George's Search for Summerlan

George and the Search for Summerland

George is a gray and white cat. He’s not a fat old cat, nor is he a little kitten. George is the perfect age for a kitty. He loves to run in the summer sun and chase red birds.

One day in December, George saw something which wasn’t right. The ground was covered in white stuff.  George carefully set his right paw on it and he sunk! The white stuff was as tall as he was – and it was cold. “Sorry, honey,” the tall lady said as she picked George up and closed the door, “that snow is deep.”

“Snow,” George told his little sister Gracie. “I don’t like snow. I bet if I go to the backdoor there won’t be snow there.”  But there was. “What happened to Summerland? I want to chase red birds.”

“I saw the tall lady putting things in the garage, maybe it’s in there,” Gracie said. So George went to the garage door and waited for it to open. When the tall lady finally opened the door, all George saw was Maya, the dog, and felt cold air. Summerland wasn’t in the garage.

Then Gracie told him, “I saw the tall lady getting green things from the attic, maybe Summerland is in the attic.” And George waited for the tall lady to open the door to the attic.  When she finally did, he ran up the stairs, but Summerland wasn’t there, just some empty boxes.

“George! George!” Gracie cried, “There’s a new tree in the bay room.  Summerland is in there.” So George ran to the doorway of the bay room, and waited. When the tall lady finally opened the door to the bay room, George saw a green tree with red and blue lights on it. But it wasn’t Summerland.

“George, George,” Gracie cried, “the tall lady opened a door in the kitchen and it was warm, and I saw a bird.” So George ran to the kitchen and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, the tall lady came in and opened the oven door. Then the phone rang and she had to quickly leave the room. George jumped for the door and saw the biggest bird he had ever seen and it was ready to eat!  So George jumped on the bird, but it was hot…TOO HOT! He jumped back to the floor and began to lick his paws. The room was hot, and the bird was tasty, but it wasn’t Summerland.

“I give up, Gracie, I can’t find Summerland anywhere,” George mewed.
“But George…look!” And Gracie showed George that there were more doors in the kitchen, and doors in the living room, and doors in the hallway, and doors in the bedrooms. “George, I bet there are a hundred doors in here. Summerland has to be here behind one of them.”

So George looked behind a hundred doors, one door a day. And just when George had looked behind the last door the tall lady called to him. “George. George!” George came to the tall lady who opened the front door “Look, George.” George looked and he saw it was green. And it was warm. He stepped on the porch and saw the red birds pecking the ground. George called back to Gracie, “Gracie, I found Summerland!”