my cat, Mab
 |
Let's talk about ...
cats, dogs, horses, bunnies,
hamsters...
or anything with fur!
(or feathers, not sure about scales though) |
Pasha - Again...
(from “Pasha, From Animal Shelter to a Sheltered Life)
by Inge H. Borg
Winter had arrived early. I decided to have myself a cozy evening complete with a little Mozart, a crackling fire, a glass of wine, and a good book. All that was missing, I thought, was the wafting scent of a candle.
‘He won’t be dumb enough to stick his long whiskers into an open flame,’ I reassured myself as I placed the thick candle on the low coffee table. I was right. Pasha wasn’t dumb at all. That clever cat looked, sniffed, and then turned tail. His beautiful bushy tail.
Another of those blood-curdling howls was followed by the stench of singed fur. I just caught a glimpse of a plume of smoke streaking into the bedroom where it vanished behind the sheers! Double luck was with us that day. While Pasha’s flank-fur came off in black bits and pieces, his skin was intact; and the sheets had not gone up in flames.
I could just imagine the headline in our local newspaper: Flaming cat burns down Paws Reporter’s home.
Public flagellation was in order, as was an article for my next submission on the dangers in the home for our pets. It was a wonder that, after my weekly column appeared complete with my admission of guilt, I was neither drummed out of the shelter’s volunteer force nor ostracized by the town’s pet owners.
*
From the get-go, Pasha had problems with his digestion. The vet suspected he had gotten into something caustic while he was on his own. In order to ‘stop him up a bit,’ I was to add cooked chicken to his food. Every time skinless, boneless chicken breast went on sale, I bought a bunch. No telling how many breasts I stewed, chopped, and froze over the years in handy little packets. Instead of getting better, Pasha was burdened with an additional intestinal scourge. It was further suggested to give him a small amount of pumpkin puree with his food. Again, I froze cookie-sized blobs of the canned stuff to add a smidgen to his meals.
Figuring that’s the way it was, I referred to him as my Champagne cat.
‘What’s a Champagne cat?’ Visiting friends would ask, after Pasha had installed himself on their lap and then excitedly infused the air with another of his nose-wrinkling emissions.
Paraphrasing from one of Peter Mayle’s delightful Provence books, I recited this paradigm:
--A young couple samples wines at an old abbey. The blushing bride wonders, ‘You make such great wine, so why not Champagne?’ The rotund abbot looks at the woman, and smiles indulgently, ‘Ah, ma chère, what really is Champagne? Champagne is nothing but a perfectly good wine that breaks wind.’--
Pasha was a perfectly good cat...
* * *
Read the first story about Pasha HERE
Excerpted from Borg’s
Pasha, From Animal Shelter to a Sheltered Life,
Available from Amazon –
******
Helen's latest release is a cosy mystery set in 1970s north London
Eighteen-year-old library assistant Jan Christopher’s life is to change
on a rainy Friday evening in July 1971, when her legal guardian and uncle, DCI
Toby Christopher, gives her a lift home after work. Driving the car, is her
uncle’s new Detective Constable, Laurie Walker – and it is love at first sight
for the young couple.
But romance is soon to take a back seat when a baby boy is taken from
his pram, a naked man is scaring young
ladies in nearby Epping Forest, and an elderly lady is found, brutally
murdered...
Are the events related? How will they affect the staff and public of the
local library where Jan works – and will a blossoming romance survive a police
investigation into murder?
Reviews
“A delightful read about an unexpected murder in North East London.” Richard Ashen (South Chingford
Community Library)
“Lots of nostalgic, well-researched, detail about life in the 1970s,
which readers of a certain age will lap up; plus some wonderful, and
occasionally hilarious, ‘behind the counter’ scenes of working in a public
library, which any previous or present-day library assistant will recognise!” Reader
Review
and...COMING SOON
A new edition with new additional scenes - launching 21st June - e-book available for pre-order (paperback to follow soon!) https://viewbook.at/WhenMermaidSings
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Helen