‘OUT,’ she insisted and tried to sweep me off the sofa! I was appalled, and a bit frightened. I wasn’t going to leave Vati now that I’d travelled so many miles to find him. I crouched against the back of the sofa, shut my eyes, and clung on with my claws.
‘You’re wet and disgusting. WILL YOU GO OUT!’ Lisa screamed. ‘I don’t want you here. Have you got that, you stinking old feral cat? I don’t want you.’
Vati didn’t move. He seemed resigned to this sort of behaviour. I looked steadily at Lisa’s eyes and saw that she was afraid to pick me up or touch me. She was making a pantomime with a broom to scare me out.
I stayed put, and felt a glimmer of something resembling gratitude from Vati. He needed me. I had come to be his support cat. I radiated that thought to Lisa, and when she found I wasn’t going to let her chase me out, she gave up and threw the broom against the wall. ‘You wait till Graham gets home,’ she warned. ‘He’ll deal with you,’ and she took Heidi upstairs.
Meanwhile, Vati had gone back into his shell. The moment of response I’d worked so hard for had been crushed by Lisa’s hysteria. I’d have to start all over again, coaxing and encouraging my frozen brother.
First I needed to eat, so I headed for the kitchen where I found a cat dish with the dreaded dried food in it. So boring. I needed something succulent and sustaining, so I picked at the fridge door with both paws, pulling and pulling until it swung open. I stood there, sniffing the cornucopia of delicious smells. I pulled out a slab of cheese, but it was tightly sealed in plastic, so I left it on the floor for later. Standing up on my hind legs I inspected the next shelf, and pulled at some tin foil with my teeth. It floated, crackling, to the floor. Under it was a plate of cooked chicken. WOW! I meowed at Vati, but he still sat there like a china cat.
I pulled some chunks out onto the floor, and tucked into the best meal I’d had for months. I ate until I was satisfied, then picked up a really choice piece of chicken and carried it through to Vati. A fleeting look of surprise passed through his eyes. He sniffed the chicken, and gave it a lick. Then he pushed it away with his nose. It fell on the carpet and he resumed his frozen cat pose.
I felt like swiping him.
Instead, I sat beside him, washing and purring. Then I wrapped myself around him and drifted into sleep, warm and comfortable for the first time since leaving my home with Angie and Leroy. The north wind was blowing snow against the windows, and Graham’s mother’s clock still ticked and chimed. I could hear the beat of my heart and the anxious beat of Vati’s. We’d always slept intertwined. Now it was me doing the twining, and Vati sitting there like a stone.
Surprisingly, it was my sleeping and my silent presence that slowly began to unlock Vati. There was a magic moment when I felt him relax against me. He snuggled into my fur with a little sigh, as if he’d waited through a long hard time for the comfort of my brother love. Half asleep, I did a mini purr-meow to encourage him, and I felt his paws reach out and slowly wrap themselves around me.
The magic of the forest seemed there as we slept deeply. The tiny beings of light had somehow stayed with me, and blessed me. Now they clustered over both of us, and the warm radiance of my aura flooded into Vati’s pale thin rim of light, energising and restoring him. I didn’t have to do anything. Only love. And love brings light in all its myriad forms.
Loving Vati back to life was the easiest, most beautiful and nurturing experience. After the long hard journey, it was a sacred gift of contentment, and I knew that, no matter what the humans did, they couldn’t take that away from us. We were twin souls, Timba and Vati, named after the White Lions who had come to save the world.
I woke briefly and saw Vati nestled into me, his face turned upwards in a smile, and I asked for time. Time for the healing to be complete, before the humans came back and tore our lives apart. I longed for Angie and Leroy. Here, with Graham and Lisa, I wasn’t sure what would happen.
Lisa had called me a smelly old cat! Maybe she was only seeing my matted fur, not ME. It hurt. A lot. But I tried not to think about it. I focused on remembering Vati. He’d been such a bright spirit, such fun to play with, and full of mysterious knowledge. He was a hypersensitive cat, a gift of pure gold to the human race … so what had happened to him? I still didn’t know.
I was glad it was Graham, and not Lisa, who came in at the end of the afternoon, stamping the snow from his shoes and leaving them on the mat. He padded into the lounge, and recognised me immediately.
‘Timba!’ He stared down at me, and I gave him a cat smile and a purr-meow. I didn’t want to disturb Vati.
‘I don’t believe it!’ Graham said incredulously. ‘How did you get here, Timba? Surely … surely you didn’t find your way from South Wales!’