Sunday, December 02, 2018

This Week's Oz Short Story

This week's story from The Lost Tales of Oz is "Ali Cat in Oz" by Sam Sackett. In case that name is familiar, he was one of the co-authors of last week's story. This works out very well, as Ali is the cat that the Wizard found on the streets of New York and adopted. This story follows on directly from that, with Ali getting used to being in Oz and the Emerald City (it even takes him a while to figure out that he can talk). Having Toto and Bungle around take some getting used to as well! He doesn't have too long to figure out the Emerald City before he's carried away by a gryphon! Naturally, he escapes, but now he's somewhere in the wilds of Oz and must find his way back to the Emerald City. A farm couple take him in, but lock him in a barn to catch mice, which the mice certainly object to. He escapes, encounters some fish that also don't want to be eaten, and then comes to Fussbudget Municipality, which isn't very far, as you may guess, from Flutterbudget Center. Since the Fussbudgets want to shave Ali, he decides this isn't a place for him, either. Ali next comes to Kitty City, another Oz town inhabited by cats (this story implies that there are several). He doesn't get along with the Boss Cat, however, and wanders off again. He evetually finds a yellow brick road and catches a bus to the Emerald City, He finally wanders back into the Wizard's apartment, where he relates his adventures to his new friend.

Again, it's just a few adventures, but it sure is a great way for Ali to find out a little bit more about his new home and the rules of being a cat in it. There's also a subplot about how Ozma and the Wizard help Queen Ann of Oogaboo from getting restless again, but I'll leave that one alone for the readers to discover.

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