Luna knew she was the prettiest cat in the entire clowder. The cats roamed the contaminated streets of New York City with whiskers to the sky, yet everyone’s eyes were always on Luna. As they walked with pride, Luna was always staring at herself in the reflection of anything she could find—store windows, sides of cars, silver trash cans, whatever she could possibly see herself in. She groomed her black fur and batted her deep green eyes as she stared at her reflection. She bragged to the other female cats about how beautiful she was and how none of them will ever be as pretty as her. All the cats grew hateful toward Luna because all she talked about was how gorgeous she was and how all of the other cats were beneath her.
One night, while the group was parading around the city looking for mice to munch on for a midnight snack, Luna was stopped in her tracks when she saw a great big mirror propped up next to a trash can. Although the mirror had a few cracks, it would suffice.
“Maybe there’s mice over by this trash can!” She called out to her friends.
The other cats murmured amongst each other, knowing she just wanted to gawk at herself in the broken mirror. A pair of orange cats snickered mischievously as they said to the group, “Let’s leave her here.”
Luna licked and lathered herself in saliva and her fur fluffed fiercely. She hadn’t seen her reflection in a proper mirror in so long and could not pull her gaze away. After what seemed like hours, she noticed the group was nowhere to be found. Panic-stricken, she wandered the streets frantically and did not look at her reflection once.
MORAL: Confidence brings abundance, vanity brings loneliness.