What Happens to the Millions of Cats in the End?

I have two cats who are always keeping me company, which often means wandering over to my while I'm typing away on my laptop and flopping themselves down on the keyboard. Not the most useful activity in the world, but it's nice to know that they appreciate me. I've had cats since I was six years old, so I understand how the little old lady in Wanda Gag's Millions of Cats feels when she tells her husband how much she would like to have a cat. They do have a way of filling up a home...

Devoted husband that he is, the old man promises to find his wife a cat, but he gets more than he bargained for when he happens upon a hill that is covered with "hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats." How in the world can he choose from among all those cats? Each one seems more beautiful to him than the next, and before he knows it, he ends up inviting them all home with him. But how can one poor couple support all of those cats, which together are capable of draining a pond within minutes?

This book, which was published in 1928, seems to be hand-lettered and features line drawings of the gnome-like man and his wife and the vast landscape covered with cats. The man nearly always wears an expansive grin. He seems to be a happy fool; no one entirely in his right mind would bring home that many cats, nor would he try to settle the question of who gets to stay by asking which cat is the prettiest. Instead of rescuing them, the old man dooms them, sparking a vicious battle that seems to destroy all but the scraggliest cat of the bunch. He survives because of his humility, and with the care and attention of the old woman and man, he grows strong and beautiful.

I don't really know what to make of this story. I like the fact that the sad little kitten ends up with a home at the end, but I hate the notion that all the other cats have killed each other just so the woman could have a cat. The old man would have done better just to leave the cats alone, unless the good of the one vastly outweighs the good of the many. Then again, while the old woman postulates that the cats have eaten each other all up, there's no cat carnage left behind. It's simply an empty landscape, leading me to believe that they simply left, in which case I find the story much more appealing.

The repeated refrain about the millions of cats is enjoyable, as is the obvious affection between the man and his wife, and the little kitten left behind is perfectly adorable. If I can believe the other cats end up back at the hill where the old man found them, then Millions of Cats becomes a sweet but eccentric fable. If we're supposed to take the woman's tales of carnage literally, though, this is actually a pretty disturbing story.