My White Cat
Ever since I was born, people have noted my disposition in humanity and docility.They always described me of having a tender heart which is actually very evident such that most of the children in the neighborhood always liked my company. I was also very friendly to animals to an extent that my parents bought several pets for me. I felt satisfied and happy when I spent time with my animals and especially when feeding, caressing and cleaning them. The peculiar character has since been with me and even as an adult, I still find more pleasure when dealing with animals. I still have some pets at home some of which are goldfish, birds, rabbits, dogs, a horse and a white cat.
My younger sister,however, hates animals with the heart and mind. She does not condone any animal in the house. She always thought of the cat as having terrible look as it was pure white with very sharp eyes. This made her feel scared and astonished whenever the cat entered the house. When she was asked to comment about the cat, she always referred to the notion that animals with that unique shiny color are for witchcraft. These made her even hate the creature more.
Raja was the name of the cat. It was my best and favorite pet and also a playmate. I always walked with him, fed him and he kept me company in the house and even on outings. It was very difficult for me to leave him whenever I went to the streets. People and friends wondered as to why I could walk to the streets with a cat. I even remember one incidence when I bonded a bus to town, and I held Raja in my arms. Women in the bus started screaming, and I had to walk out of the bus. I could not understand why they did this and, therefore, went for a curb.
From that day, I started hiding from him whenever I was to go out by bus.
Our relationship, however, went on for many years. However, my character and general temperament started changing. I started consuming alcohol which made me grow moody as day.I became highly irritable without minding about the feelings of other people and even could use bad language to my own sister. Sometimes I could even beat her up claiming that she is my wife and should, therefore, feed my pets in my absence.
This was also felt by my own pets as I started neglecting them, misused them and even beat them for no good reason. For Raja, I still had sufficient regard that made me not maltreat him. Whenever I was in stable condition and with no moods, I could see my donkeys, rabbits and horse look at me with very sorrowful eyes may be wondering why I was like this to them.
I, however, could ignore this and move on with my life. The disease went on to eat my good character as there is no other disease such as alcohol. This made me even attack my once most favorite pet, Raja. He had now begun to look ugly as he was growing old and had grey fur.
One day I went out very early and as usual had to hide from Raja. On returning home very intoxicated at night, I observed that the cat was trying to avoid me but was trying to track my steps. He hid under my bed, and as I lay slowly on my bed, he jumped and wounded my wrist with his sharp claws. I could not imagine this. The demon had possessed me instantly. I lost my mind completely, and my soul appeared to immediately take flight and I was astonished. I quickly jumped onto my drawer, got hold of a pen knife, pressed to open, got the beast on the neck and cut one ear and pierced the left eye.
I was so furious that I did not have time to think.In the morning, when I was able to reason and had forgotten the previous night’s fumes, I started experiencing half horror sentiments and feeling remorse of the committed crime, I started feeling guilty. This was, however, at best equivocal and feeble feeling. The soul, however, was untouched. I, therefore, went and grasped a drink of wine just to forget and cool my nerves.
The cat recovered slowly by slowly, but the lost ear and wound in the eye was a clear evidence of the fateful day. The wounds were no longer in pain, and he continued with life and moved around in the house as was his past.
He, however, fled in great terror whenever I appeared. My sister could observe this. Probably she could murmur words such as, “you did this to yourself, and you said he was your favorite pet. Now see what you have made him to be…” I tried as much as possible not to meet with her because she always seemed to have something to tell me.
Life became very difficult as I could have nightmares and very unwelcome dreams to theextent of seeing Raja try to skin me alive. I had my previous heart for the animal recovering. I, however, could do very little for the animal as I had gone to the extent of instilling marks of wounds in his body, which I could not forget.I thought of an idea to get rid of the animal so that I could forget it and avoid it tormenting me at night.
One day, I took a rope and tied its neck and hanged it. I went and tied the rope to a tree outside. I thought that a strange animal could come and feed on the same. I could not bury it myself. My mind was shouting that am doing the wrong thing by killing the animal and my soul could be jeopardized. But had to do it and avoid seeing it.On the night of the fateful day, when the cruelest thing happened, I was woken up by huge flames of fire. My house was blazing. The curtains and clothes in my room were in flames. I could not believe my eyes. My sister and I moved out of the conflagration with much difficulty.
Everything else was burnt into ashes. My treasure, my wealth was all swallowed by the fierce blaze. I was unable to seek the cause of the fire and walked away quietly. As I looked up, I met with a piece of rope that I used to hang the cat.
