Blackie is a stray cat born on a rooftop. Blackie relates the highlights of her short life with the hope of evoking human compassion to stray animals.
The Life and Times of a Stray Feline, Blackie’s Story
by
Regino L. Gonzales, Jr.
Asian Institute of Technology
Thailand
We were strays. We did not have a permanent refuge like some of our kind who lived with their masters.
I was born inside a wooden crate left by the builders on the roof of an apartment building in the campus of an Institute. My mother must have thought that was the safest place to deliver me. There, she would not need to worry about my safety while she scrounges for her meals on the ground beneath our dwelling.
Every morning, I suckle Mother's milk then she goes down to the ground. After some time, she comes back to feed and play with me, goes down again and returns late at night. When we sleep, I snuggle to the comforting warmth of her body.
My days at the rooftop were wonderful times. There was ample space to amble around and cockroaches to chase for fun. Sometimes ever-singing birds perched on nearby trees taunt me to catch them. I had wished I have wings to glide on the wind and soar with those boastful creatures.
The rooftop was a vantage point to scan the surrounding grounds. My favorite spot was a corner, shaded by a tree, overlooking a concrete foot path. From there, I saw humans feeding grains of rice to cheerful little birds and bread crumbs to the fishes in the nearby pond. I also saw some of them fed my mother.
On sunny days I spent time observing and studying the humans who caught my eyes. In most of them, I discerned kindness; in few, indifference and even callousness. All of them seemed to adore the same Creator who made all of us, although they addressed Him by different names.
Mother taught me that the grounds spanning around our building is a dangerous place for young ones like me. The Institute security guards were under instruction to catch us to be dumped to a far place where we could not disturb its human residents. There were also menacing dogs that could bite us to death. Thus, I had to content myself with just scanning the horizon from the roof of our dwelling hoping that, one day, I will gain the courage to explore that dangerous ground below.
I was contented with having the rooftop as my abode. I know which crevice to take shelter in when it rains and which to take refuge during windy days and stormy nights. And mother always brought food whenever she comes up.
Life was normal until one fateful day. Mother suddenly came scared and shaking, having barely escaped from her would-be catcher. She told me that the Institute’s security guards have intensified their campaign to weed us out of the campus. Many of her friends were caught, bundled inside jute sacks and brought to sacred places where humans in orange garb allow our kind to stay. Mother told me of the whispers amongst the feline community that too many of us in the campus would place the Institute in a bad light.
Evening came and sensing that I was hungry, mother licked my head and bade good bye, saying that she will scrounge for food and let me suckle later when there’s enough milk in her glands. When she was gone, I went to the edge of the roof and saw several humans in khaki suits bearing flashlights and carrying sacks. I heard the pleading cries of the creatures packed inside those sacks. The whole night, I did not sleep waiting for mother. But she never came back.
For many days and nights I stood at the edge of rooftop, where I could be seen by passing humans, crying on top of my voice hoping to catch their attention. Some did look my way sympathetically but I was beyond their reach.
Hunger began to take its toll. My legs were weakening and my cries became fainter and fainter. My normally sharp vision was getting blurred. Even the usually boastful birds on the trees have stopped singing and looked at me with sympathy. I was frightened to die a lonely death. Mother once told me that the Creator has endowed us with many lives. I thought mine was being expended very fast.
Relief came on the day I thought to be my last. It was brought forth by an aging man with sad eyes. Few days earlier, I noticed him passing several times on the foot path below my elevated dwelling, looking in my direction every time he passed by. Using a portable ladder and through a hatch to the rooftop, Sad-Eyes, together with other kind humans, came up and tried to catch me. I was so scared that I ran away from them.
Failing to get close to me, Sad-Eyes placed bowls of food and water near the hatch. When he could not see me anymore after closing the hatch, I ate the food from one bowl and drank water from another. He kept the same routine in the next few days and I regained some of my strength.
One time when Sad-Eyes climbed to the rooftop with, with the usual bowl of food, I found courage to come close to him. He got the opportunity to snatch me and gently brought me down to the floor beneath his ladder. It was the first time I have set foot on a shiny floor surface.
Sad-Eyes brought to me to his room, fed me, and nursed me back to health. I responded to his kindness in a feline’s way of expressing gratitude to our masters. I bumped my head and rubbed my furry body against his legs at every opportunity. Mother would have been delighted to know that I finally belong.
Sad-Eyes’ apartment became my new home. Whenever he went out, I followed him and learned to tread the grassy plains around our building while avoiding the dangers that mother had me warned about. I even managed to make friends with some of our kind who prowled the plains.
There was a defining moment in my existence under Sad-Eyes’ care. A venomous snake once got menacingly close to him. Knowing the way of reptiles, I posted myself between the beast and my master and crouched in fighting posture. I stared into its eyes and raised my paws waiting for the attack. The beast declined the challenge, turned around and slithered away. Mother would have been very proud of that feat.
