In a cozy cottage by the sea lived a very kind old woman. She was well loved by everyone, especially her pets, Wilna a beautiful Calico Cat and Maggie a former sailor’s parrot with only one eye.

The old woman gathered wood to sell to the travelers who passed her door on their way to someplace else. Wilna and Maggie would sit on the windowsill and pass the time by talking about the various people who stopped at the cottage. Wilna, a former pampered house pet of the lady of the manor up on the hill, would point out all the lovely dresses the ladies wore or the shiny buttons on a soldier’s jacket. Maggie, with her one good eye, would comment on how the travelers treated their owner.

One day a golden coach stopped at the door to the cottage. The old woman struggled out of her chair and stepped outside to greet the visitors.

Wilna was first on the windowsill and meowed for Maggie to come quickly. Out of the magnificent coach stepped a beautiful young lady and her servant. The lady was dressed in silver and satin, her hair piled high on her head and held in place by hundreds of tiny diamond pins.

Wilna meowed louder and louder as she watched the beautiful visitor.

“Oh she is so lovely! Look at her sparkle! She is like a queen she sparkles so much!” Wilna said.

Maggie looked quickly at the visitor and then turned away. “All that glittery stuff hurts my eye,” she said.

“Well I think she is a goddess!” Wilna said.

Together, they watched as the old woman brought the visitor and her servant into the cottage. The glittering visitor seemed out of place in the shabby room so stunningly was she dressed. When she saw the old woman’s cat and parrot on the windowsill, she tiptoed over to pet them.

“My what wonderful animals,” she cooed. “They seem to like each other but are not the cat and the parrot enemies?”

“They get along well enough,” the old woman said.

Wilna rubbed her soft furry coat against the visitors outstretched hand while Maggie turned her head so she would not be blinded by the glitter from the lady’s clothes.

“I should love to have this cat. Look how sweet she is! She is the most loving creature. Surely if it was not for her, the parrot would never feel so free to sit near her.”

The old woman hesitated to give up her cat as she had found Wilna starving in the woods three years ago and nursed her back to health.

Wilna, sensing the old woman’s reluctance, quickly jumped into the visitor’s arms and purred with delight. She imagined living in splendor in a nice warm castle, surrounded by people who would feed her warm milk and honey cake. Wilna sighed and purred.

“She seems to like you quite well,” the old woman said. “I suppose you can have her.”

Wilna was pleased!

“I’m off to better places!” she cried to Maggie as the visitor carried her out of the cottage. “I shall eat the best food and have velvet beds lined with gold!” And with that, Wilna was placed in the coach and she and the visitors drove off.

Three days passed and Maggie missed her friend. There was only one visitor on that day, a man riding a huge black horse. He stopped and asked the old woman for water for himself and his steed. As he sat in the parlor, Maggie flew in and perched on the back of a chair.

“You’ve ridden a long way it seems sir.” The old woman said.

“I am from the Sheriff in London, ma’am,” he replied. “I am looking for a miscreant. A thief who has stolen from the poor boxes of churches, from the alms houses and from the lowly clerks who toil all day for their puny bits of money.”

“My!” the old woman exclaimed. “What a dastardly man!”

“Sadder still ma’am, but I chase a woman. A woman of uncommon beauty who has spent the meager wages and donations on her own finery.”

Maggie looked at the old woman with her one good eye. Poor Wilna! She thought.

“And would that be the last of the tale, it would be enough. But it seems the lady in question has been stealing cats too!”

“Cats?”

“Yes, she shuns the usual furs of other animals and wishes only to have coats and muffs made from the fur of soft cats!”

Maggie gasped and nearly fell off her chair. Poor Wilna! She knew it! Beware the beauty for it blinds even those with two good eyes.

Origin: Russia