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Story written and illustrated by: Dotty Schenk

Schenk, Dotty

The adventures of Auf: A cat of Ancient Egypt.

SUMMARY: Story of a cat living in Thebes and his longing for adventure. His travels take him to the Mediterranean Sea and to Ostia and to Alexandria. The time is 51BCE and the beginning of the fall of the Roman Republic.

1. Egypt,ancient, 51BCE - Fiction- Juvenile literature 2. Cats-fiction – Juvenile literature 3. Ostia – Roman Republic –Fiction- Juvenile literature

FIC, SCH 2013

ISBN: 9781626755444

This story is written for 5^th and 6^th grade students and others who are interested or studying the ancient world and have a special place in their hearts for cats.

AUF is named after the Egyptian god of adventure. He lives in Thebes in 51 BCE (before the common era) with a merchant and his family. Life is very good but not very exciting so he thinks it would be fun to have some adventures. His first adventure takes him to the Valley of the Kings. He participates in a festival in honor of Bastet, the goddess of cats. His second adventure takes him on a merchant ship heading to the Roman port of Ostia. The time is the beginning of the fall of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire. His third adventure takes him to the great library in Alexandria and finally back to his home and family in Thebes.

MANY THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING:

Charles Hagstrom – for Latin and historical facts

Deni Harding – for keeping my grammar in line

Joseph Whitson – for technical and computer assistance

And to all my friends who encouraged me to continue this story

In memory of my cat Nikki who inspired this story

PART I

A CAT’S LIFE IN THEBES

“I think I shall try one of these pigeons,” thought Auf to himself. “They look quite tasty and I could use a snack.” A row of plucked pigeons hung from a roof beam in a vender’s stall. Auf climbed a nearby post, the wood was very rough and it stuck in his tiny claws as he climbed. At the top in a flash, he pulled a pigeon off its hook and carried it in his mouth as he raced down the post.

“Stop! Thief!” cried the shopkeeper. “It’s just a cat,” said his wife. “You know we have to feed the cats to keep the grain cellars free of mice as they are now.” The shopkeeper told his wife it happened so fast that he did not realize it was a cat.

Auf, a little black and white cat, carried his pigeon to a shady spot behind a vendor’s stall. He chewed all the meat off the bones of the skinny bird, and then crunched some of the bones noisily into small pieces. When he finished eating, he licked his paws and decided it was time for a nice nap in the shade of the olive tree behind the stall.

It is the year 51 BCE, before the common era, 2500 years ago. Cats usually earned their keep by killing and eating the mice and snakes that liked to hide in the pantries and storehouses. However, this summer was different. The Nile River did not flood and no grain could be planted or harvested. It was necessary for the river to flood as it brought fertile soil to the fields. Since there was no flooding this year, the granaries are empty and the cats are hungry. There were not many mice as they had no grain to eat. Even the snakes were not in the granaries.

The countryside around the city of Thebes is drying up and dying. Barley and wheat, from last season, have been bleached white from the heat. Without the flood waters to water the fields, vegetables had not been planted in the fields and home gardens. Fig trees haven’t blossomed. Last year’s melon vines lie shrunken and scorched in the sun like pieces of old, abandoned twine. The only things worth picking are the pomegranates, which don’t need much water to grow in the hot, dry climates like Egypt. Even these bright red fruits are tiny and shriveled.

The city of Thebes was very important, as it was the home of many royal families. It would eventually become the capital of the Egyptian empire. In 51 BCE Cleopatra was the reigning monarch. She was the daughter of the Pharaoh Ptolemy Auletes. He died when she was eighteen years old and he left her his kingdom. The year 51 BCE was the first year of her reign. This city was a place where people came to visit the temples that were along the Nile. A very important temple was the Temple of Karnak, dedicated to the god Amon.

After a long nap, Auf woke up stretched and headed for home. He did not leave his comfortable home very often. Auf lived with his human family, which consisted of Sethe, a wealthy merchant, his wife Inihue, and their two children a son, Bak and a daughter, Abana. Sethe was a grain and wine merchant and he owned a large warehouse on the docks. The family lived in a large home on a hill with a beautiful garden surrounding the house. Auf loved to lie in the garden at sunset and let the cool evening breezes pass over his silky black and white fur. He also loved to prowl around the garden to look for a juicy mouse, sometimes Bak and Abana would tag along with him. He especially enjoyed sitting by the lotus pool. Creamy white lotus flowers with long pointed petals floated on the pool’s surface. The lotus flowers scented the air with a sweetness that was very pleasant. Small pomegranate trees circled the pool. It was a wonderful place for the whole family to relax after a day working in the sun and heat.

The koi fish in the pool fascinated Auf. Now as he sat by the pool, he remembered a scary time when he was a kitten. He tried to catch a fish and fell into the pool. Cats do not like water so this was very frightening to him. He remembered Abana calling to Bak to come quickly. She was crying and said that Auf fell into the pool. Bak reached into the pool and picked Auf up by his front legs, dripping with moss and plant roots. Bak just held him with arm extended, until his parents looked up from their board game, called Senet, and began to laugh. Auf shook his fur and mewed softly, but everyone laughed all the more. Abana took the wet kitten and wrapped him in her linen tunic, petting him until he settled down and purred contently.

But now Auf is all grown up. He learned how to lean into the water and he had caught and eaten most of the fish in the pool. Of course, the family was not very happy with him when the fish kept disappearing. But they realized that he was a cat and doing something that came naturally to cats. He spent day after day and night after night on his pillow with his humans. He became very bored as he thought there was no real adventure and excitement in his life. All cats in Egypt were treated special. Auf was a cat made in the image of the god of cats, Bast, whose temple stood in the center of Thebes. Because of her importance to the Egyptians, all cats were considered sacred. They had magic and mystery. They escaped danger and appeared to have many lives to live. The people let them roam freely, eating whatever they wanted and lazing around in the shade of palms and pomegranate trees with their bellies full of good things. Oh, how wonderful it was to be a cat in ancient Egypt.

Even with this wonderful, free lifestyle, Auf has only become more and more bored. He yearned for excitement in his life. From his family’s grand house on the hill, he could see the barges traveling on the Nile and the activity at the docks. Even in this year of drought, boats are traveling from faraway ports, bringing frankincense and myrrh, used in the embalming process, and rations of grain to Sethe’s warehouse.