Having lived with Sad-Eyes for many moons, I learned to decipher his thoughts and feelings. But I was still unable to understand other humans, especially about the things that mattered most to them.
One day, I messed up some inanimate objects owned by a lady living in an adjacent apartment. The lady was so angry that she complained to the Institute authority that a pet is staying in a room adjacent to hers and that something should be done about it because keeping pets is prohibited by the Institute.
The Institute officer informed Sad-Eyes of the complaint. Frustrated, Sad-Eyes muttered to himself, “Animals have lived in this place freely before people came… can we just live and let live?”
Sad-Eyes agonized for days on what to do with me. I sensed from his aura that he was thinking of finding a kind master willing to adopt me. Earlier, I learned from my prowler friends that he had previous feline pets before me whom he successfully found a sympathetic keeper, a little girl whose family loves our kind. I could only pray that Sad-Eyes will find a way to keep me with him.
The Creator must have heard my prayers. Days later, Sad-Eyes carried me to his office, opened one of its windows and lowered me gently to a terrace floor outside. Bowls of food and water followed.
He brought me to a new world, a cluster of terraced buildings connected by a roofed ground walkway. Big trees and crystal ponds surrounded the walkway. Birds sang and nested on the trees and fishes of different colors swam joyfully in the ponds. It took me only a short time to find my own shelter in this new world, a hidden nook in Sad-Eyes’ building, one-leap below his office.
Life in my new place was fun and peaceful. My chosen refuge was one floor above the ground, thus safe from our would-be catchers and other unfriendly denizens on the ground. In the morning I leap to Sad-Eyes’ office above my floor and crouch by his window basking in the glow of the morning sunlight while waiting for him. When he arrives, he unfailingly opens his window to allow me into his office. There I jump around the chairs, bump my head and grind my body against his legs and sometimes sit on his table looking at him do his writing work. He would later lower me back to the floor of the terrace and place bowls of food and water for my daily meal. Sometimes my newfound friends join me in my meals.
When I wanted fun, I would jump down to the walkway’s rooftop, run around its expansive space and explore the surrounding buildings where kind humans occasionally gave me food. Sometimes I challenge the birds to come down from their trees so that I can chase them but they never heeded my call.
I’m a female feline. In my new place, I even found the freedom to mate with male friends I enjoyed going with. For countless moons I relished my new life and freedom.
I did not expect that good things could suddenly come to an end when friends told me that Sad-Eyes will someday have to stop coming to work. I noticed that melancholy started to engulf Sad-Eyes’ demeanor. On occasions, I tried to divert his depressive mood by doing mischief like chewing and tearing papers on his table and scratching the furniture in his office. Sometimes these little deeds distracted him from sadness but sometimes it did not.
Sad-Eyes was worried about life without his usual work, a state humans call retirement. He was also worried where to settle me before he goes.
I did not want him to go with a heavy heart and had to find a way to do so as his retirement day was approaching.
Not far from Sad-Eyes’ building is a pristine and tranquil knoll covered by a canopy of tree branches and hidden by surrounding flowering plants. I did choose this secret spot to contemplate on what the Creator wills about my present and future existence.
On an early morning, a half moon before Sad-Eyes’ final day at work, I walked slowly to the knoll, pondering along the way, the good memories that will be with me until such time when I shall have been reborn. These were memories of a mother who lost her life looking for food that her body system will convert to milk for a hungry offspring, of the singing birds in bountiful trees and colorful fishes in crystal ponds, and of a kind human whose compassion for all living creations is exemplified in four simple words- “Live and Let Live”.
Before reaching the knoll, I turned around and bade a silent goodbye to Sad-Eyes, my beloved master.
Sad-Eyes left the Institute convinced that I have mercifully gone to the Ultimate Keeper.
My master called me Blackie, once a black stray cat. Now, in my seventh reincarnation, I exist as a feisty little kitten under the loving care of Sad-Eyes’ daughter.
This is my story which I left in Sad-Eyes' memory. He wrote it for me.
I loved Blackie's story, Regino. It was so very beautiful and heartfelt, and truly written as a cat would write it! It found a special place in my heart, as I have taken in two stray cats of my own. One, like Blackie, was malnourished and in pretty sad shape. Three years later, I believe he thinks I am the one who got lucky that day I found him. And he's probably right!
Jean
Heartfelt write filled with many loving descriptions and characters.
Exquisite inspirational narrative told from a different view point.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading "The Life and Times of a Stray Feline, Blackie’s Story."
This was a very unique story and what a wonderful idea to tell from a different pov.
Blessings and all the best to you,
From the Heart of an Artist...
God Bless you and your compassionate, loving view of this life. As your biography says, you are trying to be a writer of inspirational stories but I would say you most definitely ARE a writer of inspirational stories. Beautiful work.
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