It was late in the late summer. It was cool. There was a light rain coming down, more heavy mist than drizzle, interspersed with sudden bursts of heavier downpours. The sky was blanketed with dark blue.
Her name was Oldy. When I've found her she had no hair, looking so ugly and sick, so small, like a mouse with the hidious screaming mews that went on nerve to all neighbors. She was crying out for help loudly when I saw her because local children were trying to put stick to her bum, torturing little ugly duckling. It was early morning 2 o'clock and I was coming back from the nightclub half drunk. Even I felt dizzy; I couldn't miss my Oldy. As she was so small and ugly I said to myself. "What the Hell is this ugly animal?" So I took it in my hand and carried to my flat.
My mother noticed right away, she was against keeping pets in the house so she came dressed in her nightwear to my room saying.
"This cat is going out tomorrow".
Oldy was unprotected and alone, heavily hurt, missing her mom, so as soon as we landed on my bed, she immediately started to purrs and gently claws. Happily she was consummated jester, kicking and casting the shadows, conquered as the invisible fights with invisible things in the room.
Later on I spend days begging my mom to let me keep this cat. I took her to a vet , it took the whole summer for my Oldy to get her hairs back. The vet was perdicting death, suggesting me to put her in sleep in exchange for an other kitten. I refused wandering how come that such ugly little thing gets me so deep. Soon Oldy grow up and became most beautiful cat all around. Everybody liked her. We live on the first floor so sometimes she would get confused mooing in front of the someone else's doors, but almost all neighbors would enjoy escorting her to our doors, ringing our bell instead of her. Soon she learns that sometime she doesn't even need to mew, instead she would just say something that remanded on Mew.
I adored my Oldy, learning to speak her language. So if she would ask me for food in the kitchen, I would mew her back for approval. My mother was always screaming on her saying
"That bloody cat, get away from me"
While we watched telly. Still Oldy knew that my mom loved her deep bellow, because early in the morning while everybody were sleeping she would get out to feed her first and get some privacy to chat with her saying. "What do You want You stupid cow, You eat yesterday, why Do You want to eat now, You not gonna get that meat that Rada left You yesterday from the lunch I gonna eat that, not You!!!",
she would say putting the meat that I've left for Oldy in her mouth even if she hated to eat salammas.
"Yak, I hate these salammas, they suck, but I'm not gonna let that stupid cat to have it."
Oldie's best friend was neighbor's cat Sax, who had exactly the same situation at home as my Oldy had. All in the family adored him, but the father who was heavily jealous on Sax because his wife would pay more attention on Sax than on him. Late at night, after the work, she would get him the nice juicy big steaks from the restaurant where she 's working. At first, his wife thought that the reason why Sax would wait for her on the station [Sax knew exactly when and where to wait for her, just like a dog] every night after her work shift, was pure love, to find out later that her husband jealous as he was, wouldn't wanted to feed him during the day locking him up with the cat from the street, in the big box with the wholes so he could watch the bloody fight between two cats. When the wife found out about it, she wouldn't let her husband have any meat, giving everything best during the rare lunchtime together, to Sax. So once in a while, my Oldie and Sax use to get together in !
adventure of taking the nice warm peace of meat off her husband, during his having lunch time rituals. They would hide under the table, waited for him to put warm steak on the table and to turn around to get something behind, than grab the steak and ran to the next room under the bed. No one knew for this because the man was afraid that someone from his family would find out that he doesn't feeds Sax at all. Until one day I didn't came along to Ask for my Oldie, seeing absolutely comic view of my neighbor holding the knife and the fork in his hands, running for the cats saying
"Sax, give me back my steak, that's my dinner, you get yours tonight"
I couldn't stop laughing for ages, and even now when I see him, it makes me laugh imagining just a sight that I've seen that afternoon. Oldy and Sax were most capricious pets; their eyes were living kaleidoscopes, whipping through a playful carnivorous mind.
Oldy was delivering kitties couple times in the closet of my room. My mother was always screaming at her, but even than she was successfully putting up herself with kitties in the house. Sometimes we would have 5 or 6 of them sitting on every char or bed. Oldy liked to sit beside my mom in TV room because my mom was the only person who wouldn't touch her while she watched television, always screaming and saying
"Get away you bloody cat, it is too warm here, get away I'm boiling hot"
Oldy would just take a coolest look at her saying something that remanded on mews, hunting visions of the light and shadow far surpassed in drama above her.
