Cettina, My Little Cat: A Day in Her Purrfect Life

Today there is an anniversary that has led me to think back to an event that happened a long time ago on a street in the middle of nowhere. However, for you to understand, I feel it necessary to make a small introduction.

Since I am a cat lover, I have always had them in my house. Mainly I prefer black cats, more or less Chartreux. In fact, I think the black cat is one of the most elegant felines, like a miniature panther.

And I don't believe in any of the superstitions associated with the black cat. Think of it as the Japanese for whom the black cat is a symbol of good luck and they say that having one in the house will bring much prosperity.

My friends and acquaintances are aware of my preferences and when a black kitten of a friend of mine had kittens, they gave me a beautiful black kitten that I named Romeo.

The sad end of my cat Romeo

At that time, I also had a female German shepherd named Cindy. The two became friends. My dog, because of her maternal instinct, carried the kitten around as if it were a puppy, and the kitten liked to be carried around like that.

The two were very close, Romeo was a cat, very lively, friendly and not afraid of anything. About two months passed when one morning we heard a deafening cry and our dog barking and crying.

Romeo was not used to going out alone in the garden. We had already thought about how to secure the garden so that he could go out whenever he wanted, and for the time being I kept him in the house and took him out with a harness and leash, so as not to take any risks.

That morning, however, he had broken the screen door of a window, gone out into the garden and climbed over the boundary wall and then jumped into the garden of the house next door. He was a kitten, very curious and was very happy when I put his harness on him to go for a walk.

Unfortunately, however, here he met a dog and perhaps thinking he was playing as he was playing with his friend, he let himself be caught. We climbed over the wall and when we removed it from the dog's mouth it was still alive.

We drove straight away and after a desperate rush to the vet we could only watch him die. Since that day, our dog has always hated the neighbour's dog and has never allowed him near the wall. We had to board up the part of the garden that bordered the dog because we noticed that our dog was in pain just seeing him.

A strange encounter in a wasteland

At the time when I was still working as a salesman, it was a Thursday in early summer, only four days had passed since the death of my cat, Romeo, and I was driving around thinking about what had happened less than a week before.

Suddenly, at the side of the road surrounded only by wheat fields, I saw a small black thing on the right side. I saw that it was an all-black kitten, it reminded me of Romeo. I stopped the car and approached, convinced that he would immediately run away, but instead he just stood there, motionless. He looked at me and it was as if he was asking for help through his eyes.

I picked him up and put him in the car. He was exhausted. I went to the vet, who told me it was a kitten, maybe a year old, because it had already changed its teeth. She was scary undernourished, weighed only 900 grams, had conjunctivitis, ringworm, worms and had lost a tooth.

According to the vet, she had little chance of survival, but I didn't give up and decided to take her with me. As soon as we got home, she hid under a piece of furniture and there was no way to get her out.

I put food and water near her, but the next morning she still hadn't touched anything. In the morning, however, I was finally able to pick her up. We started to administer the treatment that the vet suggested for a while because she could not swallow. We fed her with a syringe for three days with kitten milk, then she finally started eating on her own.

Life with a traumatised cat

We made several assumptions about the reasons for her distrust. Normally, stray cats are notoriously distrustful of humans. However, some clues led us to think that she was not born as a stray cat, but had been abandoned on the side of the road who knows why.

Although she shows her affection by purring, every movement or noise she hears she runs away. We even tried to suggest that she had mental problems, but when we have to take her to the vet she immediately understands what is going on. Most of the time she disappears under the bed and it is not easy to convince her to come out.

Many times we have had to postpone the appointment with the vet because of the impossibility of putting her in the carrier. So, she knows quite well what is going on around and has an incredible mind.

There are times when we call her and she is like a dog, other times when she does something we don't like, like scratching the sofa and armchairs, we just call her and she stops and uses her personal scratching post. Sometimes it

ambushes us and pulls antics. There is no night when she does not sleep in bed with us. I am really glad I brought her with me. Who knows where she would be by now if I hadn't taken her that day. I don't even want to think about it.

