This is another postcard story from Welsh Cakes: Book of Short Stories. It is written in the voice of the author's cat. It begins as follows:
"My name is Jack. I am a brown tabby, male. Well, I used to be male. I am six years old and I’ve been with my mistress for six months. She adopted me from the humane society. She says that on the whole I’m a good cat; the only thing I do that she doesn’t like is scratch the furniture. But, what’s a cat to do? You’ve got to keep your claws sharpened up for those mice.
My mistress is a writer. She likes playing with words almost as much as I like playing with mice, but she doesn’t need long claws for typing so it’s hard for her to understand my situation.
She has many names for me. Jack in the Box, Jack O’lantern, Jack of all trades, Jackpot, Natterjack, Hijack, Jack be nimble, Jackson, Mr. Jackson (when you’re this big they call you mister), Jack in the pulpit. She says my name 'lends itself', whatever that means, and she plans to write some stories about me under my different titles.
The name 'Natterjack' is the one she likes best. She found it quite by accident when she was looking up 'nattier blue' in the dictionary. Natterjack is a species of small toad with a yellow stripe down its back; it runs instead of hops. Well, I do run a lot and I rarely hop, and I do have stripes down my back though they’re not yellow, and I do talk a lot, so I think this name is quite appropriate for me."
