A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

Shelton’s Two Little Cats names their pursuer a Handre and describes great teeth used to crunch small victims, enormous eyes, and hands and feet like claws. Frightened cats collect a cow, dog, crow and snake, together with talking ashes, needles and peas, to defend their home. The account supplies no Tibetan spelling or broader classification of the name; these features belong to the particular monster in this telling.

Once inside, the Handre is pecked by the crow at the water vessel, bitten by the snake at the bread trough and pricked by the needles in bed. Ashes fall into his eyes, and peas hurt his feet on the stairs. He falls onto the cow’s horns, is tossed to the dog and is eaten. The cats then supper safely. His supposed flight through the window is explicitly the narrator’s guess, not a firmly narrated power. A footnote credits the telling to six-year-old Lora MacLeod, who had left Tibet about eight months earlier; that precise mediated attribution is retained.

Large teeth and eyesClawed hands and feetDefeated by gathered allies
01

Origins & earliest records

Named child-told account in Shelton’s Tibetan collection

02

Records & interpretation

Complete tale including its final punishment directly read.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Tibetan Folk Tales

    A. L. Shelton; edited by Flora Beal Shelton; tale credited to Lora MacLeod · 1925

    XXXI, The Two Little Cats, pp.128–130, including footnote128:1

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Primary records and illustrations

Direct primary record

A. L. Shelton, Tibetan Folk Tales (1925)

XXXI. The Two Little Cats, pp.128–130 and footnote128:1

Complete tale/footnote read. Lora MacLeod age6, out of Tibet about8months, explicitly credited. Flight only narrator presumption; dog actually eats Handre, no revival.

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References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical English tale with named teller footnoteShelton, The Two Little Cats, XXXI, pp.128–130Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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