Only once my mother scared Oldy to death. That day we left the house forgetting to let her out thinking that we will be back soon. She was pregnant than, and she had to go to a toilet, so she went to do it in the bathtub on the whole where water runs out, hoping that my mother won't find out. As it was a lots, peace of it didn't went through the whole, so to cover up the mess she just sat at the whole pretending that she's just resting in the bath tab by chance. Of course, my mother felt the terrible smell right from the start, screaming at her like mad woman. Oldy got so scared and confused that much that she couldn't get out of the bathtub avoiding the water run led by my mother to clean up the mess. Even now that part of the bathtub is having the traces of her claws while she was desperately wanted to get out of the tab and safe herself the frustration of the complete wetness.
Oldy was most intelligent cat ever, I Am sure about it. I Am sure that God let me have the bliss to live with most intelligent cat in the world. Books about cats are oftenly said that 3 colored female cats are most intelligent. Sometimes as we had lots of cats to feed, she would go out to hunt herself food and save the rest for her kitties. However she was incredible in hunt, all other domestic cats were fat more or less, but not my Oldy. Because she kept the habit to hunt, she had most beautiful shiny colors on her back, with the long long Whiskas and hairs, looking so natural and elegant, showing the pride and grace of the nature in every moment. Sometime it would happen that she was waiting for someone to open the doors of the building for hours on the cold cold winter. In these moments she would just sat and wait for neighbors to come and open the doors. And if the person wouldn't let her first to pass through that building doors, passing himself first, she would just keep!
on waiting for someone to do that with grace and respect for Her Majesty. There was almost no person who wouldn't talk to her in passing, on her way out or in the flat.
But, beside Sax's owner, she had one more enemy. This woman knew my parents for almost 30 years and she knew that mother is in generally against keeping animals in the house, so slowly she would turning her against us to kick out the cats. To do that she would make up stories such as our Oldy went on toilet in front of her doorstep. No one believed that, as everybody knew that cats don't do that on the people's doorsteps and how incredibly clean animals they are. Perhaps she was doing it once in a while as she probably knew that this neighbor woman hates her. The top of the cream was one day when she set up the huge shit taken from the dog probably as it was unbelievable to be so huge and done by Oldy, on her doorstep, complaining my mother about it, showing her the planted evidence. My mother came home saying
"I want these cats out, we can't effort to feed them, I done You the favor agreeing to keep the cats now You do me a favor and kick them out".
There was nothing that we could do. The cats together with Oldy have been moved to the far relative's, on the country. This relative is old lady who adores cats and dogs, living on the huge green park. Oldy enjoyed her knew family, building the slight hostility to us coming to visit her because she blamed us for her kitties at the time being strangled by fox. Around this park there was a huge duck hunt aria, with lots of birds, foxes, even dears. Our relative's late husband was animal preparatory, so she had plenty of dead animals in her house as a museum. Oldy knew that these animals are not alive enjoying the closeness with her new family. This old lady didn't allow other kitties and cats to cross her doorstep, only Oldy had that privilege.
Oldy had most original way to show affection to somebody. If I was crying or being sad and depressed because of something, she would sat for ages on my stomach waiting for me to wake up, to lick and sniff a little bit my face, mewing the real alive conform on cat's language. For her new patron, she use to hunt little birds leaving it dead on my relative's doorstep, as a gift and gratitude to be taken care of so good. And if some of her kitties would dare to take the bird meant for her landlord, this kitten would get punished, slapped by Oldy immediately. Because she was hunting the birds for them equally, so there was no reason for her offspring to be hungry about some else's gift.
Also as she lives alone, every single hunter around knows that visits after the nightfalls can be fatale because this lady would shoot anyone in the dark, outside her house. That afternoon my Oldy was taking a usual visit to the hunter's field looking for birds to catch just for the sport sake, as she was fed in the house any way. Accidentally one duckhunter shoot her in million peaces. As they all knew who's cat was that, they came near the house to apologies to new Oldy's landlord, for shooting her cat, forgetting the rule about Lady shooting everyone after the dark. The gunshot was loud, but happily missing the hunters, smashing the tier on someone 's car parked on the road nearby.
"We didn't see her, we are so sorry, please forgive us." The hunters spend all night apologizing.
"Never mind, half of the cats in the neighborhood are Oldy's offspring, I'll get an other cat soon. Still, to bad, she was intelligent cat ever."
Lady said. I have cried and cried when I heard the news. Oldy was more than just the pet to me.
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Djurica's Story List and Biography