Chapter 1- The conversion of a non believer to a cat worshipper
The accident
It was an early summer
day, a nice pleasantly warm day and I was late for school in the afternoon (although the school it was only five minutes away from my home). You see in my
country of origin in those days we used to go to school at different times in different days!
We had, what someone might call shifts, three days (Monday to Wednesday) we'd go
to school in the mornings from 8 to 13.30 and two days in the afternoon
(Thursday and Friday) from 2.30 to 7 pm. Occasionally we would change and we'll be in the unlucky shift, from Monday to
Wednesday going to school in the afternoons and then on Thursdays and Fridays we'd go to
school in the mornings, which of course it meant that we had only a few hours
on Wednesday evening to do any homework and hopefully no extra after
school sessions in the private school everybody
used to go, either for learning English
(as you didn't learn much at the normal school) or for some assistance and hopefully some understanding with the science subjects (maths, physics and
chemistry) or later for preparation for the University exams which also
included Latin, History, Ancient Greek and Essay writing. Yes, in my days we
didn't have much time after school for anything else than more study...forget
playing games or watching TV...such luxuries were only permitted some weekends, ha!
Anyway back to that summer
day and to myself rushing to go to school. My home where I was born and lived
all my childhood was a ground floor only building which it was build when my
mum was pregnant with me and got finished just before I was born, and which was
a typical suburban house with a decent size garden and not that very high
fences, just high enough to give some privacy from the neighbours and the
purrfect walking, sleeping, resting and watching platform for the many at that
time feral cats. Along with the accommodating fences, we also had a very
inviting (to cats and mice) shed in the garden where many cats would then use for
hiding, catching a few snacks, snoozing and occasionally as a nursery...Our
dog, Betty, of course wasn't very happy with the whole situation, being
surrounded with so many cats she couldn't get to, especially since she was
'moved' on the roof, where she didn't have to kept tied up as on the roof there were no
plants to destroy and garden soil to dig....So she would normally go into
barking fits for a while, till it was dinner and snoozing time of course.
Naturally the cats were aware of Betty and also of the fact that she couldn't
get to them so at times they would not only ignore her but also tease her...you
know, sometimes it looked like they're saying something in which human terms
could have translated to:...'you can bark as much as you like but you can get
to us, really you stupid dog'!
Although either of my
parents were crazy about cats, they would just tolerate them because of the many mice
we used to get because of the bird feed we always had around and the many available
hiding places in the old garden shed and bird cages and chicken coop, which we had to have because of
my little obsession with chicks (although when they were too young and
vulnerable I would keep them in the house...till they were ready to move to the
outside coop that is). So we'd frequently feed them (the cats that is of
course) to make sure that they'd stay around to keep the rodent population in
control. But as the life expectancy of all the feral cats was usually only a
few months to a couple of years if they were really lucky, different cats will
occasionally appear and quickly disappear with only a female long hair tubby
being a semi-permanent resident on our garden for quite a while...as for the
male cats, well, they were really hard to keep around for very long as
everybody knows that unneutered males tend to roam far and to have big
territorial areas, along for being rather musical at certain times of the year
when the mating season was on, usually or when other males would appear and try
to claim their territory...Yes they were loud indeed, singing for hours at most
inconvenient times when the rest of the neighbourhood was trying to sleep!
But at that time of my
'accident', a few weeks before, this
ginger tom cat, who was quite big for a feral and not well cared cat appeared out of the blue and who seemed to be in charge and control of all the other cats that were around
at the time and who seemed, at least at the time, to always be there,
observing me every time I would venture outside in the garden. I must admit and
because of my general at the time fear and general ignorance of cats I was really intimidated by him
and didn't like that cat at all. I thought that there was something menacing and
evil about him and that he looked like waiting to find the right moment to attack
me.
All feral cats were always wary and scared of
people and for a good reason of course for being so as many people those days
would mistreat them and generally be very cruel to cats with some even going to the
extremes and actually drowning and even
poisoning cats just for fun...
Actually, there is nothing
worse than witnessing a poisoned cat having a fit and dying in front of you in
total agony and not being able to do anything for that poor animal. Even those
days when I didn't really like cats, even then the sight of a suffering and
dying cat was a horrible experience, one which made me frequently wonder what
was wrong with humans, why on earth they appear to enjoy torturing and killing in
such cruel manners other animals...and quite frequently those days it wasn't only cats but
dogs too, especially puppies which they would sometimes drown again for 'fun'...
Now and when at times I
think about those times when I was growing up and when I frequently came up across acts
of unprovoked cruelty and torture
towards innocent animals which their only crime seemed to be that they were born
at the wrong time and in the wrong place and being also fully aware that some people even today, they can be really
cruel, l know that one of the many
reasons that I'm a firmly supporter of keeping your cats permanently indoors is
because I want to protect them from human cruelty and sometimes unprovoked
sheer hate. There is no such place as a cat friendly environment out there
where humans live and that is the honest and perhaps unpleasant truth!
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| Ozzy posing for the camera |
to be continued....hopefully part 5 of my book will be posted here very soon!
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