Characters: Narrator, Wrinkles the Dog, A Scruffy Kitten, Dog 1 (lines can be split up between several dogs)
Narrator: Would you like to hear a love story? Don’t worry; there’s no kissing in this one. This is a story about an old dog and a little kitten. Once upon a time, there was an old dog who really knew what it was to love.
Wrinkles: Love is lovely. Love is a many splendoured thing. I just love to love.
Narrator: He was patient and kind and very happy when something good happened to someone else, even if it didn’t happen to him. The dog was never rude and didn’t brag when he had done something good. He was a very loving dog.
Wrinkles: It’s true; I am a very loving dog.
Narrator:Â One day, a kitten wandered into the life of this dog.
Kitten:Â (Enter scruffy-looking kitten.) Meow….meow
Narrator: He found her cowering behind a garbage can. She was all dirty and half-starved.
The kitten, though she needed help, was frightened of the dog. And she hissed and spit when the dog came near. The dog was very patient, though, and even though the kitten scratched his nose and bit his ears, he gently carried it over to his own bowl of food and let it eat every last crumb.
Wrinkles: Aw, go ahead. I’m not really very hungry anyway.
Narrator: The kitten had a full tummy now and was stronger; and when the dog tried to wash its matted fur by licking the kitten, it snapped at the dog and scratched him even harder.
But the old dog’s love was patient and kind. It was not irritable. The old dog’s love did not insist on its own way. So the dog kept caring for the kitten.
Other dogs came around and looked at the raggedy kitten scratching the old dog every time he tried to help, and they told him,
Dog 1: “Why do you bother with that dirty little kitten? Look at all the scratches it has given you! You should give up on it.”
Narrator: But the old dog’s love never gave up, never lost faith, and it lasted through every difficulty. So the dog kept caring for the kitten.
By the end of a week, the dog had a very sore nose and chewed-up ears,
Dog 1: I told you; you should stay away from cats! Especially that cat! she’s nothing but trouble!
Narrator: …but the kitten looked much better. Its fur was clean and groomed and soft. Its little belly was plump. Its whiskers were straight, and its eyes were bright.
Kitten: Meow!
Narrator: And the next time the other dogs came around, there sat the loving old dog: his scratches were healed, and he was happily curled around a little purring ball of a kitten.
Dog 1: Wow! I don’t believe it! Is that the same cat? Remember that cat that you found by the garbage can? The one that smelled like a moldy, stinky old litterbox? The one that sounded like a strangled goose? the one that looked like warmed over roadkill at the end of a hot day in August? the one…
Wrinkles: All right! that’s enough. I know what the poor little kitten used to look like. But just look at her now!
Narrator: The old dog had not only saved the kitten’s life, he had also taught it how to love.
(Here the narrator may ask the audience discussion questions:)
What do you think made that kitten change? How did the old dog teach the kitten about love? (Let children answer.) Let’s read 1 Corinthians 13. It teaches us a lot about love. (Read the scriptures.)
Prayer: Lord, teach us to love you more and more, and help us love one another just as you love us.
(By Ruth Gilmore; copyright 2001.)
[…] my vent puppet, Truthful the Lion, and we continue as best we can segueing into the puppet show, “A Love Story with No Kissing.”  That part goes fine, but I am still frustrated by the failure of the music to play upon launch of […]