Muffy Mao, Midwife
This is actually non-fiction. I witnessed this myself. Written for middle grade readers.
A grey tabby cat wandered into the Marshalls’ yard one day. No collar, no tags, nothing to identify her—there was no one to return her to. She seemed to like it at the Marshalls’. They fed her and let her come and go as she pleased. Finally, they gave her a name: Muffy Mao.
A mom, a dad and two kids made up the Marshall household, together with a black Laborador retriever named Cassie. Cassie wanted to play with Muffy Mao, but Muffy gave her the cold shoulder. Muffy didn’t play with anybody in the household, she just came and went as it suited her.
Cassie started growing plump, and soon it became clear that she was going to be a mother for the first time. Puppies were on the way! Cassie tried to do everything she always did, running after the Marshall kids, but it wasn’t long before her belly was so big that she just couldn’t run and jump any more.
Mr. and Mrs. Marshall made a special, quiet place ready for Cassie to give birth in. It needed to be a little bit private, but big enough for the Marshalls to be there to help out if needed, and big enough for a bed for all the puppies when they came. How many would there be? Nobody knew, but they had soft towels and old blankets arranged to make Cassie and her pups comfortable.
It was a warm, mid-summer day when Cassie first started to feel the puppies were coming. But instead of going to her birthing room and lying down, she got scared and started to run. Up the stairs she went, and down the stairs again. She jumped up on Mr. and Mrs. Marshall’s bed. She couldn’t lie still. Finally, they got her to her birthing room, and before long, puppies were being born.
Muffy Mao had been going about her business until now, hunting in the tall grass and shrubs outside. But now, all of a sudden, Muffy appeared at Cassie’s side. Nobody knows how she know what was happening, or that she would be needed, but from that moment until several days later, Muffy Mao stayed right by Cassie and took care of her like a good midwife.
The first puppy was born, all black and white. Puppies and kittens are each born enclosed in a soft, clear sack that has protected them all the while they were growing in their mother’s body. But when they are born, they need a little help getting out of that soft, thin sack. Cassie didn’t know that she had to bite open the sack and lick that puppy all over to help the puppy’s lungs work for the first time. Cassie looked at the puppy as if she had no idea who this was or where it came from, much less what she should do with it! But Muffy Mao knew what to do, and she did it.
She broke open the sack and started licking that puppy. By the time she was done, and Puppy #1 was all set, here came Puppy #2.
Even with Muffy Mao’s example, Cassie still didn’t understand what she had to do. So Muffy licked off Puppy #2 for her as well, and then lay down with both puppies, encircling them with her body and continuing to lick and corral them.
Puppy #3 came, and finally Cassie was starting to get the idea. She started licking that puppy herself, and made sure it was breathing well. Over the next ten hours or so, ten puppies were born, and by the time the last one was born, Cassie was a pro. Muffy had taught her well. Some were solid black, like their mother, and some were black and white. But every one of those puppies was carefully watched over by midwife Muffy Mao.
Puppies have to be able to do more than breathe. Puppies have to eat! They get their milk from their mother, and they are born hungry. But at first, they are so young that they can’t move around very well. Mr. and Mrs. Marshall decided to help the puppies nurse. There was not room for ten puppies to nurse at once, so they decided that five puppies could nurse at a time. They started to move some puppies so they could nurse, but Muffy Mao was not happy with anybody touching them. She laid back her ears and let the Marshalls know that they would answer to her if anything happened to those puppies.
Finally, the Marshalls set up a separate box for Muffy Mao, and five puppies stayed with her at all times. The other five fed with their mother, and then returned to Muffy while the first five took their turn feeding. It was a very busy time, and Muffy Mao was always on guard. She did not allow anybody to touch her puppies without her permission. If one started to crawl away, or out of the box, she picked it up by the scruff of the neck and brought it back. She kept them clean and warm and dry—even though each puppy was about half as big as she was. She finally took a break for herself two days later.
Maybe Muffy Mao had given birth to kittens in her earlier life, before she joined the Marshall household. Maybe something about the scent of puppies brought out her mothering instincts. We will never know, but Cassie and her puppies have Muffy Mao, the stray cat who didn’t like dogs, to thank for their safe and happy birth.
A grey tabby cat wandered into the Marshalls’ yard one day. No collar, no tags, nothing to identify her—there was no one to return her to. She seemed to like it at the Marshalls’. They fed her and let her come and go as she pleased. Finally, they gave her a name: Muffy Mao.
A mom, a dad and two kids made up the Marshall household, together with a black Laborador retriever named Cassie. Cassie wanted to play with Muffy Mao, but Muffy gave her the cold shoulder. Muffy didn’t play with anybody in the household, she just came and went as it suited her.
