Yara the Cat with Nine Lives

Once upon a time there was a sick cat named Yara. Yara was the Grand Imperial Leader of Catland. Yara was a very weak cat, but don't tell Yara that or he will scratch your face. Yara did not want to believe or be told he was weak, so Yara carried on. But every so often Yara will need to check in with the vet to recoup whenever his ailment took a turn for the worse. And on several of those occasions it had been severally rumored that Yara had died while at the vet, but each time Yara the cat bounced back to the amazement of all his detractors and fans. Yara hailed from the northern part of a country called Catland. They were approximately one hundred and fifty million cats from Catland. The Cats were from very diverse backgrounds and spoke many different cat dialects. Yara was from a part of Catland that had dominated the leadership of Catland and continued to control the affairs of Catland. A lot of the other cats from other parts of Catland resented Yara for this and whenever Yara went on one of his trips to the vet they would call for his resignation. It also did not help that Yara was a very weak cat physically and politically. Catland had been experiencing turmoil ever since they gained 'self-rule' from the Dogs. The Dogs had ruled Catland for a long time before finally giving in to pressure and handing over and letting the cats begin a period of self-rule. The cats had clamored so much for self-rule from the Dogs, believing that they could rule themselves better, but ever since they took over the reins of their own government there was total chaos in Catland. The supply of catfood dwindled, rats disappeared from the rat farms, in fact a lot of cats starved to death. Crime spiraled out of control. Poverty, sickness, and squalor reigned. The few fat cats who ran the show grew fatter amidst the increasing corruption and wanton abandon. But the fat cats didn't care. they just got fatter. Some where so fat that when they sat they just rolled over like a soccer ball. Yara was one of the fat cats. But Yara was a sick fat cat.

One day Yara got sick and sneaked away to the vet on one of his visits. One day passed, One week passed, One month! Catland became very restless. Where is Yara? Was the questions on all the cats lips. since Yara became imperial ruler of the order of catland he had never spent that long at the vet's. Rumors started to spread that Yara the sick fat cat had passed on to the great beyond. Catland was in a state of chaos. The other fat cats fearing an uprising started to spread rumors that Yara was actually hale and hearty and that he was just taking a well deserved rest, but Catland wasn't buying the story. The clamors got louder. But no word from Yara. 50 days passed by, and the rumors were getting louder and louder. All of a sudden Catland media broadcasted an audio with a recording of a voice purported to be that of Yara claiming he was recovering well and would be back very soon to assume his rightful position as Grand Imperial Ruler. Catland was still split with a lot of disgruntled cats not satisfied with the explanation. Some claimed that the voice was not Yara's others said Yara or no Yara, "Yara must go"!

While all of this turmoil was going on in catland, a stray cat from catland haad gone to Dogland and attempted a failed attack (in protest of what he percieved as inhumane treatment of cats worlwide by the dogs) on the establishment there. The stray cat was apprehended and Catland was blacklisted in the international animal kingdom, and the cats were subjected to inhumane behaviors every time they attempted to visit or travel through Dogland. With all of the chaos in the animal kingdom between the cats and the dogs, Yara was no where to be found to engage the dogs diplomatically. The president of Dogland, a hybrid breed, his father was a cat and his mother a dog, had earlier became the president of Dogland against all odds. the dogs believed themselves superior to the cats and would have never let a cat or offspring of cats ever rise the position of president. But change had come to Dogland as a lot of restrictive policies had been relaxed and half dogs were allowed to engage in the doggy political process. After the failed stray attack the dogs blacklisted the cats from Catland, and the cats cried for the Yara's intervention on behalf of his country, Catland. But after a very loud silence from Yara, the rumors even got stronger that Yara had died, because it was unlikely that after such major Animal Kingdom incidents that Yara would remain silent.

But Yara was a stubborn cat, or was he? For an audio tape purported to be Yara had surfaced in which a voice claiming to be Yara had spoken to the cats of Catland from his sick bed ath vet in a far far away land. This voice was highly doubted to have been that of Yara's, and some even claimed that the voice was a synthesized voice to mimic that of Yara's. Needless to say, after 90 days of absence Yara was still to be seen or heard from by anyone in or outside of Catland. When the cats of Catland got fed up, and fears started to build in the polity based on the rumors of a possible takeover by the armed cats division, the cats of the legislative assembly finally passed a resolution to install Yara's deputy Grand Imperial leader as the Acting Grand Imperial Leader. This was a desperate bid by the cats of the ruling class to forestall any intervention by the Armed Cats division, who were known to be very ruthless in power. It was also a bid by the ruling fat cats to maintain their fat cat status by maintaining the status quo of a pseudo democracy cat-style. There was a lot of turmoil in Catland during this time. Cats loyal to Yara swore to go to any length to discredit or dethrone the new acting Grand Imperial Ruler. Cats loyal to the new acting Grand Imperial Ruler swore to entrench the acting Ruler as the permanent ruler. The saga continues.

To Be Continued....