Читать книгу Die Katze namens Mülltonne - Egon Harings - Страница 8

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The still nameless cat is now two years and prefers to rummage around in dustbins that are in front of the houses and are often not locked. On such a day, Carla comes up with a suitable name for her pet, the cat. “We call it Dustbin because it is always rummaging around in dustbins”, she says to Walter in the evening when he comes home from work. “My dear, I’ve already thought of such a name”, replies Walter. Thus this solved the problem of finding a name for the cat.

Dustbin has become the couple’s favorite. It no longer wants to do without the cat. Whenever it moves away from the house, crawls through the garden fence to hang around in other realms, Carla, who is worried about her pet, looks for it. She rarely finds it, but it always comes back to the house, even when it is already dark.

Dustbin is prowling around the neighborhood, which Carla doesn’t know. Walter drove to work in the morning, as always. Carla has the time she uses to write a letter. She sits down at the desk and writes to friends in Germany.

Hello friends,

Well here I am writing another letter and haven’t sent the last one! Our cat that we gave the name Dustbin, because it loves doing rummage in dustbins, just not crawls around my feet, what it likes to do. Thus I can take the time for writing.

Walter is well. Early in the morning he left the house to go to work. At home he is sitting much time in order to work on computer. He is better on the computer than me. I know he has talked a long time on the phone with you but I do not get so much news. I have to squeeze him like a lemon but eventual he comes out with something around the next days. I am rather his waitress. Yesterday I have been applying for food and beverage attendant positions.

The weather is hot in Perth and I avoid walking in the sun as it just stings. It is 29°C in the house now that is sort of cool. We don’t need air conditioning anymore but we still use the fans. You are drinking glueh wine at the Weihnachtsmarkt now, while we are sweating in Western Australia.

Not much else to report, write more when a miracle happens and the weather gets cool.

Best regards

Carla

As soon as Carla has finished the letter, she hears a noise behind her. She turns to see the cat sneaking in through the open door that leads to the garden. She doesn’t know what it did during its absence, but soon finds out.

Dustbin came across a snake while wandering the neighborhood gardens. It is the notorious Death Adder, a venomous snake with a thin wormlike tail that it uses to lure birds and other prey. The lazy reptile, not even 50 cm long and actually living further south of Perth, can kill it quickly with a bite behind the head, so that there is no fight for life and death. Dustbin was caught by the movement of the snake’s wormlike tail. It had probably spotted a prey and wanted to attract it by the movements of its tail, as is customary with its species. After the death bite, Dustbin takes the dead snake between its teeth, brings it to the neighbor’s front door and puts it there. Then it runs back to the garden, crawls under the garden fence, sees the open door and runs towards it. Just arrived in the room in which Carla wrote the letter, it is greeted warmly. “Well, my little pet, you’ve done a good deed when I see you sneaking up on me so contentedly.” The last word has just been said when Carla hears a loud cry for help from the street. She jumps up, runs to the front door, pulls it open, runs out into the street and looks where the cry is coming from. At first it’s quiet; then from the right she hears her neighbor calling out loud: “Help, help, a snake.” “I help you. Don’t do anything; it might be too dangerous for you.” With these words Carla runs to the neighboring house to help the neighbor, who is terrified and who only stares at the dead snake, which does not seem dead to her. “I can see”, says Carla when she reaches the neighbor, “… it’s a Death Adder, but it’s already dead. This reptile wanted to get into your house safely and died on your doorstep overnight when it saw no way to do so.” How nice that Carla does not suspect Dustbin of having put the venomous snake dead here.

With a large sheet of a newspaper that the neighbor gives Carla, she brings the little dead reptile into her garden to bury it there. Dustbin watches her without feeling guilty. It also just wanted to show that it protects people by killing animals that are threat to them. And such little creatures as now are not a problem for it. They’re quick to kill you just have to know how to do it properly.