How to bring a cat into the open... waters?

Fairy-tale
with a magical reminder

Once the little Koshka was very thirsty. So he rushed to the kitchen and opened the tap. But there was just one tiny drop of water in it.- If only I could become so small as to satisfy thirst with just one drop! - Koshka was saying dreamingly.

And suddenly a fairy appeared right in front of him. Well, not a fairy but a Cat-fairy.



The Cat-fairy said that Koshka has four wishes. And the first of them will come true right now: Koshka will became very small. Suddenly Koshka started shrinking and appeared right next to the drop of water. But it appeared that there’s so much rubbish swimming in this drop! Koshka was especially scared when something winked to him from the centre of the drop.



I can’t drink such water! - thought Koshka. - If only I could get to the sea right now: it is so clean. If only I could become a sea cat, so that there would be a whole ocean of water around me and I could drink it at any moment!
Cat-fairy appeared once again and said that the second wish will come true in a second. So Koshka dived into the warm water. The ocean was all around him.



But Koshka was not scared: he learnt how to swim last year at a swimming pool. Besides, now he had a beautiful rudder instead of a furry tail. But when Koshka - still very thirsty - tried to lick the water... and even coughed, as the water was very salty and bitter!
Noo, -thought Koshka, - I don’t want to be a fish! How can clean water be so salty? If only I could be somewhere, where there is a lot of clear ice and snow! (Actually, Koshka liked ice-cream and frozen fruits a lot.) -This is your third wish, mewed the Cat-fairy. Koshka immediately felt very cold. Because the moment he was standing on top of an iceberg.



He didn’t feel like licking the ice. Koshka tried to curl up and warm up a bit but his fur - wet from the salty ocean - has frozen into icicles and Koshka felt that he himself was turning into an icicle. - If only I could get to some warm place with hot water...
- It’s simplicity itself, - said the Cat-fairy, - It is not far from here. It’s a stone’s throw away, so I won’t count it as a separate wish.



And the magic force took Koshka right to geysers - thermal springs - that were situated in the middle of the icy landscape. There was steam everywhere and it was even hotter than in a sauna (Father Cat once took Koshka there). At first the frozen paws felt warmth but soon they were almost burning. Besides, the air smelled like stink damp, as if a huge crowd of cats had terrible wind (sorry).



Cat-fairy! - desperately called Koshka! - My fondest dream and my wish is to be at home!!!
- Be it so, - said the Cat-fairy and disappeared quite magically.



The next moment Koshka appeared at home. He was more thirsty than ever. Suddenly the kitchen entered Father Cat. He turned on the tap and clear water started to pour out!
It appeared that there was no water in the tap, because Father Cat was installing a special filter for the water. But now the water in Koshka’s flat will always be clean and fresh!
And there’ll be plenty of water, almost like in the sea, but it won’t be bitter and salty. It will be cool, but not freezing. It won’t have rubbish swimming in it and certainly it won’t smell like hot thermal spring water!



"The water at home should be clean, even a kitten can understand that. And very soon it will be possible to make the water in the rivers and lakes clean as well... Only the sea water can still be salty, as the fish got used to it!" - Koshka told his neighbours and went to heat some more water for the tea.

P.S.
The cover



Reminder:
Filter clears water of different types of rubbish and unpleasant smell.

- The End (but for this fairy-tale only, the story is to be continued here) -