One day there was a terrible drought in our region.
Brother Goat lived in the grove then. It was so hard for him that he could almost gnaw on the ground. And brother cat had a hard time too.
One evening the goat brother was standing, chewing a few blades of grass that he managed to get with great difficulty, and suddenly he saw a cat approaching him.
- Well, brother goat, how are you? - asks the cat.
Brother goat answers:
- And don’t say it, brother cat, it’s really bad. I think I'll go look for happiness. It's really hot here. Yes, I'm looking for a friend...
Brother cat says:
- Take me with you. Let's go together. You really will get lost here.
Brother goat asks:
- Do you have anyone you know in these places? Maybe they could help us?..
“No,” says the cat. “We’ll have to look for happiness ourselves.”
No sooner said than done. They both set off. They walked and walked and came to a stream. Neither one nor the other is reluctant to get into the water. The cat says:
- Well, brother goat, all hope is in you. I’ll sit on your back, you’ll jump, and we’ll both get over to the other side.
The brother goat sat down, the cat climbed onto his back and grabbed it with its claws so as not to fall. The brother-goat was emaciated from hunger, he felt pain, and he said:
- Brother cat, take it easy! And the cat answers:
- Brother goat, I'm afraid of falling.
The goat jumped across the stream, and on the other side they saw a turtle. But she also eats grass.
“Sister,” they asked the turtle, “is it possible to get food in these parts?”
The turtle answers:
— A kilometer from here there is an estate with a manor house, a garden, a barnyard and everything else. Only there are dogs... But still try to go there when it gets dark.
Here the cat brother, whose mouth was already watering, says:
- Well, brother goat, let's wait until night and go?
So they decided. We rested a little, and when it began to get dark, we went to the estate. We approached the fence, behind it we saw a house and a dense garden. Brother goat says:
- Well, here we come. Now don't be shy! - And he jumped over the fence, and the cat brother crawled between the wire.
Brother goat says:
- Don't make noise, brother cat, remember about the dogs.
The cat jumped into the house through the dormer window straight into the kitchen to look for meat, and the brother goat began to eat the lush grass and flowers.
Brother cat climbed onto the stove and looked at a jug of milk hanging, he reached for the jug and dropped it. There's a noise here! The dogs got alarmed and attacked the goat - he was still in the garden. And so the dog scolds the poor goat, and the brother cat laps up the milk that spilled on the floor.
One dog ran into the kitchen, and a cat wandered into the yard and instantly climbed to the very top of the mango. And the dogs had already attacked the goat with the whole flock. They tear him apart, maul him, and almost let out all his insides.
The goat crawled out of the garden and dragged himself, barely alive, to the turtle’s house. He knocks on her door and groans:
- Sister turtle!
-Who's there? she asks.
- It's me, brother goat.
- What happened to you, brother goat?
- The dogs bit me.
- How did this happen, brother goat?
- Brother cat knocked over the jug, woke up the dogs, and they almost finished me off.
The turtle, as you know, knows something about medicine: it brought mud and lubricated the goat’s wounds.
A little time passed, the cat appeared and shouted:
- Sister turtle!
- What is it, brother cat?
- Open it, open it quickly!
The cat came in and asked where the goat was. And the turtle hid the goat.
-What happened to him? — the turtle was surprised.
The cat told her what it was like for the goat. She says:
“You alone are to blame, brother-cat, for the fact that brother-goat has suffered grief.” And now I am nursing him.
- No, sister, it’s all the jug’s fault. The dogs woke up from the noise, I climbed a tree and escaped. But the brother goat has no claws, so the dogs dealt with him.
- It’s okay, I’ll cure him.
But the goat brother can’t even stand on his feet. The turtle began to feed him grass so that he would get better quickly. And at this time the cat was doing whatever he had to.
After three or four days the goat recovered, and the turtle had the following conversation with him:
- Brother goat, let's set a trap for the cat.
- Which one, sister turtle?
- Do as I teach you. My friend, brother donkey, is a shoemaker. You will go to him and ask him to sew some shoes for the cat.
But how do we put our brother cat in them? - asks the goat.
And the turtle to him:
“It’s not your concern, I’ll persuade him.”
Just then the cat came in. He had long been impatient to go to the estate to feast on food again.
- How are you? - asks the cat. “How are you, brother goat?”
The goat answers:
- Okay.
-Can you go to the estate one more time?
- Yes, of course, you can go.
“Brother cat,” says the turtle, “I wish you could get some shoes!” It will be beautiful, and the walking will be smoother!..
- Sister turtle, where did you see the cat in shoes? — the cat was surprised.
- Oh, brother, in your shoes you will jump quietly and quietly.
“Okay,” says the cat. — but first you need to try them on, because it’s difficult to find shoes that fit your claws.
- Well, I see. We'll order them for you, and you'll try them on... If they don't fit, you won't wear them...
The cat agreed:
- Okay, let's go order...
They brought the cat to his brother donkey. He took precise measurements from each paw - the donkey was a great master in shoemaking. So he sewed shoes for the cat, brought them, and showed them. The cat looked and said:
“Sister turtle, I won’t be able to cling with my claws in my shoes.”
And the turtle convinces:
- Oh, brother, you understand! Your step will be softer, and not a single thorn will dig into your paw if you have to run away.
Kozel says:
“Really... You’re probably right, turtle sister, I’ll order some shoes for myself too.”
At this point the cat immediately put on his shoes, and the turtle sister tied his laces tightly. The cat put on his shoes, let's jump and jump - back and forth, back and forth, trying out the shoes. He sees that it’s true that not a single grain of sand bothers his paw.
He jumped and jumped, and the turtle said to him:
- Brother cat, don’t run so fast. The cat answers her:
- This is me practicing, sister.
It got dark. The cat can no longer sit still, he says to the goat:
- Well, brother, let's go?
They set off on their journey. They began to approach the estate, the goat said:
- Be careful, brother, don’t knock over the jug again.
Dogs are always on the alert.
They arrived at the estate. The goat jumped over the fence, the cat crawled through the hole. The goat grabbed two or three leaves, jumped back over the fence and walked away from sin.
And the cat slipped into the kitchen and ate some fried meat on the stove. Suddenly he sees a jug of milk hanging. He just dropped the jug. The jug overturned and the milk spilled out. There was a noise throughout the entire estate! The dogs woke up. This time they ran not into the garden - there was no goat there - but straight to the kitchen, where the noise was heard. The cat rushed to the tree, but only got to the middle of the trunk when it immediately fell. His paws were in shoes and were sliding. The dogs pounced on the cat and started biting - here and there they would grab it. The cat jumps onto a tree, falls and yells:
- Meow-hoo!
And the goat brother hid, listened to this whole squabble and said to himself: “What, did he pee his pants? It’s okay, I got it even worse.”
And the brother goat went to the turtle to tell about everything that had happened.
At dawn, a cat appeared, skinned, barely alive, and began to cry.
“Okay,” says the turtle, “now there’s peace... The goat says:
- Heal up your brother cat, I’ll wait for him. Three days later, the cat brother was already healthy.
“Make peace, don’t quarrel anymore,” says the turtle.
The brother cat didn’t answer, he turned and left.
Since then, the goat and the cat have not loved each other.
When a cat meets a goat, it snorts at it - and both in different directions. They have been enemies ever since. The cat drinks any milk. But take some goat's milk and give it to your cat and see what happens. He won’t drink for anything, their enmity is for life and death. And the goat, too, does not touch any of the animals, but if he comes across a cat, he will immediately horn him.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru