The followingtwo feline characters did exist by both name and order of belonging a fewdecades ago; and with the exception of “Jordan” and the dialogue itself, theevents ‘telepathically related’ between them either did actually occur or inlikelihood did occur.
TheVery Last of Nine Lives
Ceso was a Tomcaton his deathbed. He’d had a life full of injury, mostly through catfights ofhis own making; however, it was his recent stroke, which left his right legparalyzed, that was soon going to result—directly or indirectly—in his death.Though Ceso (pronounced Sesso) knew full well that his human family membersloved and adored him since the very day they had adopted him as a rejected,black, runt kitten, he also knew that the one closest to him, Jordan,reluctantly intended to put him to sleep if his grim condition did not improve.So there he laid, a very sick twelve-year-old cat, on the sitting-room’scarpeted floor, in the summer sunlight piercing the window.
But, letting out one of his frequenthairball hacks, Ceso noticed movement through the corner of his eye; he turnedhis head, and, to his dismay, it was a black kitten: Jordan had just broughther home from a household out near the farming community. The kitten, ‘Mimi,’slowly walked into the sitting room, followed by Jordan, who formallyintroduced the two felines to each other. Jordan then left the room and hadn’tbeen gone at all long before Ceso hissed at Mimi. He, spitting and growling ather, then got up onto his somewhat weakened front legs, with his ears pulledback. Their eyes met, and the two felines locked into a telepathic connection.
“Who are you, and what are you doinghere?!” he demanded of her. “This is my place!”
Mimi replied with a little hiss ofher own; her ears were also pulled back, and her tail went up, with its hairsstretched erect. It was a tense, six-second silence that followed, as theystared at each other with wide-open eyes.
“I’m not stupid,” said Ceso. “I knowwhy you’re here—and I know that it’s not companionship for my sake.”
Having said that, he relaxed andlaid back down onto the carpet; Mimi did likewise.
“Maybe you know why I’m here,but I don’t,” she retorted. “I want to go back and play with my brothersand sister. Why am I here?!”
“You’re here to take my spot, asfamily cat—I’m on my way out. I’m going to die.”
“Die?!” Mimi asked, as her eyeswidened. “Where? Here?!”
“No; he’ll take me to the doctor, who’lldo it, but I was told that it’s painless. Besides, it’s my time to go,” Cesoinformed Mimi, then took in a deep breath and let it out. “I’m beat. And I feelterrible.”
“Is that why you’re going to die?Are you really old, too? How old are you?”
Ceso then let out an intensehairball hack before stretching out his good leg. His neck muscle then brieflytwitched because of a flea bite.
“From what I’ve been told, I’mtwelve years old. But the last time I went to the doctor’s, he said that‘physiologically’ ... ”—Ceso, curling his paws into quotation marks,explained—“ ... I’m more like sixteen years old, probably because of all thebeatings I’ve endured at the paws and teeth of other cats.” For effect, Cesoswung his right paw at Mimi’s face, intentionally just missing her. “You knowsomething? I think I’m lucky to have made it past kitten-hood, at all.”
He laid his chin down onto thecarpet and slowly stretched out. All was then still and silent for about twentyseconds, as Ceso fell asleep.
Mimi then slowly crawled up toCeso’s paw and sniffed it; her eyes opened wide, before letting out aninquisitive yet gentle, “Meeeoooww?”
“What?! … No, I’m not dead, yet,”Ceso declared, lifting up his head and eyes opened wide. “I said that he wouldget the doctor to do it, didn’t I?” A brief silence ensued, and Ceso’sneck muscle again twitched as his eyelids relaxed.
“Why were you lucky to have made itpast kitten-hood?” Mimi inquired, just a second before Ceso let out anotherhairball hack.
“I was locked out of my birth homewhen I was just two months old—and on a very cold, foggy autumn night, at that.Left to die.”
He then reached over his good leg toscratch his neck before continuing with his story: “I walked out through theopen back door and into the backyard, with its tall, wet grass—way over myhead. Then the door slammed shut and locked behind me.”
A few seconds of silence followedbefore Mimi asked, “Didn’t you go back and cry?”
