It was sometime in the middle of night when Nappy Cat woke. The house was still gray as he stretched from one side of the rocking chair to the other. As he did, Monseuir Marchant woke.
“Bonjour, mon chat.”
“Prr-rrr-rrr.”
He grabbed Nappy Cat and went upstairs. Before he reached the attic door, Nappy leaped from his grasp, scurrying downstairs.
“I think it is time to find a permanent home for you.”
Finally, Napoleon Cat met his Waterloo – his battle with everyone inside and outside of the house was just about over. Monseuir Marchant began by loading the cat into the pet carrier in the back of his car. He followed that with a road trip to a hardware store in downtown Paris.
He purchased some wire fence to build a cage. He also bought a flowerpot and a topiary porter. The topiary was a twist of vines and branches and leaves, forming a boy with one outstretched hand.
“That ought to do it,” he said with a smile.
When he returned home, everyone else was awake. Anton came outside and helped unload the car. They stacked everything in the corner of the garden.
“What are you doing, papa?”
“I’m building a cage for the cat.”
“What about the topiary?”
“If you help me, I’ll show you.”
“What can I do?”
“Dig a hole in the corner of the garden.”
“Over here? What do you want me to do with this?”
“Ah! Your grand-papa’s Cross of Lorraine.”
The Cross of Lorraine looked much like a normal cross, except it had two crossbars. Monseuir Marchant replanted it in the opposite corner of the garden, next to the apple tree where Marcel slept.
“Why do we have that Cross of Lorraine?” asked Anton.
“It’s to remember your Grandpa Marchant. He was part of the French Resistance during World War II.”
“Who was the French Resistance?”
“In the early days of World War II, the Nazis invaded Italy and France. . Italy quickly joined the Nazis. However, the people of France were divided. Those who fought against the Nazis were called the Resistance. The Cross of Lorraine became a symbol to the French Freedom Fighters.”
“Why didn’t all French fight the Nazis?”
“For France, it was a complicated matter. There were two sides: the Axis and the Allies. The Allies included Britian and the United States. Both of those countries were overseas. Germany and Italy, however, were right next door. Most of the French leadership decided to surrender.”
“What did Grandpa do?”
“A French political leader named Charles De Gaulle gave radio broadcasts from Britain. He told the French to fight for their homeland. Grandpa joined the French Resistance and traveled to North Africa to fight the Nazis.”
“North Africa?”
Countries like Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia were French colonies during World War II. The French had business interests in these countries. When the Nazis invaded North Africa, they sort of invaded France. The French Resistance helped Allies. They battled Commander Rommel, the leader of Nazi forces in North Africa.”
“Grandpa helped drive Rommel out of Africa to win the war?”
“The battle for North Africa wasn’t the end of the war. That was Normandy.”
“What happened in Normandy?”
“It was the most important battle of World War II. The Nazis occupied most of Europe, except Great Britain and Iceland. The Allied Forces crossed the English Channel, storming the northwestern shore of France. The French Freedom Fighters battled the Nazis in the mainland of France. The Nazis were surrounded. After the Allies won at Normandy, the Nazis were bushed all the way back to Germany.”
Anton finished planning the topiary, carefully patting the dirt with the bottom of his shovel. He grabbed the garden hose and watered the mound of earth surrounding the topiary.
Meanwhile, his father finished building Nappy’s house.
“Anton, put away the hose and come help me build a cage around Nappy’s house.”
Anton held the wire in place while his father pounded metal stakes into the ground. They attached the wire to the stakes, forming a three-sided cage, facing away from Marcel the Pig’s part of the garden.
“Aren’t we going to put up the last part of the cage?”
“We don’t have to finish the cage because we’re not trapping Nappy inside. We’re just creating some space between cat and pig.”
Anton’s father picked up the flowerpot and fed a piece of wire through the hole in the bottom. He wrapped the wire around the hand of the topiary porter, securing it into place. He dumped the contents of Marcel’s feeding trough into the flowerpot.
Marcel came over to investigate. The porter’s arm bobbed up and down as the pig gobbled the slop. Still, the contraption held up perfectly to the pig’s snout.
“Now for the second part of the test.”
Monseuir Marchant went to the kitchen and grabbed a small salad bowl. He went to the car and opened the trunk. Nappy scampered into the garden and towards Marcel. Nappy clawed at the flowerpot, but it was too high to reach.
Monseuir Marchant placed the salad bowl next to Nappy’s house. He grabbed a fish bone from Marcel’s flowerpot in one hand and the cat in the other. He dropped the bone in Nappy’s bowl and dropped Nappy beside it.
Nappy immediately began eating his own food from his own bowl.
“Perfect,” said Monseuir Marchant.
“I think mother should see this.”
“I think so, too.”
Anton ran inside and fetched his mother.
“Look at this! We have a solution for Nappy!”
Madame Marchant followed her son out to the garden. Uncle Rupert was close behind. She walked from the topiary to Nappy’s cage then back to the topiary again. She flicked the flowerpot with her finger. It bounced gently, but did not fall or break.
“Aren’t my boys very clever?”
“I should say so,” replied Uncle Rupert.
Madame Marchant investigated the topiary closest.
“You know,” she said, “I’ve always wanted to have a topiary garden.”
Monseuir Marchant nodded.
“It’s so provincial. It’s so royal.”
Madame Marchant grabbed a wooden folding chair and sat it next to the garden. She sat there and watched as cat and pig got along, each one enjoying their own meal in their own areas.
“It is quite a relief to have two happy pets in the same garden.”
Monseuir Marchant grabbed three more chairs. He set them up in a row beside her. Everyone sat down and watched the animals eat.
“I’m glad you like it.”
“It reminds me of the Victory Gardens back home,” she said.
“Let’s go for a visit sometime soon.”
“I think that’s a splendid idea.”
“May I go, too?” asked Anton.
“I think that’s even more splendid,” said mother.
“And me?” added Uncle Rupert.
“It wouldn’t be complete without you, my dear brother.”
“Sometime soon,” said father, “sometime soon.”
Cross of Lorraine
