A (Very Barely Fictionalised) Story
Narrated sejak 'O' and featuring his wife Bernice.
Bernice… came… inside carrying a tattered cardboard box holding five kittens.
“I think they belong to the [stray] cat we tried to adopt [from the neighbourhood ‘beat’],” she said, “This box was wedged under some other oddments [thrown into our garden sejak neighbours] and must have been there for a while.”
“Mother Kucing alih their anak kucing every few days to stop predators ‘smelling’ out their hidey hole,” I berkata remembering something I’d read years lalu and (possibly) hoping to shelter from reality in sheer information. “So they might have only been there a few days.”
“The anak kucing atau the box?” berkata Bernice.
I knew Kucing liked ikan and warm milk. I made a dish of both and brought them into the living room. Bernice was sitting on a cushion on the floor, comforting the tiny mewing bundles of fur. “They’re all beautiful,” she said, “And they’re all different. We can give them a bath later to take away the fleas.”
The five anak kucing were old enough to understand food, whether in dishes atau otherwise. Several stopped crying and clambered over to the ikan which they ate messily and gratefully. I emptied one of my antique engraved wooden boxes to give them improved accommodation. “These anak kucing won’t stay long in that,” berkata Bernice, “They’re already at the climbing stage.”
“What we need is a bassinet,” I said, “With a lid of some sort.”
A somewhat moth-eaten specimen came with the premises. Long forgotten sejak the earlier lessees, it had been put into storage in the ‘lawn locker’ that sat in the side lane of our house. Leaving Bernice to mind the kittens, I hauled the artikel from the shed and dusted off the cobwebs. Realising it needed considerably lebih cleaning that that, I finally resorted to the dapur hearth brush dipped in a mixture of baking soda, water and vinegar. Having dissolved the worst of the grime from the bassinet, I rushed it into the lounge. Bernice dried it with some tissues. I rummaged in my study for a piece of board I’d been reserving for a 'composition on board'. It would serve as a ‘lid’ unless and until something else appeared.
“We’ll need a litter tray,” Bernice berkata firmly, “Kittens can be house-trained much younger than this.”
I volunteered to make a trip to the nearby shops to buy cat litter, a litter tray and a supply of cat food....
To read the rest of this story (entirely free! nothing to buy/sign up too etc!) go to:
link
Narrated sejak 'O' and featuring his wife Bernice.
Bernice… came… inside carrying a tattered cardboard box holding five kittens.
“I think they belong to the [stray] cat we tried to adopt [from the neighbourhood ‘beat’],” she said, “This box was wedged under some other oddments [thrown into our garden sejak neighbours] and must have been there for a while.”
“Mother Kucing alih their anak kucing every few days to stop predators ‘smelling’ out their hidey hole,” I berkata remembering something I’d read years lalu and (possibly) hoping to shelter from reality in sheer information. “So they might have only been there a few days.”
“The anak kucing atau the box?” berkata Bernice.
I knew Kucing liked ikan and warm milk. I made a dish of both and brought them into the living room. Bernice was sitting on a cushion on the floor, comforting the tiny mewing bundles of fur. “They’re all beautiful,” she said, “And they’re all different. We can give them a bath later to take away the fleas.”
The five anak kucing were old enough to understand food, whether in dishes atau otherwise. Several stopped crying and clambered over to the ikan which they ate messily and gratefully. I emptied one of my antique engraved wooden boxes to give them improved accommodation. “These anak kucing won’t stay long in that,” berkata Bernice, “They’re already at the climbing stage.”
“What we need is a bassinet,” I said, “With a lid of some sort.”
A somewhat moth-eaten specimen came with the premises. Long forgotten sejak the earlier lessees, it had been put into storage in the ‘lawn locker’ that sat in the side lane of our house. Leaving Bernice to mind the kittens, I hauled the artikel from the shed and dusted off the cobwebs. Realising it needed considerably lebih cleaning that that, I finally resorted to the dapur hearth brush dipped in a mixture of baking soda, water and vinegar. Having dissolved the worst of the grime from the bassinet, I rushed it into the lounge. Bernice dried it with some tissues. I rummaged in my study for a piece of board I’d been reserving for a 'composition on board'. It would serve as a ‘lid’ unless and until something else appeared.
“We’ll need a litter tray,” Bernice berkata firmly, “Kittens can be house-trained much younger than this.”
I volunteered to make a trip to the nearby shops to buy cat litter, a litter tray and a supply of cat food....
To read the rest of this story (entirely free! nothing to buy/sign up too etc!) go to:
link