Cassie started growing plump, and soon it became clear that she was going to be a mother for the first time. Puppies were on the way! Cassie tried to do everything she always did, running after the Marshall kids, but it wasn’t long before her belly was so big that she just couldn’t run and jump any more.
Mr. and Mrs. Marshall made a special, quiet place ready for Cassie to give birth in. It needed to be a little bit private, but big enough for the Marshalls to be there to help out if needed, and big enough for a bed for all the puppies when they came. How many would there be? Nobody knew, but they had soft towels and old blankets arranged to make Cassie and her pups comfortable.
It was a warm, mid-summer day when Cassie first started to feel the puppies were coming. But instead of going to her birthing room and lying down, she got scared and started to run. Up the stairs she went, and down the stairs again. She jumped up on Mr. and Mrs. Marshall’s bed. She couldn’t lie still. Finally, they got her to her birthing room, and before long, puppies were being born.
Muffy Mao had been going about her business until now, hunting in the tall grass and shrubs outside. But now, all of a sudden, Muffy appeared at Cassie’s side. Nobody knows how she know what was happening, or that she would be needed, but from that moment until several days later, Muffy Mao stayed right by Cassie and took care of her like a good midwife.
The first puppy was born, all black and white. Puppies and kittens are each born enclosed in a soft, clear sack that has protected them all the while they were growing in their mother’s body. But when they are born, they need a little help getting out of that soft, thin sack. Cassie didn’t know that she had to bite open the sack and lick that puppy all over to help the puppy’s lungs work for the first time. Cassie looked at the puppy as if she had no idea who this was or where it came from, much less what she should do with it! But Muffy Mao knew what to do, and she did it.
She broke open the sack and started licking that puppy. By the time she was done, and Puppy #1 was all set, here came Puppy #2.
Even with Muffy Mao’s example, Cassie still didn’t understand what she had to do. So Muffy licked off Puppy #2 for her as well, and then lay down with both puppies, encircling them with her body and continuing to lick and corral them.
Puppy #3 came, and finally Cassie was starting to get the idea. She started licking that puppy herself, and made sure it was breathing well. Over the next ten hours or so, ten puppies were born, and by the time the last one was born, Cassie was a pro. Muffy had taught her well. Some were solid black, like their mother, and some were black and white. But every one of those puppies was carefully watched over by midwife Muffy Mao.
Puppies have to be able to do more than breathe. Puppies have to eat! They get their milk from their mother, and they are born hungry. But at first, they are so young that they can’t move around very well. Mr. and Mrs. Marshall decided to help the puppies nurse. There was not room for ten puppies to nurse at once, so they decided that five puppies could nurse at a time. They started to move some puppies so they could nurse, but Muffy Mao was not happy with anybody touching them. She laid back her ears and let the Marshalls know that they would answer to her if anything happened to those puppies.
Finally, the Marshalls set up a separate box for Muffy Mao, and five puppies stayed with her at all times. The other five fed with their mother, and then returned to Muffy while the first five took their turn feeding. It was a very busy time, and Muffy Mao was always on guard. She did not allow anybody to touch her puppies without her permission. If one started to crawl away, or out of the box, she picked it up by the scruff of the neck and brought it back. She kept them clean and warm and dry—even though each puppy was about half as big as she was. She finally took a break for herself two days later.
Maybe Muffy Mao had given birth to kittens in her earlier life, before she joined the Marshall household. Maybe something about the scent of puppies brought out her mothering instincts. We will never know, but Cassie and her puppies have Muffy Mao, the stray cat who didn’t like dogs, to thank for their safe and happy birth.
Saving Benjamin
This is a middle-grade novel I am working on. It is based on the story of Joseph and his brothers from the book of Genesis. Here is the first chapter.
Part I
Memphis, Lower Kingdom, 35th year of Pharaoh Nebmaatre Amenhotep III (“The Magnificent”)
(1350 BCE)
Season of Peret (planting/growing)
Chapter 1: The Nightmare
Like a moth in clothing or a worm in wood,
Sorrow gnaws at the human heart.
Proverbs 25:20b
"NO!”
“REUBEN!"
Her father's shouts shredded Deena's fuzzy dreams to wisps.
Yanked awake, she lay in the cool, star-lit night, and listened. The running footsteps would come next, she knew: first the soldiers, Father's personal guards. Next, she would hear the servants, their bare feet slapping on the smooth stone floor on their way to help Mother. In a minute, thought Deena, both of my brothers will pile into my cot--as if I could save them from Father's nightmares.
Sure enough, there came the "thump-thump" of the guard; then "pad-pad-pad," came the barefoot servants, running from their quarters on the other side of the courtyard. They came nearer then went right on past the children's room. And suddenly there were two more in her bed, clinging to her in alarm. Manassas and Efraim were nine and six. They counted on Deena to comfort them, even though they had a nurse and so many servants she didn’t know all of their names. At eleven, Deena was a second mother to her younger brothers.
