Читать книгу Dougal's Diary - David Greagg - Страница 38

It wasn't as bad as yesterday. They took us out in the morning to some kind of yard. It's a bit boring but at least we got to run around a bit. I played with one of the others. He's a bit like Stripy One, with white patches. He's a lot bigger than me and he's in the next cage. He rubbed his nose against mine and told me about the place. He's been there for days and days, and most of the cats he remembers aren't there any more. Humans come and look in the cages and play with us and they take us home. Nobody stays here forever, he thinks. Either a family of humans takes us away with them, or the humans in the shining white coats take us somewhere else. I hope it's somewhere nice, I told him, and he said he hoped so too because he was getting the feeling he'd be going away soon. Play cute for the humans, he advised me. He didn't play cute and so nobody picked him. That's what Mum was trying to tell us, I think. You have to look cute and pretty and lively or the humans won't want you.

I asked him did we need to have humans and he said yes. Some cats live wild on the roads but you wouldn't want to. You saw them being brought in all thin with their fur all dirty and matted; and their eyes burn with anger, he told me. Humans belong with cats. They need us and we really need them.

What do they need us for? I asked him. We teach them to keep a light heart, he told me. I've seen humans who don't like cats and they are strange and wild. You wouldn't like them. We teach them to be gentle and wise and kind.

He was still talking to me when the humans in their white coats put us back in the cages. I liked him. He was a bit scruffy and he didn't smell all that good, to be honest, but he was a wise and gentle cat and I hoped some humans would pick him. And me! I didn't want to be here for days and days either.