I don't remember the day I was pulled from an overgrown backyard and carried away in a cardboard box, though my Human says it happened. I don't remember how it felt to sleep under a roof for the first time, cuddled up with my brothers and sister in the laundry room of a Marrickville apartment.
I don't even remember the night my Human tucked me down the front of her sweater and walked me up the street to my new home. I spent much of my first days on Glen Street hiding in one of the milk crates my Human used as a shelf for clothes - or so I am told.
Slowly but surely, I got used to being a kept cat. I showed my face more often every day, though loud noises and sudden movements still sent me scrambling for cover. I started enjoying the odd cuddle on my Human's lap, and before long, she started waking up in the morning to find me asleep on her pillow, my face resting on her neck. In time, I almost forgot that I'd ever been a stray.
I don't even remember the night my Human tucked me down the front of her sweater and walked me up the street to my new home. I spent much of my first days on Glen Street hiding in one of the milk crates my Human used as a shelf for clothes - or so I am told.
Slowly but surely, I got used to being a kept cat. I showed my face more often every day, though loud noises and sudden movements still sent me scrambling for cover. I started enjoying the odd cuddle on my Human's lap, and before long, she started waking up in the morning to find me asleep on her pillow, my face resting on her neck. In time, I almost forgot that I'd ever been a stray.
I made my first visit to an Austrian vet over the weekend. It was horrible, Internet. Horrible. There were dogs in the waiting room, and all sorts of people speaking words I couldn't understand in loud voices. Then we went into this room with a big metal table and someone tried to pull me out of my crate, but I knew it wasn't safe in that room and I was sure the man with the gloves was going to hurt me, so I fought back with all my might. And I have a lot of might, Internet. I am a cat who has crossed the world and helped to write a doctoral thesis. I have the might of ten cats plus two.
My human told me later, once we were home and I'd been let out of my crate, that one of the vets asked, "War sie eine Straßekatze?" Was she a street cat? They say I learned the behaviour I showed at the vet today from my cat-mother. I was only a baby during my street cat days, but apparently we don't forget.
My human gave me a salmon stick and a chin rub and lined all my mice up in the door of my favourite cardboard box. I curled up on her shoulder and nuzzled into her hair. "I'm sorry, Pi-kins," she said. "We'll do better next time."
My human told me later, once we were home and I'd been let out of my crate, that one of the vets asked, "War sie eine Straßekatze?" Was she a street cat? They say I learned the behaviour I showed at the vet today from my cat-mother. I was only a baby during my street cat days, but apparently we don't forget.
My human gave me a salmon stick and a chin rub and lined all my mice up in the door of my favourite cardboard box. I curled up on her shoulder and nuzzled into her hair. "I'm sorry, Pi-kins," she said. "We'll do better next time."