“Till my throat was raw and sore.Nobody answered. Though, early the next morning, Jordan came through hisbackyard and into mine after he’d heard my persistent crying. He picked me upand put me into his coat, then knocked on the door. Nobody answered, so hebrought me here and adopted me,” he replied, as he stared out the open windowon the opposite side of the room.
“Remember, Mimi: just give him a lotof purring and murring, and he’ll give you great back massages—he calls itpetting. It’s said that this exchange of good deeds is physically beneficial toboth pet and host—both are healthier for it and thus even live longer for itall. Maybe it’s true … ”
Ceso’s neck muscle twitched, again,and he reached over his good leg and scratched his neck rapidly, with his eyesopen to their fullest.
“F!@#$!*g flea! They can make life areal b@#!, you know! Why the Creator allows their parasitic existence is beyondme!” Ceso cursed, before settling down somewhat. “I guess I’ll be able to askHim ‘why?’ myself, soon enough.” His eyelids then slowly settled.
“What about the others?” asked Mimi.“Weren’t there other kittens?”
“You mean siblings? Yeah; twosisters and a brother,” he replied, letting out yet another hairball hack. (Iactually had anothersister, but shedied at birth.) But they didn’t have an obsession with open doors, like I did.I had a tendency to wander through any open door, especially the backdoor. Mr. and Mrs. Shultz probably thought I was in the house with the rest ofthe kittens, then shut and locked the door just before going away, somewhere.”
“Somewhere? Where?”
“If I knew where, don’t you thinkI’d tell you that in the first place?!” was his abrasive answer. “You’re nottoo bright, are you, Mimi?”
Then, to her amazement (eyes openedwide), Mimi noticed and stared at the small, cloud-like formation just aboveCeso’s left eye’s pupil. “What’s that?! What happened to your eye?! Does ithurt?!”
“It’s called a battle scar,” hereturned. “And, no, I don’t feel anything, anymore.”
“Battle scar?”
“I got clipped by Bonzeye, two housesdown,” Ceso said, half closing the scarred eye. “He’s a real creep, you know.Stay away from him. He’ll scrap you whether or not you’re a girl.”
He then let out another intensehairball hack, as Mimi inquired, “How long ago did it happen?”
“A long time ago—alright?” Cesoreplied, before yawning.
Mimi, suddenly sitting up, and hereyes opened as wide as they’d go, saw that he had only one fang in his mouth.“What happened to your teeth?!”
“Too many questions!” Cesosnapped, his eyes opened wide while letting out a reverberating hairball hack(the hacks seemed to only worsen).
Mimi took a step backwards, and adozen seconds of silence passed as Ceso regained his composure. Completelydisregarding Mimi’s latter question, Ceso went on about Bonzeye: “He clipped mejust before I got ‘neutered’”—Ceso again curled his paws into quotationmarks—“about eight years ago.”
A brief silence followed, and thenMimi asked, “neutered?”
Ceso seemed to have not even heardher one-word query, but rather he mused: “Now that I think about it, maybe thetwo incidents are somehow related. It’s said that cats—especially males—getinto a lot of fights when they’re not neutered. And that fight with Bonzeye wasthe fight of my life,” Ceso emphasized, again half closing the scarred eye. “Iwas gone for three days; he, Jordan, told me that he and his family thought Ihad wandered off somewhere to die. I almost lost my eye, you know.”
“What about your teeth? Did Bonzeyeknock them out, too?”
“No, Bonzeye didn’t ‘knock them out,too’,” Ceso corrected her, with thick sarcasm. “They fell out.” He thenstretched his body, his eyelids relaxed, and a muscle twitch appeared to movefrom the tip of his tail, along his back and up to his neck.
“Fell out? You areold!”
Ceso took in another deep breath,sighed and then released what would be his very last hairball hack. Followinganother moment of silence, Jordan walked into the room with a pet’s travelingcage and with heavy tears in his eyes. He slowly picked up Ceso and gave himtwo kisses on his cheek. The two felines stared at each other as Jordan slowly,gently placed Ceso into the cage, closed the cage door and left the room.■
Frank G Sterle Jr