The Old Cat and the Kitten by Mary E. Little

Author:Mary E. Little
Language: eng, eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Aladdin

Chapter Two

OLD CAT LAY FLAT ON THE GROUND fending off the bites and blows of the kitten who attacked his ears, his chin, his paws, until he rose and, with back arched and tail overhead, he circled her. She somersaulted and lay on her back, boxing with all four feet, then with all the force of her twelve ounces behind it, her left paw felled his sixteen pounds. He rolled over on his back, feet in the air.

When Joel opened the back door and came out into the yard, Old Cat cuffed the kitten away in earnest and wound himself around Joel’s ankles. Joel bent down and stroked his head and neck, and Old Cat, with hindquarters pressed against Joel’s knee, rubbed his forehead on Joel’s instep until, as usual, he fell over and rolled on the ground. The kitten bounded over and began to climb Joel’s pantleg, and Old Cat, claws sheathed, grabbed Joel around the other ankle and held on.

“A guy can’t even walk across his own yard anymore,” Joel complained, laughing as he sat down on the ground and vainly tried to detach one cat after the other. He managed to pull a Ping-Pong ball out of his pocket and bounce it on the driveway. That took care of the kitten, and Old Cat, purring loudly, crawled onto his lap and nuzzled into the crook of his arm.

“I’m sure sorry about that eye, Old Cat,” Joel said as he stroked the glossy fur. “But the vet says that you won’t even notice when you go blind in it. He says it’ll take awhile, and you’ll get so used to looking out that other eye, you won’t even know this’n don’t work any more.”

The worst part about the visit to the veterinarian had been getting Old Cat there. He had struggled, but finally gave in to being put in a box; but then Joel could not manage to hold the box on his bicycle. In the end he had wrapped Old Cat in the piece of old blanket and carried him, walking all the way there and back.

Even worse, perhaps, was listening to his mother afterwards.

“Well! I hope you’re satisfied,” she said. “All that money! You said you even spent some of your microscope money. For what? After you waiting half the afternoon, the doctor took five minutes to tell you there wasn’t anything he could do for that cat’s eye! All that time, all that money, for nothing—nothing! You want to throw away your hard-earned money on that old cat, don’t expect me to back you up. And don’t you ever—”

“But, Mom—”

“Why you have to—”

“But I do have to.”

“Why?”

“Because—because well, I have to do whatever he needs—I gotta do whatever I can because—because he has to depend on me—and I can’t just not do it, can I?”

“At that price?”

Now, as Old Cat nudged and butted and rubbed against him, Joel thought he’d paid little enough. The change in Old Cat, from fighting tom, to this loving, playful animal was almost like a miracle.

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