'The one-eyed cat' is a tale recorded in Eritrea in 2006 in vehicular Arabic from a Dahalik native speaker. The text is presented here in a phonemic transcription with glossing and a French translation. A brief analysis of its contents provides some information on the cultural background. The linguistic remarks confirm and supplement the first studies about this Arabic variety, which is in contact with Semitic languages (Dahalik, Arabic, Tigre, Tigrinya) and Cushitic ones (Afar, and Saho to a lesser extent). The analysis also shows some prosodic and phonetic processes used by the storyteller to stimulate and maintain the attention of the audience. Prologue Ce bref article est une marque de reconnaissance aux travaux de la professeure Lidia Bettini, particulièrement à ceux consacrés aux dialectes arabes et à la littérature orale, mais cette histoire de chat se veut aussi une manifestation d'amitié pour Lidia.