food became more plentiful. Gathering food in the wilderness is much more work than buying food from a village, but the couple was happy to work rather than face the alternative.

Authors Note
This story is based off of a story called 'How the Wicked Tanuki was Punished.' In the original story the fox first sells the tanuki and the tanuki then sells the fox.  When it is the tanuki's turn to sell the fox, he tells the merchant that the fox is alive and so the merchant kills the fox right away.  His son then managed to get revenge on the tanuki by leading him to his death.  I did not like the ending to that story, so I wrote my own.  The beginning of the story is very similar, but in my version everybody survives. 

Bibliography 
How the Wicked Tanuki was Punished, from the The Crimson Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1903)

Learning Challenge: Reading: love it or hate it? - Week 7

Buch : German word for Book, Image taken in a German 'Book Cafe'

When I was in elementary school I hated reading. I only ever read what was assigned to me.  Audio books are what got me hooked onto stories.  I would check them out from the library and listen to them starting in late elementary school.  It was the Golden Compass from Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' story that really got me hooked.  There are still plenty of stories that I don't enjoy, but when I find the right book I really enjoy reading (reading stories or listening to them, I enjoy both).  During school it's hard to find the time, but I often read for about 30 minutes before I go to bed and it will help me relax before going to bed.

If I were a teacher, I would let students brainstorm a variety of topics they were interested in, and try to help them find books that matched these topics.  This way they would start to associate reading with things they love, instead of things they hate or are bored by. 

Week 7 Reading Diary, continued: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang)

This week's reading is from Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang). 
The Crimson Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1903)
The Violet Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1901)
The Pink Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1897)

Schippeitaro

• The line "Do not tell Schippeitaro! Keep it hidden and secret! Do not tell Schippeitaro!" adds an air of mystery to the story. 
• I did not expect Schippeitaro to be a dog.

The Crab and the Monkey

•  Even in the animal kingdom, it is good to make friends.  The monkey was able to get what he wanted by tricking people, but this did not give him any friends.  The other animals collectively turned against Monkey, who got what was coming to him. 

Tanuki Kettle - Flickr

The Magic Kettle

•  This story has been pretty weird so far and I wonder where it is going.  I have to look up what a Tanuki was because it's not an animal I was am familiar with. Turns out they are adorable. 
• It's interesting that the kettle can turn into a Tanuki whenever it wants to.  It's a shape shifting kettle.

How the Wicked Tanuki was Punished

• The fox and Tanuki came up with a very clever plan, and it would have been neat to see a story of the different ways in which they work together to keep tricking the villagers. The same ploy will not work over and over against. 
• Instead, the Tanuki betrayed the fox and the fox was killed.  This was an expected twist in the story, and it made me sad.   

The Slaying of the Tanuki

•  These Japanese stories are very dark, much darker than any fairy-tales that I few up with.  Bounding a women into file powder and feeding her to the husband, yikes!!
• One story idea for this is to write a story with a different plot and characters, but try to include some horrible twist in the story like the eating of the wife to shock the readers.

Uraschimataro and the Turtle

•  Uraschimataro's life is saved because he saved the turtle. 
• The underwater princess and palace was an interesting an unexpected part of the story. 
• This story makes me wonder how long he had stayed underwater. 
• The box contained the boys youth, which was interesting.

Week 7 Reading Diary: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang)

This week's reading is from Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang). 
The Crimson Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1903)
The Violet Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1901)
The Pink Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1897)

 The Two Frogs

•  It's amusing to think that both the frogs wanted the exact same thing at the same time. The two journeys are mirrors of each other, and when they decide to look at each others town, they are just the same as their own.  
• Making two parallel worlds with two of the same people who happen to meat each other could be a fun idea for a story.

  

  Two Frogs - Pixabay

  The Stonecutter

• I have heard many different version of this tale.  I had no idea it originated in Japan. 
• If I were to rewrite this story, I would use a theme of somebody being unhappy with their current state and always looking for more things to make them happy, but I don't think I would rewrite this story with a spirit.  Although that does make a good story, it was been done many times and I would like to explore a way to retell this story in a unique way.

The Maiden with the Wooden Helmet

•  I enjoyed this story because it is unlike any I have heard before. 
• Cultural aspects of  Japan are clearly present in this story.  The girl always listens to her parents and is dutiful to them, respecting their wishes even after they die.

The Envious Neighbor

•  This story was also very new to me.  I feel like a lot of the Japanese stories have morals them them.  In this case, the couple gets help from their dog, but people who are envious and just wish to use the dog for his gold get nothing. 

The Sparrow with the Slit Tongue

•  I really like this story.  The man shows such dedication and care to the sparrow. The man has a good heart, but a greedy mean wife.

The Cat's Elopement

• This is kind of an interesting tale, with cats as main characters and their owners as other side characters.