Publicerat
Kategori: Novell

My beloved Maja


It was a bright day in the middle of the spring, the sun was shining. It was my youngest cousin Pierre’s fifth birthday, he is the same age as me. My cousins had two cats, one grey, long-haired Persian called Tussie and one wire-haired European whose name was Lisa. They had given away one of Tussie’s kittens to their neighbours. And now this spring the neighbour’s cat had got kittens. I was very enthusiastic about the idea of seeing them and my grandmother accompanied me. I fell in love immediately with a little, fragile and vulnerable creature. She was as white as snow with brown eyes and a pink nose. Her sister sucked at their mother’s tits and every time she tried to get some milk her sister pushed her away with her big paws and as a result of this the little cat was very undernourished. My grandmother tried to persuade me to choose the fat kitten which looked so healthy and sweet. But I said that I wanted the little thin kitten instead because the fat one , which took all milk from her sister, would manage to look after herself. The little poor thin cat needed someone who could take care of it. So, to my grandmother’s great disappointment I selected the second one. The little white cat was frightened out of her wits.

She was christened by me and a friend of mine under the tap in the kitchen .Water was running down her little white head. She got the name Maja Creamenose because of her white fur and her little pink nose. She collected my dummies and pencils which she put behind the sofa in the living room. She had her own store there. I missed my dummies and I soon revealed her hiding place. She sucked at my earlobes so they became totally red, maybe my hair reminded her of her mother’s soft fur. She became my best friend. We were always together for better or for worse and we played all the day. I was an only child and therefore she was like a sister to me. She could read my thoughts and vice versa .My mother bought a feeding bottle to her which we filled with baby milk so that Maja could suck from the bottle herself .She was like a real baby. I dressed her in my doll’s dresses and put her into the doll’s pram. She lay there kindly when we were walking. Sometimes I think Maja actually believed she was a baby. She grew up and became stronger, she wasn’t that delicate little creature anymore. She turned into a matronly woman that everyone had respect for. Because of her beauty Maja received a lot of attention from the tomcats in the area and soon she became a proud mother of 9 kittens. We had made a bed for her but at the time for the birth she started to deliver on my belly. Perhaps she felt safer there.

We had lived in an apartment for the first years of her life ,therefore she wasn’t used to climb trees so when we moved to Svinhuskullen she had difficulties to adapt to the new environment. It all started with a vicious and bad tempered Siamese cat which hunted her, so she was forced to escape up in a tree. The fire brigade had to come 11 times and the last time Maja jumped down by herself when she saw the fire engine! At one Christmas she had climbed the highest fir you could imagine and the situation turned into a nightmare. We all thought that she would die. The firemen said it was too high for them to save her. She clung tight at the crown of the tree, the birds circled around her. After three weeks the fire chief saw no other way out but to shoot her. Finally a fireman who we knew a little said he could try to climb the tree but when he almost reached the top he was exhausted so he had to saw off the top. The firemen had brought a felt to catch her with, but unfortunately they missed her and she had a bad fall. The scene of the accident became a place of pilgrimage to all the people in the neighbourhood. I didn’t recognize her at first, she had become so small and thin again like a kitten. The fireman who saved her life had a shower in our bathroom because he was sweating heavily. All the fire brigade gathered in our kitchen and my grandmother served them coffee, while Maja was relaxing in my bedroom. Now I definitely believe in the proverb which says that a cat has got nine lives.

Despite all adventures she went through she achieved the respectful age of 20 years. She became very infirm on account of the loss of her son which she grieved for almost six months. She could sit alone and howl for hours .I admired her strength, she was such a fighter. When she was almost twenty years she defended her area against encroachers. She was in a fight with another cat, the other cat was much younger and healthier but Maja didn’t give up. She fought for her life and honour to the end, then she crept into the house and finally she dropped down on the floor. She lay there panting the whole day. The last years of her life she was hard of hearing so she didn’t hear her own voice therefore she bawled rather than mewed. In the mornings she put her nose into my grandfather’s ear when he was asleep and screamed so loudly that he jumped high. She was very strong until the end then she became very ill, so we had to put her down at the veterinary. I was unable to take her to the veterinary myself because of my illness but I spoke to her over the phone and when she heard my voice she kissed the receiver and then she fell asleep in my mother’s arms and purred. I think she wanted to die because she was so old.

My grandfather made a coffin of wood, we put her on a bed of wood anemones and buried her on a little hill in the garden. The next morning I saw a white dove outside my bedroom window. I’m sure it was a sign from Maja. I cried for hours when she died, but I now realized she had a long and exciting life. I try to remember the good times instead of the bad ones. For example, one of the last days she was alive she put her head on one side and looked admiringly at the cherry tree which was in bloom. I will always keep that memory in my heart.


Skriven av: Linda-Miranda Garbén

Inloggning

Logga in och för att skapa din profil. Utöver får du möjlighet att redigera dina verk och du har möjlighet att nå högre medlemsstatus .

Glömt lösenord?

Snabba insättningar med Visa och Mastercard - casino med kortbetalning utan svensk licens!

Hur blir man veckans författare?

Veckans författare:

Fredrik Trulsson

Inga stordåd, böcker, eller barn, men förhoppningsvis ett gott hjärta och en någorlunda intakt ryggrad. Allt gott till er alla som besökt, läst och övertygat mig! Är du mer nyfiken, samt modig,…

Fredrik Trulsson

På andra plats denna veckan: Anders Berggren