Cat Tales

Michael Berman, UK

Michael Berman PhD works as a teacher, teacher trainer, and writer. Publications include The Power of Metaphor for Crown House, The Nature of Shamanism and the Shamanic Story for Cambridge Scholars Publishing, and Shamanic Journeys through the Caucasus for O-Books. Although Michael originally trained as a Core Shamanic Counsellor with the Scandinavian Centre for Shamanic Studies under Jonathan Horwitz, these days his focus is more on the academic side of shamanism, with a particular interest in the folktales with shamanic themes told by and collected from the peoples of the Caucasus. For more information please visit www.Thestoryteller.org.uk, e-mail: michaelberman@blueyonder.co.uk

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The lesson plan
Comments
Creatures of habit
The pat on the bottom

The lesson plan

Level: Upper Intermediate to Advanced

Target Audience: Adults

Language / Skills Focus: Listening & Speaking

Materials: Photocopies of the story / worksheet to hand out after the storytelling.

In class

Pre-listening: Find out from the person sitting next to you if they prefer cats or dogs as pets and the reasons for the choice they make. You could also find out if they know any pets who are just like their owners. And if so, in what way?

While-listening: Pause after “she came home from one of her daily outings (to put on her “starving to death” act for the next door neighbour and to earn a second breakfast for her Oscar-winning performance) to find …” and ask the learners to predict what.

Post-listening: Hand out the photocopies. Ask the learners to work through the activities under the story individually, and then to compare their answers in pairs or small groups.

Find words in the story which mean the same as: a. somehow sense / b. had a great deal in common / c. far from happy / d. refrained from openly showing her distaste / e. in a rather offhand manner / f. bribe her with tasty morsels of her favourite food / g. starving to death / h. horror of all horrors / i. ensconced / j. a substantial reward / k. cut all her ties with the past

Cat Idioms: 1-j / 2-m / 3-i / 4-o / 5-a / 6-c / 7-p / 8-q / 9-d / 10- e

The pat on the bottom: 1-d / 2- b / 3-a / 4-g / 5-e / 6-c / 7-f

Comments

How do you feel about having a regular daily routine or are you the kind of person who prefers more variety? What are the advantages / disadvantages of having pets as opposed to having children? Do you think having a pet is of any psychological benefit? If you could be born again as an animal, what would you like to be, and why? Select some well-known people who are currently in the news. Which animals do they remind you of, and why? – These are just some of the questions that you might like to discuss with the class after telling the story. And if there is time available, you could complete the lesson by handing out copies of the second tale, which takes the form of an ordering activity.

Creatures of habit

Micia Pusskins moved in to number sixty at the same time as the owner of the flat. He found her crying on his doorstep the first morning he woke up there and she had been with him ever since. Cats somehow sense who will look after them well and it seemed that she’d made a wise choice. After all, the two of them had a great deal in common – both being creatures of habit, who disliked any form of change to their well-established routines.

Every night, for example, Micia would wait until her master had settled down in bed, then jump up and deposit herself on his stomach to join him in his repose. And when, as he invariably did, as regularly as clockwork, he turned over on his side, she would then creep under the covers and snuggle up next to him.

However, one day the inevitable happened and Master found a new partner. As you can imagine, the new arrival was far from happy about the sleeping arrangements in the household. However, being unsure of her position so early in the relationship, she wisely refrained from openly showing her distaste. And she made an extra special effort when Master was at home to show affection for Micia as she quickly realised how important the cat was to him. But Micia treated her new Mistress in a rather offhand manner despite her attempts to bribe her with tasty morsels of her favourite food. She was no fool and somehow sensed that something was not quite right although she couldn’t quite put her paw on what it was.

Soon enough Micia’s intuition proved to be correct because she came home from one of her daily outings (to put on her “starving to death” act for the next door neighbour and to earn a second breakfast for her Oscar-winning performance) to find, horror of all horrors, a dog ensconced in her place.

And that was the last Master saw of Micia for despite the notices pinned on every lamp post in the neighbourhood offering a substantial reward for information about the missing cat, Micia Pusskins never returned.

