My sister Valentina firmly believes she will live forever and ever. Given the events of the last few years, I tend to believe her.
How many times have the vets, even the best ones, predicted the end of her life!
“You know,” they say to mum with a serious look, “she’ll only be here for a week or two.” They look at mum with compassion, surprised by her lack of concern. This woman just doesn’t care about her kitty, they think. But she does, a lot. Only, mum knows Valentina well. She knows that this cat will never give up fighting.
And when mum takes Valentina back a few months later for some problem or other, the vets are astonished: “Valentina! She is still around?” they say in amazement. And mum smiles proudly, so happy to be the mum of such a brave, stubborn cat!
It all started one Friday afternoon.
We were alone at home. Well, not quite. Laura, the cleaning lady, was there to look after us.
In the evening, when her work day was over, she made us all come inside. Mum doesn’t want us to be outside when she’s not home. I mean, I break that rule a lot because I’m not worried about anything. I have been through so much in my life already. I’m tough! I even defeated the yellow monster! Well, almost. . .
But that evening, I had been asleep on the patio and was taken by surprise, so I went inside with the others.
Once Laura thought we were all in the house, she closed the windows and doors, put the shutters down, grabbed her handbag and left.
She didn’t count us, as mum usually does, to make sure we were all there. Big mistake! A mistake that had dramatic consequences.
We went upstairs to the kitchen to get something to eat – there is always plenty of biscuits available in our house because mum is afraid we will “starve”. And we do pretend to starve quite often – every time there’s the aroma of chicken or fish coming from the kitchen!
After having a snack, each of us found his or her favourite basket for a little nap while waiting for mum. She was particularly late that evening, so we had to wait for hours. Finally, we heard the sound of the key in the lock. Mum! We all jumped up, ran to the front door and welcomed her with joy, excitement and some annoyance. The “where have you been all day” and “why are you so late” questions were pouring in from all sides. Daddy cat demanded a special evening meal as compensation – he ordered treats and tuna and ham and fish and more treats. We all agreed, but some of us refused to eat because the dishes served did not completely meet our expectations of the desired menu. Ah, the service is getting worse everywhere these days, even in our kitchen!
With all that excitement and turmoil, nobody had noticed that Valentina wasn’t with us. She usually didn’t eat any food other than kibbles.
After filling our tummies, we ran to mum’s bedroom and jumped on her bed, as we usually do when it’s time to sleep. We stretched all over the place, made ourselves comfortable and started calling for mum in a somewhat impetuous way. Was she finally going to join us? What was she doing now? What was the point of all that showering and pampering? Ah, women, you know. . . Finally, she walked into the bedroom, but it again took her some time to decide what pyjamas to wear, as if wearing her best bedtime attire would be necessary! Look at us, do we change our coats each day? When all was settled, it was time for cuddles, our favourite moment of the day. We purred and purred and rubbed our heads against mum’s hands, curled around her and fell asleep.
But not for long. All of a sudden, mum woke up, leapt out of bed and hurried out the bedroom. Naturally we followed her.
Mum is in the best position to tell you what happened next.
“Suddenly, something woke me up. Yet there was no noise. There was in fact a deep silence in the house, a heavy, uneasy, somehow distressing silence. What was it? I had never felt this before. Instinctively, I began to count the cats. They were all around me. Except Valentina.”
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Your mum was lucky to meet so many nice helpful humans. And Valentina is one tough kitty!