Bailey the Kitten. Stories from the life of cats
There were three sons in our family. Together, we built a sturdy home for our parents. We helped them financially until their last days, and visited them on weekends to work in the garden and orchard. After our parents passed away, my younger brother and his family stayed in the house. I would visit them almost every Friday. The place was beautiful: fishing, mushrooms, and berries.
One day, my brother and I sat talking about our childhood and parents until midnight. When we stepped outside, we saw a kitten under the porch in the moonlight.
We never had any pets before. We believed that animals should live in the wild, so we didn’t pay much attention to the kitten. We left it alone and went to bed.
The next morning, we saw the kitten in the same place, looking at us plaintively. We thought about it, and then my brother said, «I’ll keep it. Maybe it’s a message from our father.» He loved animals.
They named the kitten Bailey.
Time passed. Bailey grew into a magnificent, intelligent cat. He always emanated kindness and wisdom. He lived for almost 13 years. One day, when I visited my brother, I found out that Bailey had been missing for three days. He had disappeared. For the first time in years.
In the morning, we went out to look for him. We searched every shed and looked under every bush, but to no avail. I somehow remembered that old elephants in Africa, following their instincts, go to a special place to die – the elephant graveyard. I didn’t voice my thoughts to my brother. I didn’t want to add salt to the wound. I also hoped that we would find Bailey.
After lunch, we went to the village cemetery where our parents were buried. To our surprise, when we approached their grave, we saw the lifeless body of our beloved cat.
Was it the dying animal’s instinct or was Bailey, as my brother believed, a «message,» I don’t know?