One afternoon, a strange bird landed in the birdbath at the far corner of the yard & proceeded to squawk & stomp in the water.
The bird got louder and louder. It seemed to be taunting him.
Harold didn't like that.
He lunged for the bird, but it flew up & just out of his reach.
The chase was on. Harold was determined to get the noisy intruder.
The backdoor creaked open. Footsteps tap-tap-tapped across the patio.
Harold knew it was Mrs. Pitt, but he paid no mind to her. He was too busy chasing the offending bird from one corner of the yard to the other.
It landed on a fence post & stared down at him.
Harold jumped & stretched as high as he could. His sharp claws caught the bird's tail feathers. When he landed, a single tail feather came with him.
The bird squawked angrily. It rose high in the air, then suddenly swooped down, aiming for Harold's head.
Harold ran for the house with the bird close behind. Mrs. Pitt had her back turned to the chaos behind her. Suddenly, cat & bird collided with a table full of glass bottles & a bubbling cauldron.
Glass shattered. The cauldron tipped over. The smoking, goopy liquid inside oozed across the patio. Harold could not stop himself in time and slid into the goop. He reached out with a clawed paw for any solid surface to pull himself out, but yanked the bird with him instead.
Suddenly, there was an explosion of light. Mrs. Pitt gasped. The light faded. Harold wasn't Harold anymore. From the neck down, Harold was a bird. He looked up at her and squawked.
Mrs. Pitt tried every spell she could think of to return Harold back to normal, but nothing worked.
Years passed and Mrs. Pitt kept trying to return Harold to normal.
Harold discovered that being half cat & half bird wasn't so bad. He found freedom in soaring the skies. and He was the fastest, & only, cat-bird around. The mixture of bird seed and cat food was quite tasty, too.
One evening, after a particularly large meal, Harold burped & a burst of fire shot across the room. Thankfully, Mrs. Pitt put the fire out just in time, but she was more baffled than ever & returned to her spellbook in search of answers.