Tabby's travels: or the holiday adventures of a kitten

"Tabby's Travels" by Lucy Ellen Guernsey is a children's novel written in the mid-19th century. The tale follows a mischievous tortoiseshell kitten, Tabby, whose runaway spree leads to peril, kindness from strangers, and hard-won lessons about obedience, gratitude, and home. Blending an animal’s-eye view with domestic scenes, it introduces both affectionate caretakers and fretful, quarrelsome children whose choices shape Tabby’s fortunes.

The opening of the story shows Tabby sulking after a scolding, slipping out of her comfortable home into winter cold, failing at a first hunt, and being treed by a dog before George Warrington rescues her. In the Warrington household she is cherished by gentle, lame Theresa, targeted by the ill-tempered Agnes, and sent to the barn, where the dog Carlo saves her from rats and becomes her protector. Theresa feeds and shelters her, while Tabby, hearing her mother searching outside, longs to return home when the weather breaks. At a Christmas-eve gathering the Merriam children discover Tabby’s whereabouts; soon after, Agnes spitefully throws the kitten into the snow and then falls dangerously ill, leaving the family unaware of what has happened to the missing pet.