ANIMALS WITH ME IN MY LIFE

                                           

Born near Hamburg across the River Elbe southwards in some industrial town I lived in a secluded road in my early years.

It was a town and - a town is a town although most idyllic – it is a town ! And this was one on the brink to become more and more industrial in the middle of it and in the outskirts. Industries were growing in some unbelievable way and commerce connected to port too.

So when I came first to spent a summer with my grandparents on a farm also on the very outskirts of some middlesized provincial town in then East Prussia with 2 years of age … this was a huge revelation to me … the wide landscape before my eyes – the low nearer-to-earth sky of deep blue and silence in the air lest for the humming of the bees for which my grandpa had built stocks down the hill in the meadow.

I took to all the animals on the farm like to long missed siblings. I always used to be tired in the mornings around 8-9.00 a.m. and this I was all through my life and I still feel this tiredness today in my old age.

And as we all had to get up at 6.00 a.m. at least — of course I suffered with this lifelong tiredness already then - this always was a huge challenge for me. I always went looking for some nice cozy place to lay down and have a little nap – sometimes it was in the barn for storing fire-wood-small branches neatly heaped up and I made myself some sort of bed and nestled in there.

Thus it happened one morning :

My grandfather had a small workshop as nails-smith (hobby of him) and had welded a sort of metal walking stick for me and there I was dressed in what we call a “training suit” with my stick and a smaller net stuffed full with dolls. I was sent outside into the yard or wherever I wanted to go.

It was morning and around 9.00 a.m. and I was tired in the usual way at the usual time – I remember looking around myself seeking some place to lay down myself.

I saw the doggies’ house full with new straw and I envied this dog for its beautiful fine and cozy place in a way from creature to creature … and the next moment I can remember being in the Dog’s Hut snuggling in with the dog and leave all the world or whatever it was then outside ….. and went to sleep. (Now I found out that all my life I regarded any animal which I met just as another creature of nature or earth just like myself. There was never anything like : I am human or superior to them – no we were so much alike created by our Mother Earth – equals in a way and that was the only bridge I found myself to some animal understanding of likewise creatures.

Going on with my story of napping in the dog’s hut:

Quite some time later I awoke hearing that people were calling my name … they were all in search for me and so I stuck out my head – out of the entry hole of the dog’s house – and replied to the calls of search….

There were cows and a cat always busy to catch as many mice as she could and always laid down a row of her catchings in front of the doorsteps waiting for my Granny looking at her with expectation in her eyes. Granny gave her a loud praise then and presented a saucer of milk to her, and took all the cadavres and threw them on the muck heap in the yard …

This was true life for me and I was sent there every summer with my aunt since they – sister and brothers gone to live somewhere else – all came to help in harvest time.

Since I can remember I have been running after cats as soon some were crossing my paths – still my mother did not allow any pets in our flat.

My beloved aunt living in the same house had a cat and no children but this male cat was addicted to my uncle whom he loved dearly. I was not to touch this cat by name of Peter as he was exclusively devoted to my uncle and my aunt for reasons of feeding him.

But later – much later – my family had broken up and I had left a very well-furnished large flat t at the brim of Hamburg with Greens all around and moved into a tiny 2-roomed Apartment in the middle of Hamburg near the”slaughterhouse” (actually not a nice place with low vibrations) and my daughter having left me for living with her father in London — It was then when I decided to acquire a cat as a companion of my new and lonely life.

I started looking at ads in the newspaper … never was sure about these ads – but it was on one Saturday when my finger pointed on a particular ad and my heart started bumping and strongly pounding… I had found it …my new cat. I phoned those people which were privately animal-lovers and protectors and when they told me they had found him somewhere under a roof of a house … half starving and feeding him back to health for quite a time – I told them to bring him along right away without having seem him before.

So they came and as soon they opened the basket he came out – a slender but beautiful male-cat tortoise and white with a sweet gentle face.

I kneeled down and he came straight to me and from that time he never left my side. All was in great harmony and when I awoke in the night I felt the body of him along my back and his arms from behind around my neck. I think I first had a good and relieving cry then and thus we both grew together as an unseparable compound for many years. I named him : Mulle and he became a great love of mine.

I always felt towards him in a relationship which was from one creature of Earth to another one which was me. we were partners and nothing less.

There are many more stories to tell about him being so loving and gentle too that when a friend of mine brought his very young black cat starting a mutual living together with me – Mulle at first growled in a deep tone to her – and I made the reproach to him: “but Mulle this is still a Baby !”

At once he stopped his agression and started to befriend her in a most loving and caring way … and a bit later they both used to cuddle up embracing each other like humanswhen it was time to go to rest in the days. At night Mulle used to sleep on my breast while the little one crouched herself in a round circle between my legs. I got used to sleeping in this way – they were my family !

I could go on and on writing about all my cats – presently I have been living for bout 2 years with an old one – now 13 years of age which were found with an old lady having suffered from a stroke and who stayed with the grandson of that Lady. He was much traumatized and with much patience and affection he is slowly coming around. Gaining confidence in me and this huge-big Ginger He-Cat is a real challenge for me. He has a delicate find head which is far too small for the huge body which comes after the head. He is ascending with me as he loves greens and especially cucumbers (fresh) which I slice in thin pieces and he eats these together with his meat. Still with proceeding time he wants more and more cucumbers and less meat. At breakfast he jumps on a stool beside me controlling everything and I feed him with the soft middle-pieces of this veges by my hand-palms.

As soon as I stand up he jumps over to my chair and very often we are sharing this chair – he on my back and I on the brim … This is how we are creating our life … resting in the afternoon we are laying spoonwise on my couch ….

Traumatized as he was – he never purred in a way – but now in the morning when I greet him “Good Day Mookie”and lay my ears on his tummy I hear a soft and unusal purr ! … thus slowly and cautiously we are approaching each other these days. He seems to me very intelligent and I know he understand everything I am saying if he wants to.

There are many more nice stories about my cats …I had 5 until now (Mookie included).

And I loved them all dearly for their individual peculiar characters.

I know they are up there waiting in the big spaceship of my Sirian Friends for our 1st Contact again!

Has it been too long for you – this writing of mine ? But this is due to my loving them – my cats and I !

(Contra)Mary

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