allegedly fiction

An Original Myth – Why Cat is Afraid of Water

Fishbait and Bacon were setting up their tent by the lake one fine summer evening. The full July moon, known as the Thunder Moon among their people, was just peeking over the horizon, casting her long pale reflection on the lake.

“Bacon, pass me that stick over there so I can put these perch on the coals. They look hot and ready now that the potatoes and corn are almost done too. Hey, did your ma trow in the s’mores? Ain’t much of a weekend fishin’ trip if we ain’t got s’mores!” Fishbait flashed a toothy grin as he pointed with his lips at the canvas grocery bags.

“Man, you know she did! She ain’t never let us down yet. ’Sides, you’re her favorite nephew ’cause you always bring home ‘The Bacon’ right on time!”

The young men both laughed at this, having grown up together on the rez since forever. Their nicknames were appropriate, as they always are, when someone called you what was obvious to everyone. Bacon was a little chubby guy, and he obviously loved bacon because that’s what was always on his lunch plate or breakfast plate.

Fishbait, well, that was not the best story at all. He was the runt of the gangly boys who played kickball and basketball, and he never got picked for teams. His naming came one summer during the fishing tournament that the Tribal Recreation Department put on, and 8-year-old Jimmy put his name down assuming his Uncle Rodney would just say yes.

After the Parks Department shot off a firecracker to signal the start of the tournament, all the canoes, kayaks, and homemade rafts shoved off. Hours passed, but not one team was catching a thing, not even an old boot or rusty pop can.

Jimmy had his pole in the water, Uncle Rodney was snoring behind him, when suddenly his fishing reel started spinning out. Everyone was jumping up to see who was going to catch the first fish and also to see how big it would be.

Well, we already know Jimmy was the runt. And it wasn’t but a second after he was yelling he got one when he went flying into the lake! Jimmy let go of his pole because he didn’t want that big ol’ fish to drag him to the mushy part of the lake where the mud seeps between your toes. Oh no, he was going back to the boat sad and disappointed, but at least not with muck between his toes. 

Just as all the other guys were laughing at poor Jimmy and mocking him for losing the fish, suddenly everyone’s reels started spinning out, and the guys were catching fish left and right. This went on for another few hours until the sun made its westward journey to the other side of the earth.

All the guys moored and then weighed in. No one won the tournament because so many fish were caught that everyone had the biggest and the smallest and the most.

The Parks and Recreation Department decided that the trophy should go to Jimmy, who everyone then started to call Fishbait. After all, it was his fall into the lake and his lost fish that kicked off the prize fish that everyone got. Why, there were so many fish to go around that they didn’t need to fish again until the winter ice fishing tournaments during the Snow Snake Festival.

Fishbait and Bacon were friends then, and they were still friends now, as young men making their way through the two worlds of their culture and heritage, and the mainstream world.

The two young men sat by the warm fire’s coals, enjoying their perch dinner and fire-roasted vegetables, listening to the tiny waves from the lake lap onto the shore as the rising full Thunder Moon made her way higher into the night sky, dancing subtly with the twinkling stars above.

After their bellies were full, they found themselves lying back, staring up at that beautiful night sky.

“Bacon, you ever hear that story about why cats don’t like water?”

He sat there, his golden-brown eyes barely open as he stoked the coals to get the fire going again, as if searching his memory, trying to remember a face.

“Remember that summer I got my nickname at that tournament? That was the same summer I learned the truth about why cats don’t like water.” He looked at Bacon to see if he was listening, and because Bacon was wearing that signature lopsided smile of his, he knew he had his attention.

“Earlier that week, I was walking by the lake trying to see where I might fish for the tournament. Uncle didn’t care; he was just doing my ma a favor because she promised him frybread and strawberries on his birthday. So I figured I should look because I wanted a shot at beating those other guys, especially Bear and his big brother Moose. Man, those guys win at all the games. You remember that? 

Anyways, as I walked that one path that goes by that knobby ol’ tree that looks like it has a nose – you remember that one? Anyway, I heard a kitten crying, and I went to go find it because the skies were looking pretty dark, like it was about to storm. The winds were whipping by then, and the crying just got louder. When I found this lil’ black furball stuck in a minnow bucket that was still in the lake, he was all shaking and crying. I pulled him out, wrapped him up in my T-shirt, and made a run for it.

“Ma wasn’t happy about it, but she gave him some milk anyway and some leftover salmon skin from her salmon stew. And then she told me he better be a mouser or he’d have to find a new home.

“But that night, I dreamed I was on a boat. Not like ours, but… like this big ship. Kinda like the Viking ones, right? And there was a cat on board, all smug because he was finally leaving his homeland by crossing the water, which his kind never did. And the ocean was his friend, and because of that, they had safe passage all the way here to our continent. The ocean was good to those people by always making sure they had fish to eat and smooth sailing. In fact, the ocean was getting kinda mad now because not once did the cat nor those sailors thank her. All she wanted was a word of thanks or an offering of some kind, but none of them thought to thank that great water, not in word, deed, or offering.

“Just as these sailors were in sight of land, the ocean decided to remind them who was in charge, and she started to make great waves so tall that, at one point, the vessel they were in fell so far from the top of a wave that it destroyed their ship. Whoever could swim made it. Even that greedy cat made it, but barely. 

“So that’s why they don’t like water. They’re scared of making those water spirits mad again. The relatives of that cat carry that ancestor’s memory of the kind water reminding whoever comes to her that they must be respectful, and if you get fish from her, to thank her.

“And that’s why we all had so many fish that day. The kitten brought me that story to always respect nature and to always give thanks, or you might end up in the water trying to swim for shore! And ever since then, I never take a fish from the water without saying thank you.”

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Written for Intro to Mythology (EN 112 @ NMU – Summer 2026)