More stories about the shy little cat in the big city. There’s a group of neighborhood cats that gathers in the Captain’s backyard in a sort of club. Jenny watches them secretly, but is afraid to attempt joining, because each cat has to prove a special talent to be accepted into the club. Jenny thinks she doesn’t have any remarkable talent. But then she longs to skate, and rummages through the house looking for skates, until the Captain makes her some. She goes gliding about on a frozen pond, the other cats all admire her in amazement, and she’s promptly invited to join the club.
In the next chapter, Jenny and her friend Pickles go wandering about the town at night, looking for something to do. They meet up with a bunch of other cats who are having a party, dancing in a vacant lot. Jenny is shy about joining the dance. She sits behind a barrel to watch, and then starts dancing by herself, the one dance she knows well: the sailor’s hornpipe. Then the other cats spy her movements and they want to learn this dance too, so Jenny finds herself included.
Third chapter, Jenny looses her special red scarf: it gets stolen by a dog who takes it into the dogs’ den, where Jenny is afraid to venture. Her friends in the cat club make several attempts to help her get the scarf back (or replace it) but to no avail. Then there’s an emergency in the dogs’ den! Pickles goes to help, and Jenny is afraid to loose her scarf forever. She stays away from the scene however, realizing that the job Pickles does is more important than her scarf. He saves the ungrateful dogs and her pretty red scarf, too.
Next we see Jenny meet two strange cats that wander into her yard: they are homeless and hungry. Jenny kindly offers to share her home with them. The two adopted brothers are very glad to have a comfortable place to live and enough food to eat. But after welcoming them, Jenny starts to feel peeved that they take over her favorite spots in the house, and jealous of the attention the Captain gives him. She starts to wonder if maybe she would rather have the house to herself again. But then learns to share.
The last chapter shows the two brothers attempting to join the exclusive cat club. One of them, Checkers, has a trick of retrieving a ball that everyone feels sure will impress. The other cat says he spends his time in the closet (his ‘office’) writing things, but Jenny has her doubts: nobody’s seen any pages actually produced. And when he recites a bit of poem as an example, she has more doubts. She kindly makes suggestions as to what kind of writing will interest the cat club members, and everyone is surprised at the lively poem about a pirate cat that Edward tells with lots of flair, at his first cat club meeting!
Charming, with lovely little illustrations and very catlike characters, even if they do talk and wear occasional bits of clothing. Borrowed from the public library. Completed on 5/27/24.