I got surprised and could not move, shout, utter or even close my eyes. I stared at it for a long time wondering where the animal went. What a shame. I had killed it. Probably, it could be the only animal alive now with me. My mind did not rest and I asked myself several questioned. Could it be the one that has caused this? Or does it mean that God has decided to punish me severely for the wrong mistake I did in the morning?
The day after, I visited the place the four walls had fallen. One wall was, however, still intact. It stood at the center of the house where my bed’s head was. The plastering done on this area had resisted the fire. This I attributed to the fact that it had been spread recently. Those examining the place used words such as “strange” “amazing” among others to express similar views. Down there, was a picture of the cat and another of the cat and I. They used to be on the head of my bed.
The strangest thing was that they also were not burnt. As the officers went on with their search, they saw a piece of rope which they pulled and to their surprise, it was a small animal. It was my Raja! I immediately had flashbacks of a funny ammonia smell when the fire was blazing which made me wake up and move out of the house. Probably the neighbors threw the animal in my bedroom with the aim of waking me up and sure enough it worked.
My Raja had saved my life. I knelt down and tears started flowing down my cheeks. I could not imagine that even when my Raja was dead, he still became useful in saving my life. He had been my companion, my friend and my playmate for a very long time in my life until I thought of seeking for another friend in the name of alcohol.
Who made my life a living hell; I forgot my sister, my pets and above all, my friend Raja. I hated myself. One evening as I rested outside on the lawn, my mind was distracted and drawn to a white object, which was on top of a hogshead of Rum that comprised of chief furniture in the house. I steadily stared at the hog’shead for quite some time and approached it. I touched the animal using my hands, and it was a large white cat the size of Raja.
I very much resembled Raja except that it had a black spot on the breast area. When I touched him, he responded positively and arose immediately, purred very slowly, appeared delighted and rubbed against me.This was the kind of animal that I was in need of. I looked around and saw a man cleaning the area. I thought he was the owner and approached him to purchase it. He, however, denied having seen it and said it was his first time to see it. I therefore, walked home with my new friend in my arms.
Sometimes it could jump and walk ahead of me as if curious to reach home. I, however, was worried what my sister would feel about it but to my surprise, she was happy for me and welcomed the creature.We named it Raja 2 in memory of our first cat and we were able to domesticate it. After a short while, the animal was able to adapt and soon we became great friends. My sister was fond of it more than I was and I got used to the same.
Days passed, and the cat got fond of me. It started disliking it as it once made me fall on the stairs as it got between my legs. Slowly by slowly I had feelings of annoyance and disgust which made me feel bitter. I tried to avoid coming into contact with the creature as I did not want a repeat of what I had done with the previous cat.
The memory of the other cat, the cruelty and shame, made me remain silent. This made me avoid physical abuse of the cat. For several weeks, I did not lay a hand on the creature. The reason as to why I developed hatred on the creature is because I had noted that,like my previous Raja, it had a scar on the ear. This made me think that it also had bad behavior. My sister, however, restrained me from doing harm to the animal.
Raja 2 continued the bad behaviors I disliked. The moment I sat on a chair, it would come under the chair, cover me with caresses and jump on my knees. If I dared to wake up and walk, it would very fast have a way between my legs making me almost fall down. Sometimes it could even scare me by fastening the sharp claws it had on my trouser. I tried to hammer it with blows though the memory of the other cat withheld my efforts. I felt ashamed as having brought it in the house. I however, had no alternative.
One fateful day, my sister accompanied me to our small piece of land where we used to cultivate crops after our property succumbed to fire. As we went down the stairs, the damn cat followed us. It had first climbed the roof, and we had not noticed that.
Raja 2 almost threw me down as it passed between my legs. This exasperated my mind to madness. I lifted the axe in my arms, forgetting the wrath of my childish dread in the earlier episode and aimed at the animal. My sister held my arm and shouted a loud NO. My hand went down, and as she released it slowly, I buried the sharp axe on his skull. He collapsed and died without a word.
Having accomplished this, I was relieved to see that I had gotten rid of the damn Raja 2. The creature was no more.
I was in a dilemma as I did not know what to do with the dead body. I could not throw it away in broad daylight as neighbors would see me. Again, I did not know what cover up idea I should tell the police.
On the next day, we buried Raja 2. As I went home from the cemetery, I could hear his voice barking. The voice was like a whisper coming from far. I could also hear the voice of my first dog Raja. This was like a dream. Probably I was thinking about them. I had got rid of the monster in the tomb. Therefore, despite the adventures we have had together, I was forced to accept that death is an inevitable fact of life. Therefore, despite my loss, I took it in with courage and hope for a better future. The monster was walled between four corners of red soil. Never to come back to life. My life changed a lot but I had to cope with it even with absence of my white cats.
