Attila' story
Attila was a beautiful european cat. His coat was soft and his colour varied from black to grey, in all tones. The eyes were big and green, careful to all of that was going on around him, intelligent. An evening in autumn he was abandoned. A car had stopped in front of the church in Gretta; someone had opened the door and had quickly thrown the cat onto the sidewalk; frightened he jumped on the steps of the church then he ran into a corner for shelter. It was not difficult to make friends with him.
Although he was abandoned, his sociability accompanied him his whole life. A bond of eternal friendship and love was born immediately. Holding him tight in my arms, I arrived home. The initial complaints of my mother didn't have great effects and soon Attila became part of my family permanently.
I believe that the presence of a cat or any other pet is essential for the growth of a person, it actually helps them in dealing with change. At the time I was a teen-ager and I was in search of myself, insecure and with the need to know with respect to the future. However absurd it can seem, Attila was a great help for me. Even In the worst moments, his purrs and his affection were always there for me. His joy when I returned home from school made me even forget some bad grades. At the time I lived in a neighbourhood where there wasn’t much traffic, it was a private road, so Attila got used to going out. In the morning he would go outside and at 2:00 pm when I came home from school he was always waiting for me at the bottom of the street that led to my home. I don't precisely know at what time he got there or how long he waited for me, but every day I found him there, sitting under a tree. We returned home together and I had to be careful not to fall down because he was always rubbing against my legs. In the afternoon he jumped up on my knees while I was studying, first he purred and then slept until the late afternoon. At that time he wanted to go out again because soon my father would be home from work and he just had to wait for him every day in my garden. He never forgot these daily appointments, even in old age when he was tired and before returning home he had to stop and rest or we went straight home, with Attila tight in my arms.
Soon we got used to finding on our doormat lizards and, unfortunately, sometimes birds. He was a big hunter and he wanted to give us a gift. Although we were upset by the dead bodies disseminated in front of our door, we tried not to show our dismay and we filled him with compliments for his cleverness.
His natural sociability made him successful with my friends. When they would come to study at my house, Attila fairly distributed his naps in everyone’s lap, so as not to create any jealousy. Sometimes, if he had not returned yet, before we started studying we would go for a stroll to look for him. All you had to do was call: " Attila! Atti! " a couple of times and from nowhere he appeared! He also arrived when we whistled and he has been the only cat, among those that I have had, to answer to the whistle. Sometimes when my friends called they would ask: " Is Attila at home? " - " No, he has already gone out " I responded, and we would start laughing because we considered him a person. A person with his own appointments because he had conquered the hearts of the people of our neighbourhood and he was known and loved by everyone. In his daily strolls he received a lot of snacks, so much so that when he got old we had to put him on a diet and warn the neighbourhood not to give in to his greediness, for any reason, not even if he came to with the sad eyes and with the air of a dying person saying " Help me "!. This was for his health. He died when I was 25 years old. Afflicted with a lot of ailments, but always with the desire to wander about, one morning he went out and he never came back anymore. We looked for him for weeks but nobody had seen him. How much we missed him! How many tears we shed! For a long time we kept his bowls and his toys remained out, waiting for his return.
Knowing that he spent a happy life comforts me and I hope that he has fallen asleep forever in a place dear to him. |
