Taz the Tailless

     With four children, a dog and three cats, almost every day in the Eddy household had a different twist. On this morning, all the children--Taylor, Bethany, Nicholas, and Kaitlyn--gathered in the spare room of their house. Earlier, they hadn't been able to locate Miss Puss, Beth's cat, and had organized a search of the house. They finally found her in a cozy nest of fallen sweaters in the spare bedroom closet.

     To the delight of the children, one of Miss Puss' kittens had already been born and was busily nursing. As the children watched, two more were born. When the fourth was born a few minutes later, Taylor whispered, "That's a Manx cat because he has no tail. We should call him Taz the Tailless."

     It wasn't long before little tailless, last-born Taz became the favorite of everyone. He was playful and had the sweet expression, characteristic of his breed. It was a sunny summer, and he loved to play outside with Charlie, the dog; the other cats and kittens; and Beth. His siblings, not meaning any harm, sometimes teased him about not having a tail and hurt his feelings. They all had long tails that waved gracefully from side to side when they walked. He couldn't understand why he didn't have a beautiful tail like they did, and he was constantly looking behind himself to see if one had magically grown. When one winter had passed and he was still different, Taz felt it was too much to bear, and decided to go in search of a tail or at least to find others like himself.

     One spring day, when no one was looking, he crossed the dirt road in front of his house, picked a direction and began walking. It wasn't long before he could see a large house with a lot of buildings behind. Taz didn't know it, but he had found a farm. He walked toward the farmhouse and was surprised to hear a good-natured "Hello" to one side. He looked quickly in that direction and saw a black and white dog lounging in the sun. As the dog got up and limped toward him, Taz saw that he only had three legs. He didn't know what to make of this, since Charlie, at home, had four legs.

     "My name's George," drawled the dog, "what's yours?"

     The cat replied shyly, "I'm Taz. Why do you only have three legs?"

     "I was born that way", said George. "It makes me a little slow, but it doesn't stop me lying in the sun and chasing butterflies when I want to."

     With that, George ran in a lopsided way after a Monarch butterfly that had come to fly around his nose. After looking thoughtfully at his tailless back, Taz ran behind the house and went toward one of the other buildings. He heard an unfamiliar "Oink, oink" noise coming from the side of the structure and walked cautiously in that direction. He came to another building but noticed curiously that it had no roof. Looking through a crack in the boards, Taz saw a huge pink creature with a big nose lying in the shady corner. Several much smaller creatures of the same kind were running around and around, playing, and jumping on each other. One, that was significantly smaller than the others, saw him as it ran past and stopped.

     "Oink hi oink," it squeaked.

     "Hello," said Taz in a more-worldly voice. "Why are you so small?"

     "I was born the smallest of the litter—I'm the runt, but it doesn't stop me from playing and having fun," said the little fellow.

     With that, he ran toward a rolling pink mass of oinking heads and tails to join in. Taz smiled after the little piglet, then looked around for some grass to roll in. He saw a pasture to one side and headed in that direction. He had just found a sunny part that wasn't too long or too short when he heard a loud "Humph" behind him. Looking around, he saw a large animal that was black and white and a bit bigger than a dog. Taz knew it wasn't a dog because it had hooves instead of paws. The strange thing about this beast was that it had two heads and only one body.

     "He-llo," said Taz, a little hesitantly, not sure if he should make a run for it or not.

     "Hello," said one of the heads, "I'm Frick and this is Frack. They say we're the first two-headed calf born around here in twenty years. "

     "You mean there aren't any others like you here?" asked Taz in surprise.

     "Nope, and that means we get the best of everything and lots of attention too," replied Frack, running off to try the big block of salt being deposited in the corner of the pasture.

     Taz watched the calf happily meet up with his one-headed friends and share in their treat.

     Taz the Manx suddenly realized that being different isn't what mattered. It was being content and knowing you belonged that was important. He started running and ran until he was home. He was relieved to see his Beth, Charlie, and the other cats waiting at the kitchen door for him.

     "Where have you been, Tazie?" Beth said. "We're having a party for your first birthday."

     Taz looked at the single candle on the cupcake that had been made for him and was very happy to be home.