Gwen Markham is a character from the CBS Storybreak episode "Witch-Cat".
About Gwen[]
Gwen is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Markham, older sister of Jason and Deedee, and owner of Rosetta, and Dinki. She is a pre-teen, Caucasian girl with light brown hair worn in pigtails, which have cotton pink hairbands around them, and blunt bangs. She has black eyes; wears a cotton pink, short-sleeved shirt with folded collar; sometimes a blue jacket with a maroon lapel; light blue jeans; and white sneakers. Her Halloween costume is a bee outfit that includes the headpiece shaped like a bee's head; a mustard yellow tailcoat jacket; and a leotard with mustard yellow, and black stripes. Gwen is nice and good-hearted.
After having been paired with various owners over the centuries, the witch-cat, Rosetta, is told by The Queen Mother that Gweneth Markham is to be her latest owner, as the Queen Mother shows Rosetta in a vision. One night, when Gwen and her pair of female friends are walking home from a theater, Rosetta comes to her attention by jumping down from a tree. Gwen decides to take her in and keep her as her new pet. At home, Gwen asks her parents if Rosetta can live with them. Her mother begins to answer, but her father chimes in and says she might belong to someone else. Gwen checks the back of Rosetta's collar and sees her name on it, but no address.
The next morning, Rosetta magically causes the sound of fanfare to wake up Gwen. Gwen thinks it was the clock radio that sounded off, she turns it off, and goes back to sleep. Then, Rosetta uses magic to clean up her room, such as having books float onto the shelves and her clothes flown into the closet. When Gwen wakes up a second time, she's surprised to find her room suddenly tidy. Thinking her mom did this, she goes to the kitchen to inform her. Gwen is unaware of her magical connection to Rosetta.
Later, when Gwen and her friends head to her house, and more specifically the kitchen, they're taken by surprise that a tea set and desserts are on the table. They presume Gwen's babysitter, Susannah, set all of this up for them, but Susannah says it wasn't her, as she brought apples. As Gwen still hasn't figured out yet it was through the assistance of Rosetta, Rosetta is discouraged. Gwen asks her why she's so sad and hands her a cookie. When Gwen, Rosetta, and the pet Scottish Terrier, Dinki, are at a park, a larger dog begins messing around with Dinki. Gwen tells Dinki to fight back, but when he doesn't, she wishes he would. That wish comes true, as Rosetta gives Dinki the power to do this, simply by giving him a different, louder bark and this finally scares off the larger dog.
Another evening, Gwen comes back home and when she discovers Rosetta has gone missing, she asks her mom if she's seen her. Her mom says no, but she's sure she'll reappear. Gwen goes out to a cave, where her little siblings, Jason and Deedee, as well as a friend, went to explore, but they had already left, and Gwen is led there by Dinki. When the two get there, they find Rosetta in a crevice. Gwen wishes she had a rope to pull her out of it, and as her wish is her command, Rosetta conjures up a rope to give her. As Gwen frees her, she suddenly becomes super strong, once again due to magic, and is amazed by this.
On Halloween night, when Rosetta and Dinki are up a tree, they spot Gwen and her friends trick-or-treating. Each of the girls gets a pencil instead of candy in their trick-or-treat bags from someone known as Mr. Norton. Gwen and the others are very dissatisfied with this, so Rosetta magically replaces the pencils in their bags with raisin-embedded, chocolate candy bars. When the girls reach in their bags to find them, they're astonished but also satisfied and pleased nonetheless. The blonde friend thinks that Mr. Norton may be the magician behind this; the black friend begins to regret accusing him of being chintzy. The three carry on their way.
The next day, Gwen decides to go to the library to do some research on Rosetta and tells Dinki, as she brings him along and shares the candy bar she had gotten the night before with him. She looks through and reads an encyclopedia article on a cat breed called a familiar. She's shocked to find a cat in a picture who looks like Rosetta and that she's with Cleopatra. As Gwen reads the definition, she puts two and two together about Rosetta, and herself, then immediately heads back home. Gwen's parents ask her what's troubling her and she tells them about all the aforementioned, unusual experiences she's had over the past few days and nights. She believes that magic must be the only answer behind it all, but Mr. Markham doubts it, telling her there's a better explanation, like when she freed Rosetta from the crevice, she must've just thought it was magic that gave her the extra strength. When Gwen demonstrates and proves her magical abilities by making the dishes wash by themselves, she accidentally makes them fall onto the floor and break. She apologizes, but is frightened by this phenomenon. She's also upset about being a witch, due to witches' ugliness and evilness, and she'd rather be the way she was before: ordinary and normal. But not all witches are bad and ugly. Mrs. Markham tells her she shouldn't be overly concerned about this, because her gift is considered a blessing and that she has nothing to worry about, as long as she uses her magic for good, that is, white magic.
Gradually, Gwen comes to accept this, embrace it, and realizes that maybe being a witch isn't all that bad after all. She sees the advantages of having magical powers, as they make doing chores a lot easier for one. But she wishes she had company with whom to share her magical gifts. Both she and Dinki miss Rosetta and Gwen wishes she were with them again. She gets her wish once Rosetta appears and she's glad she's back. Gwen asks her if she'll help her with her newfound powers and Rosetta agrees with a meow. Dinki agrees by barking to help her out too, and the three of them concur to work together.