a story that made me cry, from 8 years ago, I'd forgotten it

Sunday 8 May 2016

Pussy the Pain Eating Cat

Pussy the Pain Eating Cat ©

By Michael Casey

Pussy was a moggy, a battered and abandoned moggy, thrown over a high wall next to a stream, expected to drown and die. Cruelty beyond words, absolute evil cruelty. They say cats have nine lives, this one must have had 99 x 9 lives.  Pussy landed in the grounds of an old people’s home, Eve spotted the sack of rubbish and scooped it up and was going to put it in their trade dustbin, only the sack shivered.

So Eve took it inside and placed the cat by the radiator in the day room, the residents looked at the wet and shivering cat. A cat was a novelty, something new to brighten their day. Something to cheer them on the long or short journey to the end of their time. One by one the residents came to look and wish the pussy good luck. I hope she survives, I hope she gets better they all prayed. Old Annie was knitting a scarf and decided the cat, their new friend would be better with it on her. So old Annie tore it off her needles and covered the cat with it. As she did so she shed a tear, the  tear fell on the cat like a splash of Holy Water.

Now a cat knows what Love is, so Pussy as the cat was christened, felt the love all around her. After a month Pussy was back to her normal self, and having a Home as a home was great.  Pussy was like Goldilocks trying all the chairs and beds for comfort, the residents in the home had new focus now, a cat was something special. The Love between them grew and grew, you don’t have to be a genius to know that people, old people need love too, a gentle kind of love, a patience kind of love, the kind mentioned in the famous Bible passage about honouring your father in old age. 

Pussy knew which resident needed an extra bit of love, so she’d sit on their lap or on the armrest of their chair. Pussy purred and the residents smiled back, it was a symbiotic relationship. The mood lifted with Pussy around, Eve loved her residents they were her life, watching them as they slide to their death, she really loved them, now Pussy shared in the loving.

Georgia was an old West Indian lady who must have been in her nineties, she had loved to laugh, she had been full of stories, but now the big C, cancer was attacking her. She had regular pain killers, a supply of morphine which Eve administered, Eve hid her tears from Georgia her smile was her armour. Pussy could tell, an animal can always tell, so Pussy decided that Georgia needed extra special treatment.

Pussy sat on Georgia’s lap and purred, it was cat prayers, the cat was not sitting on the mat, the cat was sitting on the lap. Georgia sang from her heart from her very soul, quietly ever so quietly, she was old and in pain, but she still believed with all her pained heart, so she sang spirituals. Pussy purred the chorus. There were only two of them but they were a choir.

We all know about the power of love, Jennifer Rush has sung about it, we have all been moved by song. So the rest of the residents watched and were moved. If only they knew the words. They gathered around and listened, badly singing the words, out of place and out of time. It was like a scene from the Studio Ghibli film, Ponyo, where the old people live under water.

Love and Hope and cat purring, Pussy was a conductor, the residents were the choir, old Annie clattered away on the knitting needles. They would make old Georgia better, she had to live at least until she got a telegram from the Queen for her 100^th Birthday, nothing less would do.

Eve went to Mass and told her friend Undoopa from the Shona choir about the events in the old people’s home. Undoopa was intrigued and said if Eve wanted to invite her to tea then she’d be more than happy to come. So next Tuesday afternoon Undoopa would come.

Undoopa arrived with her sister Sondoopa in tow, Shona sisters stick together. After helping with the resident’s tea they went to see Georgia, Pussy was there purring away. Then the singing began, Georgia’s quiet prayer accompanied by Pussy’s purring. Now a Shona sister is a strong and powerful thing, one is dangerous, two is like an earthquake.

LOUD very LOUD singing erupted from the Shona  sisters, at first Pussy was scared, but then the cat became a lion and began to roar. It may have been because Pussy had a  lick of the morphine, but whatever the reason this cat was COOOOOL, for 5 hours he sang with the Shona sisters. Love and Hope and Pray erupting from them like a volcano, the residents rocked in their armchairs, banging spoons on their trays. Georgia smiled more and more. The bastard cancer would never beat her spirit, she was on fire and the whole of the brigade would never put her out.

Georgia was so happy, the Shona sisters said their goodbyes, then Eve shared a bottle of Baily’s Irish Cream with the residents to calm them down from their high. Pussy got the dregs from the bottle, this cat had got its cream and licked it.

Now the Shona sisters prayed for Georgia every day, then when they were singing at a wedding for Fr. Cownley they told all the rest of the full Shona choir. So as they were all there they jumped on the bus and went to the old people’s home.

40 Shona singers with drums too invaded the old people’s home, Pussy fled to on top of the bookcase. But the sound of the low like distant thunder singing encouraged Pussy to sit on Georgia’s lap as usual. Then the women began to sing with drums beating too. Now how this worked I do not know, I am just a writer not a doctor, but I do know that love is the best medicine, my own dad came back from the dead 20 years ago, after we had picked hymns for his funeral.

So the sound of music mixed with Shona love cured Georgia’s cancer, and she went on to live till she was 110, she got her telegram from the Queen and 10 more, making 11, Georgia always said as she was West Indian she’s need 11 cards, enough to make a cricket team.

As for Pussy the cat, she lived till she was 30, the residents loved her so much they willed her to keep on living. None of the residents seemed to have any pain after the Shona had cured Georgia with their Christian singing, Eve said Pussy ate all the pain, she wasn’t a mouser she was the pain eating cat.