Image Credit: Pixabay
This story is dedicated to my father, Brandon Perry, because the cat stories I write are his favorites.
Every morning, I sit on the beach and smell salty ocean air through my tiny pink nose. I can feel the sand between my four little paws, and some of it gets caught in my whiskers as I feel a soft breeze. My name is Galileo, and I am a brown cat. Unlike most cats who live in a quiet house, I live at Salt Haven Beach in a lighthouse with my owner, August Hayes, the lighthouse keeper, and his wife, Delilah. August named me Galileo because I was gazing up at the starry night sky when he found me.
On a cool July night three years ago, August found me shivering underneath the lighthouse and decided to bring me inside. We have been the best of friends ever since. August is in his fifties, and he has dark brown hair, blue eyes, and a smile that always warms my heart whenever I see him. Delilah has blonde hair and brown eyes and always smells sweet, like the warm chocolate chip cookies she bakes for August every week.
One of my favorite things about living by the beach is that August and Delilah eat fish every night for dinner. August is an avid fisherman, so he constantly catches big fish for them to eat for dinner. My favorite type of fish is tuna, but I also love eating these red things called crabs and lobster. It’s too bad I don’t get to eat fresh seafood for dinner every night because otherwise, I would start looking a little plump like a whale. On nights that I’m not eating fish, I eat regular canned cat food of different flavors like chicken, tuna, whitefish, shrimp, or salmon, although I much would rather eat fresh seafood caught from the sea.
I think of the sand at the beach as one giant litterbox I can dig in. Once, I met a little girl named Lily who was building a sandcastle, so I helped her dig in the sand. But it made a huge mess because the sand landed in my fur as I dug it out of the hole. Lily is four years old. She loves building sand castles and playing with her older brother, Clyde.
Another time, I met a young guy named Jack who loved going on his morning walk at the beach every morning, so I joined him pretty frequently. Jack loves walking at the beach every morning because it lets him come to a quiet place early before work. Jack works as a lawyer, in a giant office building with hundreds of windows. I bet if I went to Jack’s office building, I would be able to see all sorts of birds flying outside his office window.
I also once met a little girl named Kate who was eating an ice cream cone at the beach. She let me lick some of the sweet vanilla ice cream off the cone for her because she feared it would melt. Vanilla ice cream is a nice, sweet treat on a warm summer day. That’s why summer is probably my favorite season. I love basking in the glow of the warm summer sun and getting to eat the occasional ice cream.
I love living at the beach because I get to feel the salty ocean air through my fur as I run through the water chasing birds. My favorite type of birds to chase are white and gray, and they are called seagulls. Seagulls are a very pesky type of bird because they are always wanting to eat people’s food that they bring. Once, I saw a seagull eating a man’s ham and cheese sandwich. The man could barely take a bite of it before the pesky seagull swooped down and stole it from him. Being the clever cat I was, I decided to chase after the bird to try to get the man’s sandwich for him, but the seagull was a bit too fast for me to keep up with because, unlike birds, cats can’t fly.
Sometimes, I help August when he works long nights in the lighthouse tower, and other times, I am cuddled up next to his lovely wife, Delilah, as she reads the latest book she is working on or knits a new cozy blanket for us. August even bought me a yellow raincoat I could wear on rainy nights while helping him in the lighthouse. Since I live at the beach all year, my day-to-day life is constantly changing, but I love that I get to go on many fun adventures and meet many fascinating people.
Being a cat who lives in a lighthouse is very rewarding for me, and even though my home is small, I love getting to explore the beach every day and meeting new people. August is a very hard worker when operating the light in the lighthouse. The most challenging nights for him are stormy nights because ships often have a hard time finding their way home, but with the light of our little lighthouse guiding them, the ship captains and boaters can always find their way home. Just like I have found my place in the world, they can also find their way back to where they belong.
This was written by our co-founder and editor-in-chief, Hanna Peters.
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