The Cat Who Went To Heaven

The Cat Who Went to Heaven is a wonderful book. It is written by Elizabeth Coatsworth. It is a short tale about a poor Japanese artist and his cat.

One day, the housekeeper of the artist goes out to the market to buy food. She returns home with a cat. The poor artist is not happy. Soon he realized that the cat is very good and they named her Good Fortune. Good Fortune is a gentle, loving, polite and well mannered cat.

Then one day, a priest from the temple comes to their house and tells the artist that he was chosen to paint a scene from the time when Lord Buddha died. The artist thinks and puts in animals after animals in his scroll of silk. He works on the painting for many days and the cat sits beside him watching him paint. He paints a picture of snail, swan, elephant, horse, monkey, bull, dog, tiger and deer. It is shown that the animals came to receive the blessings of Lord Buddha. He paints and with every picture, the Good Fortune becomes sadder because he was not painting a picture of a cat. The artist couldn't see his poor cat sad any more. So he finally, knowing that the cat only, of all animals, refused the teachings of Lord Buddha, painted a cat. 

Then, when the priest hears that the painting is finished, he comes to see it. But when the priest sees a cat in the painting, he is so angry; he decides to burn it publicly the next day. Overnight, a wonderful miracle happens.   Read the book if you wish to know!

There are some really wonderful illustrations in this book. Every animal the artist draws is illustrated separately and there is kind of small story every time an animal is drawn. 

 There is a really good illustration near the end of the book of the whole painting. 

Elizabeth Coatsworth is really good at poetry too. There is a poem at the end of each chapter and they are absolutely wonderful.

 Here is one poem:

'She’s sure to starve,
She won’t grow fat,
No dinner tempts
Our little cat!

All day I follow,
All day I cry,
“Come, pussy, come, pussy,”
As she goes by.

But she will starve,
She won’t grow fat,
It’s always that painting
She’s looking at.

All day I grieve
To hear her cry,
“Miaou, miaou,”
As I go by!'

So, go and enjoy the book!