A (Very Barely Fictionalised) Story
Narrated 由 '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 由 neighbours] and must have been there for a while.”
“Mother 猫 移动 their 小猫 every few days to stop predators ‘smelling’ out their hidey hole,” I 说 remembering something I’d read years 以前 and (possibly) hoping to shelter from reality in sheer information. “So they might have only been there a few days.”
“The 小猫 或者 the box?” 说 Bernice.
I knew 猫 liked 鱼 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 小猫 were old enough to understand food, whether in dishes 或者 otherwise. Several stopped crying and clambered over to the 鱼 which they ate messily and gratefully. I emptied one of my antique engraved wooden boxes to give them improved accommodation. “These 小猫 won’t stay long in that,” 说 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 由 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 文章 from the shed and dusted off the cobwebs. Realising it needed considerably 更多 cleaning that that, I finally resorted to the 厨房 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 说 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 由 '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 由 neighbours] and must have been there for a while.”
“Mother 猫 移动 their 小猫 every few days to stop predators ‘smelling’ out their hidey hole,” I 说 remembering something I’d read years 以前 and (possibly) hoping to shelter from reality in sheer information. “So they might have only been there a few days.”
“The 小猫 或者 the box?” 说 Bernice.
I knew 猫 liked 鱼 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 小猫 were old enough to understand food, whether in dishes 或者 otherwise. Several stopped crying and clambered over to the 鱼 which they ate messily and gratefully. I emptied one of my antique engraved wooden boxes to give them improved accommodation. “These 小猫 won’t stay long in that,” 说 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 由 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 文章 from the shed and dusted off the cobwebs. Realising it needed considerably 更多 cleaning that that, I finally resorted to the 厨房 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 说 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