I still remember my grandmother and her two sisters. I always saw them as very old but they must have been around my age now when I first "noticed" them. I'm 48. My grandmother had just lost her husband and her two single sisters lived very close by. They spent most of the time at my grandmother's house, which was bigger. Childhood memories are tricky. I think of that time as a happy period, with big dissapointments and tears in between. One of the biggest pleasures of visiting my grandmother's house was seeing her cats. She only had a couple of them you could barely touch. The others run away as soon as they saw anyone else. They were semi feral cats. Never came into the house, wandered around the backyard expecting my grandmother who came out twice a day to feed them. There were kittens from time to time, most of them did not have long lifes. Even though, my childhood scenery was sealed with cats in the background. I was always attracted and marvelled by those little creatures. They were common short haired cats, most of them tabbies or black cats. One time she had a semi long haired ginger cat. She always had cats to help her with mice control. That was the main reason why humans started to keep cats close to them. There were no dogs in my childhood (or ever) only cats. It was fate, written in the stars.
When I was a young teenager I lived the joy of sharing my summer vacation at my grandmother's house with a young kitten. I begged my grandmother to let me keep her inside until I left. She couldn't say no to many of my requests. Pirrus was a tabby cat, the most common type you can imagine. I loved that cat! I brushed her, played with her endlessly, spent so much time with that kitten. Leaving her was one of my first heartbreaks. The next time I could visit for a weekend she was already an adult, she barely remembered me. Cats get used to new situations easily. She was a fine cat.
We rarely embrace life so fully as when we are children. Our lack of time perspective allows us to focus on the now. We tend to forget that easily as we grow up. Loving that cat was totally worth it.