Читать книгу The Leopards of Sh'ong - Paul Jaco - Страница 7

When all the piglets had been weaned, Shuna still visited the Milky pub, but quite soon a drought set in. She turned rough and hurt Milky as she climbed on top of her. The supplement arrived just in time. We gave it to Shuna with dairy milk. Minced meat completed the diet.

Soon, Shuna started causing trouble. A special friendship had developed between her and Stella, whom she kept regarding as her mother and with whom she often slept. Stella taught her all about mice and other rodents as soon as the other kittens had left.

Later, Shuna began looking for something more substantial. Her first victim was a piglet from another farrow, one that strayed into her domestic territory, and thereafter the security of the cages needed stepping up. Whenever a piglet broke out, she was onto it within seconds and there went someone else’s dinner.

When I was away at boarding school, Mother kept the cub cosy in Stella’s box among some rugs. She was growing as tough as nails, but with Stella, however, she was gentle enough. When she “meowed”, it sounded like a door creaking open, but it called Stella to her very quickly.

Despite some terrible smells and the destruction from her explorations, like climbing up my curtains when no one was around, I let Shuna sleep with me in my bed. In time, she turned into a house cat, knowing where the window was and how to get back. The holidays started, with her and Cram playing morning, noon and night.

She disappeared one evening, but I knew she had to be somewhere and I didn’t give it much thought as I had more troubling things on my mind at the time. I reasoned that she would get inside in her own way and the logical thing for me was to fall asleep.