Catu the Nativity Cat

Product Details

Name: Catu the Nativity Cat.
Description: "Hand crafted Olive wood Cat , Hand carved by the patient hands of the Bethlehem Bible Artists a group of very skilled Christian craftsmen living in the city of Bethlehem in the Holy Land.  Environment friendly, made from trimmings of Bethlehem olive trees, an essential process which allows a new and healthier growth for the trees.

Size: 2'' Height

The Story of the Nativity Cat in the Stable By  Diane Bersch

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, a tiny cat named Catu was born.  As she looked up at her mother for the first time, she wondered where she was.  Her bed felt scratchy and she was cold and very unhappy.  Pretty soon, she felt her mother's rough tongue licking her and she felt better. After a while, she heard sounds around her -- mewing, and mooing, and baaing -- and other strange noises.  She could not see very well, because kittens cannot see well after they are born.  She wanted to ask her mother questions, but she was so tired, so she went to sleep after having her very first meal.

    The next morning, although she still could not see very well, she could make out smells and more of the strange noises she had heard before.  This time when she turned to her mother, she found she could speak to her. "Where am I?" she asked.  Her mother told her that she was born in a stable in the town of Bethlehem and that she had several brothers and sisters. "What is a stable?" the little cat asked.  "It's a place where animals stay. Some of them live here like the cow and some goats, and others belong to the visitors who stay in the hotel next door."  Well, this was too much for the little cat to think about, so she cuddled close to her mother and took another nap --- for that is what little cats do the very best.

    Soon Catu began to grow and her mother started to teach her to hunt for food.  But Catu did not like to kill anything.  She did not want to kill the mice in the stable; she just wanted to be their friend.  Rather than killing a mouse, she would eat the hay and grain that was around the stable and the scraps of food left by the hotel travelers.  Because he did not want to kill anything, her brothers and sisters and most of the other animals laughed at her, and teased her, and would not play with her or be her friend.  Soon, Catu would not leave the stable or the yard around it.  Her only real friends were the cow who lived in the stable and some sheep who would visit whenever their shepherds came to use the well at the hotel. Catu became very lonely.

 One night, very late, a man and a lady came to the stable.  This wasmost unusual, but there were no rooms in the hotel and they needed a place to stay where they would be warm and out of the wind.  The lady was very pretty and looked like she would have a baby of her own very soon.  There was something special about her.  The pretty lady watched Catu for a while and soon held out her hand and called the little cat to come to her.  Catu was astonished, for she understood the lady!  This had never happened with humans before.  Cats could not speak human language and humans simply could not understand or speak cat.  Catu really liked the lady, so she jumped in her lap and settled down for  ---  a little nap.   

After a while, the lady gently put the little cat down on the straw. Suddenly there was the sound of a baby crying.  Catu stood up, stretched, and came over to look at this new little creature.  The lady smiled and introduced Catu to her son, whom she called Jesus.  Catu was not sure what to make of this new human.  As she watched, the baby began to shiver in the cold and cried even louder.  The lady wrapped her son in some clothes and put him in the manger where the cow ate.  The baby still cried because he was so cold and hungry.  Catu remembered that she when she was born, she was cold and hungry, too. So she jumped in the manger and gently laid along side the baby boy.  Soon, little Jesus settled down and went to sleep.

Pretty soon, the stable was filled with visitors. The shepherds came from all around, and there was the sound of singing in the air.  The hotel owner and his wife came to visit and brought food and water for everyone. "Oh," thought Catu, "this is a very special family indeed."  The little baby began to cry again with all these strangers around him.  Then the family's donkey began to bray, and the cow began to moo and it became very, very noisy.  So the little cat again took up her position close to the baby and soon she felt the baby's hand touch her fur as baby Jesus went back to sleep.

From that time on, Catu became a member of this special family.  She kept the baby Jesus warm whenever he was in the manger.  Soon she came to realize how special this baby was.  Although Jesus could not yet speak human language, he could talk to the cat, and Catu found herself telling Jesus about how she was teased for not wanting to kill anything even to feed herself, and how she was so lonely and afraid.  As she talked to the baby, the little cat noticed the baby's mother was listening, too.  "Do not worry, Catu," said the lady.  "From this day on you will be our housecat and will be a special playmate for my son.  You will go with us on our journey and will live with us until the end of your days." 

The baby Jesus smiled in agreement and put his small hand on the little cat's head.   And that is how there came to be  ------- a cat in the stable that became known as  Catu the Nativity Cat.