Sally's Closet: The Cat of Time Hill

Going through my closets has turned up some dubious treasures, including selections of my childhood storytelling. I wrote a few books about the same two characters, Strawly the cat and his friend Rit the rat, "who live in Talaperosicy, somewhere in the south."

The best of the series is The Cat of Time Hill, in which our protagonists are captured by an alien (the unicorn figure) and taken by rocket to meet his ruler (the bull figure - the gaudy necklace denotes his status) on Time Hill, leading to this dramatic encounter:


The ruler asks "What value do you things have?" prompting the rejoinder from Rit, "We are not 'things,' we are animals, and we want to get out of here."

The ruler remains unmoved by this brave display and instructs his henchman to put them in a cell. Rit observes, "We will have a hard time getting out of this one."

The next day the ruler and his minion meet with Rit and Strawly to discuss "some of the facts on what was going to happen" to them...but, through some freak occurrence, the ruler falls into a conveniently located pool. And because he cannot swim (despite having chosen to have this conversation next to this pool), he starts to drown. Strawly rescues the ruler from certain death, and the ruler offers to give him anything he wants. Strawly wants Rit and himself to be taken home. As the henchman walks them toward the rocket for the return journey, the story closes as an unspecified "everyone cheered and yelled 'Strawly is the Cat of Time Hill!'" (It is unclear what "everyone" was doing while the ruler was drowning. Perhaps none of these aliens could swim.)

I believe this was the central Rit and Strawly plot: the animals gain their liberty from a villain through some kind of courageous, generous act. But the first story, The Adventures of Strawly and Rit, instead relates the introduction of Rit to Strawly's good friends, a hound named Ronald (who wields an eerily phallic baseball bat) and a bird named Susie (who, incidentally, appears to be the only one with a job), and the party-turned-sleepover-in-the-woods that ensues.



Despite the amiability of Ronald and Susie, Rit is clear to become Strawly's BFF and it is no surprise to the reader that he is the sidekick who is featured in later stories.