Chapter 2 - 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!
(to be continued.....)
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