There once was a time when dogs ruled over cats, and all the cats and dogs of the small village of Fortville, a quiet little village on the outskirts of London. All the cats lived their lives thinking that this was their eternal fortune and that everything would remain the same. But there were two wise old cats who who shared the same idea of a promised land, but had very different ideas of how to get there. Their names were George and Maximus.
They were both well respected in the village. George, was a tortoiseshell with a white nose and white paws. He was an easygoing cat with a passionate sense of pride and dignity. He wanted all dogs and cats to be equal, without seeing blood in a fight. A peaceful way to achieve his goal.
Maximus was a maine coon rogue cat. Sometimes his desire overpowers his well rounded thinking, but never the less, Maximus had black paws and a brownish nose. He too wanted all dogs and cats to be equal, but he was impatient and wanted to achieve equality by force. His followers were also rogue cats. And they sided with him for the belief that brute force, which they had experienced by their past owners, could be delivered swift and quick.
George’s followers wanted to simply march and use the power of peaceful protest to achieve equality. Since the two cats could not decide on one idea to go forward with, they held a cats only village meeting, under the cellar of the old abandoned barn on the outskirts of the village. George jumped up onto the big haystack in the middle of the room and paced to and fro, patiently waiting for all the others to take their seats.
“Brothers, Maximus and I have called you here tonight for a hearing of a common belief, but different methods of achieving this belief. He and I strongly believe that all cats and dogs should be equal. We have been shown no mercy whatsoever under the rule of the dogs. The way they treat us will go on no longer. I am not trying to influence a war council, for I do not want to fight and spill blood. I believe in the manor of peaceful protest. Not a weapon on you when you demand equality. I believe this can be achieved through demonstrations of peace, and over a short time, we will have won our way in this world. And slowly but surely, we will influence the rebellion over the whole world, one cat at a time.”
And with that George took a triumphant leap down from the haystack, seeing that he has moved the crowd with his passion. Maximus then crept up onto the haystack. “Brothers, we have suffered too long. Under this tyranny of the cruel dogs we have been shown no mercy. We deserve better, we deserve to live our life, not live their lie. I say we act now. Every cat in this room should know better about life than what the dogs squeeze and force down our throats. I am calling for action, violent or not I want equality now. I want certainty, not probability, the mere fact that our peaceful efforts could go to waste would be devastating.”
This went on for some time, the two sharing their thoughts passionately in the barn, and at the end the cats didn’t know what side they were on. All they knew was they wanted equality for all cats. There was one female cat who was particularly moved in the form of peaceful protest. Her name was Millie. A hardworking critical thinker. After the meeting she went about her business like she had before. She took the wagon to work every day. She and the rest of the cats had to sit in the back, and the dogs always got the front row seats just because they were dogs. She was always annoyed by this.
Then one morning she got on the wagon, sat in the back of the wagon and faced a laborious day at work, by far the hardest day she had ever pushed herself through. Her boss, thankfully another cat named Ramona, who knew Millie and the way she applied herself in difficult times and how she could always count on Millie to get the job done, said she could take the rest of the day off.
“But I have so much more work to do,” said Millie.
“I’ll take care of it,” said Ramona.
Millie was exhausted from all the tedious time consuming work she had to do that day. She got back on the wagon, and noticed it was more crowded than ever. There were only a couple of seats left on the wagon, and they were all in the back. After the next couple of stops, the wagon was full and even though she was sitting more in the front of the cats only section, she was asked rudely to give up her seat to a dog. She found it ridiculous that she had to give up her seat to a dog when she was following all the ridiculous rules that came with the wagon, and now she had to give up her seat?
This outraged Millie, but she didn’t show it. All she did was look up into the big fat dogs face and said calmly, “No.” The whole wagon gasped. Some other dogs got up from their seats. The bus driver asked again, only to get the same reply. Then he started to get agitated. The bus driver yelled at Millie, and she responded in the same fashion once again. The police were called to take her away and off the bus. When Maximus and George heard about this, they were outraged, and therefore started to organize something that would jeopardize the wagon industry. It was called the Wagon Boycott.