This cat came to us by chance. Without any plan. I went to my husband’s sister for a visit. And the children of her cat, small, harmful, ran around the house. One of them, the most bold, jumped on my son’s jeans and popped up, looking straight into the eyes of the “conquered top.” And I conquered! We thought he chose us.
They didn't have time to look around, as the vanity cat grew up into a luxurious cat: he was large, burning, the eyes were yellow, the expression on the predatory mouth is superstitious. He acted like he was with seven people, so he didn’t miss it. His name was Leo. The lion is the king. By colour they gave a name: Leo was blindingly red, just golden.
We loved him inexorably. He tolerantly accepted our love, not trying to give something in return. The cat was self-sufficient.
But even with our favorite animals, we sometimes have to break up. It was time for our trials: friends invited us to welcome the New Year with them. A great idea, just like with Leo: we are in Cologne, friends under Bremen, you can’t turn around overnight. Clearly, the cat will need to place somewhere for three days.
The exit was found. My parents took the beast. They were familiar with Leo for a long time, no conflict with the cat, lived near us. And to whom would you trust a dear creature except to your mother and dad?
In general, one beautiful morning we delivered the volunteers an impressive package of cat food, a closed cat toilet and the owner of all these wealth. They left and left to come back in the new year.
Returned on the fourth day. We were met joyfully. Especially Leo demonstrated unprecedented love and devotion, climbing to everyone on his arms, shaking his mouth at our faces, whispering and even without the usual loud and effective objections he entered his booth, apparently approving our desire to go home.
And a couple of weeks later, my dad honestly told me about the time our pet was in the guests "at grandmother."
It turns out, immediately after our departure, the cat, released by us for the development of temporary housing, got stuck in his toilet. There he sat all day without making the slightest attempt to get to know the territory. At first, nobody gave it much importance. A little, a stressful situation, adjusting yet, will have time. But when Leo didn’t push his nose out of his bowl by the evening, Mom worried.
“Robert, I think he has a cultural shock! She told my father after some thought. He is accustomed to speaking German.
(To the speech the cat used to all, including to very expressive Russian - this is in the case of soaked buttocks. But in general, my mother was right: German at home was "enough" - my husband was German, where to go).
The parents switched the TV from Russian to German. However, these actions did not have positive consequences on the question of integrating the cat in the apartment of Russian-speaking displaced persons. In the morning, the hosts found the animal in the same place. The dishes of food and drink stood untouched in the corner. Mom’s mental balance improved considerably. She was a reasonable woman, but what was happening did not fall under her normal logic. All the cats she knew were adequate and predictable. They caught mice and rats, fought with rivals, loved cats, and ate everything they could eat. And he refused to eat, apparently experiencing separation. In the yellow cat's eyes read universal sadness. There was a subtle mental organization of the animal, the very idea of which my mother in earlier times would have resolutely rejected. But now it was not to turn away from it!
Sympathy, admiration for the cat's devotion and, most importantly, the fear that the super sensitive cat will breathe out in his toilet of hunger and thirst, pushed the newly cooked cat owner to patience.
- Lion, gold, go out, eat, drink water! - she probably took out, cleverly moving to the place of voluntary imprisonment a bowl of food. “Levushka,” uterine swinging, glittered with eyelids and flooded into the depths of his toilet shelter.
“I don’t know what to do,” my mother complained to her father. Can you talk to him in German? Ask him? My mother tongue is a big deal!
Teacher of Russian language and literature, more than forty years of school, Honored Teacher of Kazakhstan, she knew no doubts when it came to mother tongue.
Here is more! Father reasonably opposed. - Only cats different I did not persuade in German to cancel the hunger strike! You need him, you need to talk to him. In German, but in Russian. Yes, in my opinion, in Ukrainian, at least in Kazakh.
He clearly hinted on her mother’s nationality and her entire past. And on her long reluctance to learn German, her husband’s native language, the Volga German, too. The father had nothing to talk to Leo in the required language. But something stumbled this time in my usual foldable folder.
Mom knew she would have to get out of the situation. Armed with a vocabulary, she did everything on her conscience! My principal wife sat down for drafting the text. In half an hour everything was ready. Carefully placing in front of herself as a sparkling carefully printed notebook sheet, my mother turned to the cat with a flaming German speech:
“Lieber Leo! H;Ren Sie mir bitte zu! They eat and drink. Please come out! Please come to eat! I ask you very much. Otherwise you will get sick!”
“Dear Leo! Listen to me, please! You have to eat and drink. Come out please! Go out and eat! I very much ask you. Otherwise you will get sick.”
As a certified translator, I guarantee to the reader the faithfulness of the translated. I didn’t ask my mom why she chose a respectful shape to treat her cat. This was obvious: exclusively from respect for his loyalty and willpower!
Then, telling me this story, my father pulled out of his shirt’s load pocket a few times folded sheet of paper – my mother’s “petition” to a stubborn cat.
“Look, I hid it,” he whispered conspicuously to me. For the memory!
Dad, what about someone? Hickey, I asked then. has gone out? has eaten?
What a place! My father shrugged his hand. and vice versa. He turned back to us in his bathroom.
And immediately he added, looking at my sad face:
Do not worry you! Eat your cat! I woke up at night and ate. And drink water. Walked around the apartment. And then I stood up after him and added food to the bowl so that it looked full.
Why didn’t you tell your mom? I hailed. She was worried!
My father was embarrassed:
“Yes, I wanted to... and in that moment his amazing smile illuminated his whole face, played in his eyes, in every wrinkles. I liked how he spoke to me in German.
Three times a day...
Three days in a row...