Wheezles and Sneezles

I don’t feel too well this morning.  My throat is sore and I am sneezing.  I think I’ll have another easy day.  I’ve been vaccinated, so shouldn’t get too sick, but lots of the kittens are sneezy, so I must have caught it from them.

My mom noticed immediately and forced me to swallow some nasty fluid that had a slightly sweet taste.  I’m fussy about what I eat, so didn’t appreciate having this stuff squirted into my mouth when I was nearly asleep again.  I’ll be more careful in future, in case she tries to do it again.  I don’t like using my claws on her, but if I have to…

Things got worse when she noticed my runny eyes.  I tried to clean them myself, but it’s not so easy for a cat.  They were a bit sticky and I couldn’t see properly.  This was bad news; I got the full treatment.  One of her friends held me tight, she wiped each eye and my face with wet tissues, and then put drops in my eyes – it was horrible.  I need to get myself better before I get any more treatment.

Anyway, where was I with my story?

I had decided to leave the familiar beach and seek a new life at the Kini Cat Café.  I knew it was going to be a tough journey, but I was a strong kitten and resourceful, so I thought I had a good chance of finding it.  I had a few early morning biscuits, as many as I could fit in my small tummy.  Of course I had no way of taking anything extra with me, but I knew there were some rubbish bins on the way and hoped I might be able to get something there.  I had a last drink from the pool by the mermaid, said goodbye to my friends and was ready to go.  Some of the beach cats thought I was mad.  ‘There’s food here, why do you want to leave?  ‘Your friends are here and your cat mom – this is where you belong.’

They might have been content, but I didn’t want to be fighting for food every day, getting wet regularly and at the mercy of tourists, many of whom didn’t like cats and were mean to me when I went near them.  So I set out on my journey.

It was a warm sunny day and I started walking up the road from the mermaid, as Mitzy and Buster had described.  At first it was easy.  I kept close to the side of the road as I’d been told.  It was very scary when cars and trucks came by and I hid, just in case they saw me.  Once a huge monster full of people came by and stopped.  I was very afraid.  People got on and off and there were children too, carrying bags.  I’m careful with children; some of them have been really mean to me, trying to kick me, throwing water or sand at me and stamping their feet to make a noise so I had to run away.

Thankfully no one troubled me, or even noticed me and as soon as the monster had gone, I was on my way again.  The trouble was about five minutes later, I heard it coming back.  This time I was sure it was coming for me and I dived into a pipe.  It was hot and uncomfortable there, but at least it felt safe.  I waited a long time for the danger to pass, then came out slowly and looked around.  Everything seemed quiet, so I started again along the edge of the road, walking carefully past a shop, a souvlaki bar and a few houses.  The road wasn’t too bad, but already my feet were tired and I hadn’t reached the first set of bins yet.  I was getting hungry too.  I began to wonder if this was such a good idea.

The road started to climb uphill and it got harder to walk.  Thankfully it wasn’t too hot, so the road didn’t burn my feet and there wasn’t too much traffic.  I plodded on getting slower and slower as the road got steeper and my little legs got more weary until at last I saw the first set of rubbish bins.  I could see cats there jumping in and out pulling tasty snacks out of the plastic bags people had thrown inside.  The bins have heavy lids, but most people are too lazy to close them after they have dumped their rubbish, or some cat-friendly humans leave them open deliberately so we can feed.  My cat mom told me always to be careful if I got into a bin.  The food might be good, but cats have been trapped inside, if someone closed the lid.  A lot of cats seemed to be living by these bins.  They weren’t cats I had met before and I wondered if they would share…

I decided to watch for a while to check out the situation.  Just as well I did, as there was a loud noise, all the cats scattered and another huge monster came by, stopped at the bins, scooped them up with a big machine and suddenly all the food leftovers and my next meal were gone into the greedy monster, which ate everything.  It had no manners at all, not even a few scraps were left for us cats.

The monster went away, like the other one and I waited a long time in case this one came back too, but it didn’t, so I strolled over to the bin to talk to the residents.  ‘It happens every day’, they said.  We have to feed early, or the monster takes it all.  They were sympathetic that I was hungry and told me I could wait, because humans would soon start bringing bags of rubbish again and they might have some food scraps in them.  ‘Sometimes too, a kind human comes round with a few biscuits or some scraps just for us cats.’

It all seemed a bit uncertain and I had a long way to go, so I resolved to ignore my empty tummy and my dry throat and go on with my journey.

I plodded slowly on up the hill…