Nurse dragged herself off her mat by the door, and came to whisper to the three children huddled in a tangle of bedclothes.
Shh . . .” Nurse always said this, though as far as Deena could tell they were the only ones not making noise. "It's only your father," said Nurse. "It's only his dreams again. Everything is all right -- go back to sleep."
But to Deena's surprise, Ef started crying. "It's not all right!" he wailed. "It's not! Why does Amun do this to Father? Now we won't go duck hunting tomorrow, and Father promised!" Ef sniffled as Deena held him close. Nurse lit a lamp and went out to get them all a drink of water.
Ef was right, of course. Now all the fun they had been promised for tomorrow was impossible. Instead, Mother would stay home with Father all day, and try to control the gossip. She would deal with Father’s guards and Pharaoh’s doctors. She would send messages to this official and that, making lying excuses for Father’s absence. But the three of them would be banished for the whole day, and all the servants would walk on tiptoe, shushing them and sending them outside. Outside, they had only the courtyard to play in. They were not allowed outside the walls of the compound without soldiers to guard them, because their Father was too important: he was Grand Vizier to Pharaoh Amenhotep, and responsible for all of Lower Egypt.
Finally, the shouting stopped, but now came the worst: Deena could hear Father sobbing. She had never heard him weep before, and it was horrible. Mother's voice sounded smooth and liquid under all those awful sounds as she gave orders to the servants, and Deena could picture her pacing to and fro, looking cool and in control as always. Deena drank the water Nurse brought them from the water jar, and she shooed her brothers back to their own cots, but she did not close her eyes in sleep again that night.
The next day, Mana broke the silence after First Prayers. "What's wrong with Father?" he asked their mother at breakfast. "Father is fine, don't worry," said their mother, making a face that said, "Not in front of the servants!"
Mana pouted. Deena thought, Don’t even try, Mana. They'll never talk about it. Their parents would certainly not talk about it, and the servants had better not talk about it. They all looked especially intent on their work that morning. It seemed they didn't want to meet Mother's eye—or anybody else's. Everyone looked tired and drawn, and everyone knew why, and no one was going to speak of it.
"Are you and Father going to take us duck hunting today?" said Ef. "You promised you would." Was it being the second son that made him so reckless?
Their mother raised one eyebrow at her son. "It is not for you to remind me of my promises, Efraim. Your Father needs me today. That’s the end of it."
"I knew it!" muttered Ef. He scowled into his bowl of barley porridge and sniffled. Big brother Mana elbowed him.
"It’s your fault, Ef! It's your fault Father screams at night," Mana said. "It's because you make a mess of everything!"
"Stop it!” their mother snapped all at once. “Now eat your breakfast, and I don't want to hear another word from any of you!"
They ate in stony silence broken by the occasional sniffle. The servants tiptoed around them filling empty bowls and cups. Father did not appear. Deena tried to choke down her bread. Finally Bast, the weaver’s daughter, brought them all the hand-washing bowl and they were officially done with breakfast. Mother dismissed the servants, who filed silently away towards the outdoor kitchen in the courtyard. If they had dared, they would have looked glad to go. Deena wished she could leave, too.
Instead, she decided to relieve her own feelings as far as she could. “It’s not fair,” she said slowly and clearly, looking straight ahead and not at her mother.
"No, Deena, it is not fair. It is not fair to Father, or to you, or to me. But we can’t change it. And we WILL keep our dignity in front of the servants, and especially Pharaoh’s servants. You are the oldest, and you’ll have to make sure the younger ones don’t make a scene. Pharaoh’s physicians will come again, I’m sure of it, and it will be all I can do to make sure they don’t take a worrisome tale to Pharaoh. You will just have to stay out of the way for today.”
Deena blinked back a tear. Glancing up, she met her mother’s eye. There was no sympathy there.
"Now," said Mother, rising from the table, "I need to stay here and run things for your father, and tomorrow we will go duck hunting in the marshes by the river."
"I get to steer the boat!" said Ef.
"Oh, hush, Ef!" said Deena. "You'll get your turn. Just try to be good until then, will you?" Ef stuck his tongue out at Mana, who did his best to look superior and responsible.
A tall, impeccably-shaven man entered and cleared his throat to get Mother's attention. Deena saw Mother’s eyes relax as she turned towards him. Kha had come with Mother from her family home in Iunu, and was her most trusted servant and chief steward of the household.
"What is it, Kha?"
"Pharaoh's physicians have arrived, My Lady."
"Very well, Kha. Deena, you will accompany me. It is time you started to learn how to deal with Pharaoh’s servants. ”
Deena stood up at once and followed her mother.