A Dying Black Cat
A true to life story
Author: Rogelio Babanto, Texas
I would like to dedicate this story to my first grandson Jayson who was with me since birth and love to play with cats. Besides, he's happy to watch cat walking on top of the fence.
I would like also to dedicate this story to my wife, Mimi, son, Philip, and daughter, Amy for their support and encouragement.
Thanks to Mr biloo_5 from Canada, owner of EPR- English Practice Room for people around the world, Paltalk.com for giving me an opportunity to be one of his admins. for the purpose of teaching American English to the people around the world who are in need to learn English as their second language for free (no payment) since 2006 up to the present.
Date of the incident: November 14, 2008
Place of the incident: Friendswood, Texas
About Cat: name: unknown, address: unknown, color: black, gender: unknown, eyes color: unknown, size: medium.
The story of a dying black cat happened outside of the house at the garage door on the path leading to the main entrance of the house.
It was a cloudy morning, but there's no sign of possible rain. The kids were already gone for school, so there's no more school bus coming in to our village, and some residents went to their work usually before seven o'clock. The place was very quiet, and you could hear clearly if somebody dropped a nail a few feet away from where I was standing just outside of my house in the pathway.
When the school bus were gone, I was still in the front lawn looking at the plants to check if it needed trimming. Thus, I went to the garage to get shears and a pair of scissors because I wanted to trim the shrub located at the right side corner of the garage door facing the street.
While trimming and shaping the shrub to a ball, I felt a soft hair brushing back and forth on my right ankle. I stopped my work for a while, and looked down to see what it was. I was stunned when I saw it. It was a black hairy cat who came from nowhere as if the cat needed something from me. After several brushings, the cat walked away from the place where I was standing towards the evergreen tree along the porch. Beside the plant, the black cat lay down under the shade. I was looking at the cat as if there's something wrong with the black cat.
Because of my curiosity, I didn't hesitate myself to go near to the cat where it was lying..I sat down quietly and stared to the cat's belly if it was breathing or not. I didn't see a rising and lowering of the belly, so I was pretty sure that the cat was dead. My tears suddenly ran down on my cheeks, and I stayed beside
the cat for several minutes for a miracle that gave a cat a chance to breathe again. Unfortunately, there's no second chance for the cat to breathe again and I felt guilty for its death.
I felt sorry for the cat because I didn't give anything before its last breath. Perhaps the cat needed something from me when the cat brushed its fur on my right ankle, but unable to speak because the cat was an animal. I didn't see any bleeding from the cat, and maybe the cause of the death was starvation. The cat wasn't able to go back to the house where it came from for a meal, so the cat starved. The cat wasn't meowing for help before its death. If I gave a water to the cat, could the cat survive for hunger?
While I was sitting on the blocks beside the dead cat, I heard footsteps from our neighbor's driveway. Suddenly, I stood up and looked at the woman who had just come out from her garage. I greeted her with a warm smile as if there's nothing wrong in our front lawn. She was wearing a dark dress, slippers, her skin was tanned and surely, had a short hair. The woman stared at me in a friendly way without anywords that came out from her mouth. Without hesitation to speak, I started to greet her with a "helllo! and a warm smile. I told her the whole story about the dead black cat in our lawn.
I was at the front of the main door of the house standing on the pathway near the plant where the black cat was laying down beside it.
We didn't speak for several seconds just by staring blankly to our eyes. I had a hard time to start talking just to break the ice of silence.But I couldn't hold any longer without confiding the black cat to the woman which was standing infront of me. Without any doubt about it, I told her that there was a dead black cat laying on the lava rocks beside the evergreen plant.
I asked her, if she had a black cat, and she said," no." Perhaps the next door neighbor from her house was the owner of the dead black cat. She turned around without saying any words that she was going to the next door neighbor and told them that their was a dead black cat lying on the front garden of the house beside an evergreen. A man with big pot belly came out from the garage bringing plastic trash bag. From his house, he went straight towards my front lawn and picked up the dead black cat and put in the plastic bag, and then walked back home to his house with the dead black cat in the plastic black trash bag.
When all of them were gone to their houses, I looked above and the sky was so dark and a heavy rain was coming soon with several thunderstotms and lightnings.
I prayed and asked God an apology for I did not let the cat drink with water before the black cat died. My tears shed and wished that the black cat soul may rest in peace. Amen.
The End
