The Fabled Nine Lives

Our old male cat disappeared one night, when he was out and about on his nightly travels. We searched the neighbourhood for days on end but he couldn’t be found. We were totally heartbroken.

Then about two weeks later, I don’t know why, but I googled the local animal pounds, to see if our cat had been picked up and handed in.

Surprise, surprise but just that day a cat, matching the description of our boy, was handed in to the local rescue cat home.

It goes without saying that we were over the moon and I rushed to the home to pick him up. Sure enough it was our boy and we were so happy to be reunited again.

While at the home, this little champagne coloured, female kitten caught my eye and I discovered she was ready for adoption, as soon as someone was looking to give her a forever home.

I was in love. She was just super cute.

I spoke to a staff member, who told me the terrible tale of how this little six month old kitten shouldn’t be alive. She was so badly treated and in such poor shape when she was handed in, that it’s a miracle she’s alive.

As a result she is terrified of humans.

They say cats have nine lives!

I decided, then and there to adopt her.

I paid the fee as a staff member put her in a carry box and so with the two cats, I headed home.

This new girl, who I named Sky, was terrified of me but after a week she began to trust me and from that point on we have been inseparable.

She was so loving and playful, though I do have to wonder if she was the unluckiest cat I’ve ever met — or was she the luckiest cat alive?

Here is her story.

***

I carried her home at six months of age and she was the original scaredy-cat. After some time I became her best friend and she was happy. Living the life of the blessed.

However, one downfall, she was adamant she wanted to go outside and explore the world but I wouldn’t let her.

Mostly I was successful, but there were times when she was more successful than I.

A regular Houdini, no matter what, she’d find a way to escape.

She was extremely clever at overcoming obstacles and when she was twelve months old, she discovered how to open the windows.

As my windows were made of glass louvres, she realised she could reach up with her paws to the window opener, put her weight on her paws and open the louvres enough to slip through.

She began escaping at night when I was asleep and then letting herself back in each morning. She couldn’t close the louvres of course, so I was aware when she escaped.

Unfortunately, she was out and about one night, when she returned home, a large python grabbed her, thinking she would make a nice breakfast snack.

I managed to wrestle her from the snake and she survived.

However, that was her second, of nine lives, she lost and she was only a year old.

Another few months went by, both of us playing this game. I would lock her in, she’d eventually find a way to escape.

When she was three years old, she escaped one night and when I woke in the morning she was nowhere to be found. I searched everywhere, both in my house and around the neighbourhood, but she had disappeared.

For days she was missing, until about a week later, I arrived home from work and there she was, laying sore and sorry for herself in the middle of my bed. She was bloody and mauled, obviously attacked by a dog. I found a large hole in her side that concerned me, but against all odds she survived.

Life number three — she only had six lives left.

Her next life was taken as she was trying to cross a road and a car hit her. She dragged herself home and after much expense at the vet, she survived once more.

She was determined to prove or disprove this saying, that cats have nine lives, but I was beginning to think she was going to be the death of me.

But that didn’t happen. Over the next ten or so years, she put that saying to the test.

She survived a cancerous growth. Another snake tried to make her a snack, she survived. On one of her escapades, she injured her eye and had to have it surgically removed. Another adventure and she was gored by a wild pig, against all odds, again she survived.

Again and again she come across adversity and each time she managed, sometimes by the skin of her teeth, to come out on top.

By the time she was fifteen years of age, she’d used up all nine of her lives and then some. She was slowing down a little by this age but it seems she still had a few good years left in her.

Another twenty years passed, time and time again, she tested the very fabric of this world. She should have died ten times over, but every time, just when I thought I’d be saying goodbye, she’d pull through.

If you’ve been counting the years, you’d have realised that not only has she used up more than her fair share of lives, she should have passed of old age by this time but she keeps on keeping on.

Finally, it starts to look like it’s my turn to leave this world, as I grow into my elderly years. I’ve slowed down a lot and I’m tired. I’ve accepted my time is near but I’m worried about what will happen to my girl.

I’m in my nineties now and she has been my best friend for the last seventy years. No cat has ever lived to the age that she is. It’s unheard of and she’s actually quite famous out in the world these days.

I call her my super star because it sure looks to me like she has a million lives — and not just the fabled nine lives we all believe. Not even old age can defeat this girl.

I just cannot make up my mind, is she the luckiest cat alive or is she actually the unluckiest? She may have survived this long but every single one of those lives, taken from her, were traumatic to say the least!

**********************************************************************

Please note : this is a work of fiction and not a true story, but I do hope you enjoyed it nevertheless.

**********************************************************************

If you liked my writing, please click on the small heart underneath, near my name. Or send me a tip and let me know you enjoyed it.

****

Please click the link below my name to read more of my work. I would also like to thank you for taking the time to read this today and for all your support.

If you enjoy this piece, you may enjoy this one too.

Originally posted on Medium