"I Didn't Ask To Be Smart"

"The Tail of Danny Whiskers."
By Fawaz Al-Matrouk.
Illustration by JACEY.
First appearance: Nature/Futures, 2 August 2018.
Short short short story (1 page).
Online at Nature.com (HERE; PDF).

     "Serious law. Serious time. There’s two fugitives from it now. An old man and his cat, last seen heading north from California. Talkative cat. Described as ‘uppity’."

You may recall when Alice encountered the Cheshire Cat and asked for directions:

    "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
   "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
   "I don't much care where —" said Alice.
   "Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.

For Dr. Tarboush, however, it matters very much which way you go . . .

Resource:
- Our story seems to be Fawaz Al-Matrouk's first publication (ISFDb; HERE).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~