Week 6 Storytelling: The Kitty Kettle

An Antique Tea Kettle from Pinterest

 
There once was an old woman, Grammy Ronni, that collected tea kettles. She would go to any antique sale, garage sale, or estate sale that she could find. The old woman had a granddaughter that would accompany her to these sales and help her find the best kettles. The two had recently heard of a sale that would occur in a city not too far from where they lived and decided to go. Once they had arrived at the sale Grammy Ronni spotted a beautiful tea kettle. It was dark brown with light green swirls painted all over it. She immediately picked it up and paid for it. 

As the two women were driving back home the granddaughter thought she heard something rustle around in the back of the car. She looked in the backseat, but there was nothing but the small tea kettle wrapped in newspaper. She turned back around and decided that it must have been something outside of the car that she had heard.

Once the women arrived at Grammy Ronni's house, the granddaughter said goodbye and went to her own home. The old woman decided she would unpack her new kettle and use it to make her evening tea. She turned on the stove and carefully put the kettle on the stove top to warm the water. The old woman went to change clothes and when she returned, much to her surprise, there was a cat running around her apartment! She chased after the cat for several minutes and finally caught him! He was dark brown, just like the kettle, and had light green eyes. The old woman lectured the cat for running all over her nice home and almost knocking over her china cabinet that contained her tea kettle collection! After the cat calmed down, it returned to its kettle form.

Not being able to take care of a cat, the old woman immediately wanted to sell this new addition. The next day the old woman took the kettle to her local thrift store and sold it to the owner for ten dollars. The owner was surprised to see the old woman selling a kettle, but she simply told him that she already had one like it. So the owner took the kettle and placed it in the back, to be looked at later.

Finally the owner's lunch break came and he went to check on the new kettle. He was very surprised to see a cat running around his storage closet! After he had caught the cat, he put the cat into a small kennel to keep it safe. Yet as soon as he had shut the door, a new customer walked in. This customer was no ordinary customer, though! He had experience with transforming kettles. The customer noticed the cat in the kennel and asked the owner about it and its origins. The owner told the customer what he knew, and apologized for how crazy he must have sounded! The customer, much to the owner's surprise, told him how to control the cat!

So the next day the shop owner set up a little booth in his store. He decided he would show off the kitty kettle to his customers and make some money. The first few customers were in such awe that they told everyone they saw about the thrift store that had a tea kettle that could transform into a kitty! 

The owner made a lot of money over the course of a week and felt bad that he had taken such an opportunity away from the old woman. To repay her he decided to give her back the tea kettle and some of the money he had made from the kitty kettle. 

The old woman was very surprised to see the thrift store owner at her door the next day. She was even more surprised to see that he was returning the kitty kettle, filled with money! The owner apologized and explained what had happened after the woman had dropped the kettle off. He explained how the kitty kettle worked and returned back to his shop. The old woman was very grateful. Both the store owner and the old woman led happy, fulfilled lives and died feeling they had lived well. 

Author's Note:

I really enjoyed reading the Japanese Fairy Tales by Andrew Lang this week. I had a difficult time selecting which story to recreate, but I went with the story that introduces tanuki. Tanuki are Japanese raccoon dogs, and are considered very mischievous animals in Japanese Fairy Tales. They are featured in several of Lang's stories and can be very mean in some of them. But to me they are too cute not to love! The tale that I selected is titled The Magic Kettle and is about a magic tea kettle that turns into a tanuki. I thought it would be nice to 'Americanize' the story and change the tanuki to a cat. I also modernized the story and wanted to bring some references to things we are familiar with: estate sales, antique sales, and thrift shops! I love frequenting all of these so I thought it would be a fun tie-in of my own life. Although this is not a Grammy Ronni bedtime story, I thought this would fit in my Portfolio as it still has a bedtime story feel. I also like the tanuki so much that I couldn’t resist revisiting this tale to perfect it, so enjoy!

They're Real! Tanuki from dailyhaze