The Cat played the part of a doctor and called on ailing birds. The Cat asked how they were and the birds answered they would be better off without the Cat.
Know your enemies.
A Cat, hearing that local Birds were ailing, dressed up as a doctor and went to call on them. He knocked on the door of the aviary saying that if they were ill he would be happy to minister to them. They replied that they were all well and would continue to be so as long as the Cat went away and left them alone.
Aesop For Children
A Cat was growing very thin. As you have guessed, he did not get enough to eat. One day he heard that some Birds in the neighborhood were ailing and needed a doctor. So he put on a pair of spectacles, and with a leather box in his hand, knocked at the door of the Bird’s home.
The Birds peeped out, and Dr. Cat, with much solicitude, asked how they were. He would be very happy to give them some medicine.
“Tweet, tweet,” laughed the Birds. “Very smart, aren’t you? We are very well, thank you, and more so, if you only keep away from here.”
Moral
Be wise and shun the quack.
Townsend version
A Cat, hearing that the Birds in a certain aviary were ailing dressed himself up as a physician, and, taking his cane and a bag of instruments becoming his profession, went to call on them. He knocked at the door and inquired of the inmates how they all did, saying that if they were ill, he would be happy to prescribe for them and cure them. They replied, “We are all very well, and shall continue so, if you will only be good enough to go away, and leave us as we are.”
Feles et Gallinae
Feles, cum audisset gallinario quodam in stabulo gallinas aegrotare, se medicum fingens, propriisque artis medicae instrumentis arreptis, ad eas confestim accessit et, ante stabulum adstans, quomodo se haberent interrogavit. Illae respondentes, “Optime quidem,” dixerunt, “si tu tamen hinc procul secesseris.”
Perry #007