The Master never forgave his lover, for letting himself be persuaded into accommodating her latest acquisition. And, soon afterwards, she moved out too. As to her reason for leaving, the unbearable predictability of his lifestyle. She was young and, quite naturally, was looking for more excitement, something she knew she could never have with him. As for the Pusskins, she never found out about this because she’d already cut all her ties with the past and forged a comfortable new existence for herself in a leafy suburb nearby. They were an elderly couple with no children and that suited her just fine.

Find words in the story which mean the same as:

1. seem to know intuitively
2. were very similar in character
3. not at all content
4. stopped herself from showing her true feelings
5. quite rudely
6. to win her over with delicious titbits
7. dying from lack of food
8. the worst possible scenario
9. firmly established
10. a considerable amount of money as an incentive
11. said goodbye to her old life

Match the idioms with their explanations. As you can see, there are more explanations than idioms so you will not need to use them all.

1. You haven’t got a cat in hell’s chance!
2. You look like something the cat’s dragged in!
3. Don’t let the cat out of the bag!
4. What’s up? Has the cat got your tongue?
5. Stop playing cat and mouse with me.
6. That put the cat among the pigeons!
7. There’s more than one way to skin a cat.
8. When the cat’s away, the mice will play.
9. You think you’re the cat’s whiskers!
10. I nearly had kittens when you told me!

1. Don’t play games with me!
2. Have you got a sore throat?
3. That’s caused a lot of trouble.
4. You act as if you’re someone special.
5. You gave me an awful shock.
6. That’s solved the problem.
7. You think your hair is silky smooth.
8. You’re certain of success.
9. Keep it a secret.
10. You’ve got no hope of success.
11. Make sure you tell everyone.
12. You made me ecstatically happy.
13. You look a real mess.
14. You look absolutely stunning.
15. Why don’t you say something?
16. There’s not only one solution to a problem.
17. People tend to act irresponsibly when there is nobody around to supervise them.

Here is another tale that involves a cat. However, this time the paragraphs are all mixed up, and to make sense of the story you need to re-order them:

The pat on the bottom

1. As for his wife, he would give her a pat on the bottom. It became a habit of his and she found it reassuring. It was his way of showing he cared and was at peace with the world. And when they argued, as they frequently did as he could be impossible to live with at times, it was that pat on the bottom she missed, more than anything else. It had become a way of life.
2. Every night, as regularly as clockwork, once the old boy had settled down into his sleeping position, the cat would jump up on to the bed for its daily ration of strokes. He would usually tire of the strokes before his master did and edge down the bed out of touching distance, which was when the old fellow usually drifted off to sleep.
3. He’d spent his last days attending to all the unfinished business - the mortgage, savings account and insurance policies, even the arrangements for his own funeral. In fact, he’d planned for everything, down to the very last detail, so settling his affairs took up little of her time – just the personal belongings to dispose of, and he’d even left instructions on where they should go.
4. He was a cold fish, who showed little sign of affection; hard on himself and hard on everyone else he had dealings with. He’d married late in life. She would often joke that he showed the cat more love than her and, in fact, she was probably right. After all, the cat would never answer him back and he knew that, unlike people, he could trust it.
5. He’d worried incessantly that she wouldn’t be able to cope when he was gone because he’d always seen to the paperwork. He’d never had much faith in her and he’d have been surprised if he could see her now and how well she was coping on her own. On second thoughts, perhaps he wouldn’t have liked it so much. Nothing to complain about or criticise her for!
6. Life continued much as it had done before, except for the pat on the bottom, and that’s what she missed the most. Sometimes she would wake up and imagine she’d felt his hand on her again, just to find it had been the cat tapping her with its paw – reminding her it was time for its breakfast.
7. Not much reward or recognition for all her efforts to keep him sweet and stop him from losing his temper. But then she didn’t ask for much and was more than content with what little she had. Unlike her former husband, he was reliable and she knew she could depend on him. And beneath his cold exterior, she knew he had a heart of gold. He was too old to change his ways and she’d grown to accept things the way they were. After all, you can’t have everything in life.

1 _____ 2 _____ 3 _____ 4 _____ 5 _____ 6 _____ 7 _____

Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the English for Secondary Teachers course at Pilgrims website.