She has now been with us for seven years and has become a real beauty. However, the fear remained and, in fact, she rarely leaves her house. Even when she goes out into the garden she goes there for a short time and if she only hears a dog barking in the distance she immediately returns, going to hide when someone comes over she disappears from sight, and we only see her when the guests leave.

It has to see a person many times before it finally finds the courage to come out into the open. In this case, she immediately befriends the person, and when this person returns to our house she no longer runs away to hide, she just starts rubbing her ankles purring and asking for cuddles.

He can't bear to see his bowl empty, because as soon as he has finished eating he starts meowing to make sure it will be filled another time. Who knows how hungry he must have been. And anything that refers to even the slightest change in her lifestyle she does not accept.

In fact, we have never taken her away from home for a day trip or a holiday. In all these years we have never been away from home for several days and when it has happened for no more than 3 or 4 days someone has always come home to feed, change the rubbish and play with Cettina a little.

We tried to take her with us, even for a simple walk near the house, since we live in the country, but as soon as we crossed the garden gate we had to turn back because we saw that she was terrified.

And soon we decided to secure the garden so that our cat could not end up in the garden of the house next door.

The coincidences of life

Her name is Trilly, which was the first name that came to mind when I took her to the vet and filled out her health booklet. but I started calling her Micetta, then Cetta and finally Cettina. And it is this name that she answers to now.

I often travel for work and see the poor dead cats by the side of the road, I have rarely seen a cat or a dog in some places and when this has happened, I always stop, but they immediately run away. And alerting the police was always one of my worries when I found an animal that seemed to be wandering, and surely if it had gotten caught, I would have taken it with me.

But for Cettina it was different, when I met her, I immediately thought that I had been sent to fill with her love, even if only in part, the void she had left me with the death of Romeo killed by the neighbour's dog . It immediately struck me as too strange a coincidence. In fact, it happened only four days after I had lost him. And above all, I always thought Cettina wanted to come with me as soon as she saw me.

Every time I stop and look at my cat, I get the impression that he wants to thank me every day that I saved him. I wish I could save all those poor animals that unscrupulous and heartless people abandon or mistreat.

As the years go by, things change.

As soon as Cettina arrived at home, things changed instantly for our German shepherd, Cindy. We had to keep her separate from the cat for fear that she might catch some infection. So for about twenty days they never saw each other.

The first time was not very promising because the dog is very happy, she immediately tried to take him in her mouth as she did Romeo, but Cettina had a different opinion. She swelled up and started blowing, leaving our Cindy very confused. However slowly, they got used to it. That is, it was the cat who couldn't stand the dog, Cindy always wanted to play with her. Unfortunately, they never made friends. So they kept ignoring each other even though they lived in the same house. But they didn't bother each other.

Unfortunately, a few years ago, Cindy passed away from an illness and after a while we decided to get another dog. This time, we focused on Jack Russell, a female, and named her Kira. We got her when she was two months old and as soon as I got home, Kira was not very sociable and started blowing when she saw her approaching.

Then things improved, but not much. Jack Russells are known to be very lively and playful, Cettina would play with them for a while, but after a while she would retreat to her favourite places. trying hard to avoid the dog. They were also a bit jealous of each other. jealous of our attention, which we had to share equally. Then they would occasionally play together, occasionally fighting, but there was not much friendship between the two.

Everything changed almost suddenly. I was hospitalised for a fortnight, so Kira and Cettina spent several hours a day out of the sun. Most probably it was at this juncture that they became friends, perhaps driven by loneliness.

I remember the first night I slept at home after my return from hospital. They came to sleep on the bed, as they always did, because they always slept with us, although one on one side and the other on the other, but I was really surprised when I saw Cettina, who started washing Kira as she would a kitten.

And all this is renewed every night. Now they sleep close together, almost hugging each other and are unlikely to fight, although the dog is always playful and lively and the cat gets tired after a while. But they have found their harmony and respect each other. In fact, it is amusing to see Cettina occasionally ambushing Kira, whereas before she always tried to avoid her.

Animals, cats or dogs, are an addition to our family. I couldn't think of living without them. Stray or breed, big or small, they give us so much joy and happiness and above all so much love.