Enough To Make A Cat Laugh (part 2)

Part One is here (opens in new window)….Everything in her home seemed a bit shabbier than she remembered, but to Alice it was wonderful just to see it all again. She jumped onto the windowsill and basked in the sun, purring contentedly.

After a while, Alice wandered back to the living room, she didn’t want to waste too much precious time sitting around when there was so much to see and do.

The door at the bottom of the stairs was open, so Alice decided to explore upstairs next, she hadn’t been up there for years now, her bed was in the living room as her poor old legs wouldn’t carry her up the steep stairs any longer. She ran lightly up into her old bedroom and sneezed. There was a coating of dust everywhere, it covered the floor and all the furniture, even the windowsill. Alice padded around leaving a little trail of paw prints in the dust, everywhere she went. It choked her throat and she thought what she wouldn’t give for a nice cup of tea and a biscuit! She giggled and it came out a sort of brrr as she realised that cat food be more suitable now.

Returning downstairs, Alice could hear the fridge humming merrily but she couldn’t help herself to anything from it. She returned to her chair to think it all over.

“Have you been having a nice dream then?” the carer’s voice startled Alice “You had a lovely smile on your face when I came in just now”

Alice opened her eyes, the familiar blackness surrounded her. She stretched carefully and felt the usual ache in her arms and legs and was very disappointed to return to reality. She remembered her dream, it had been wonderful and she hadn’t wanted to wake up.

After her carer had left, Alice started musing over her dream, she knew there was a cat’s refuge in the town nearby and the thought struck her that a cat could do even less for itself than a blind old lady could. How awful it must be, she realised, to have to rely on someone for the whole of your life, to feed you, to give you a drink and open doors for you. Until now she’d not given a thought as to how the poor creatures lived. She had always liked cats but had never owned one and now it was too late.

Maybe there was something she could do to help cats though, she’d have a little think about that. The following day, Alice’s doctor paid her a visit, he confirmed that she was of sound mind and gave her a certificate to prove it. The day after that, her solicitor called, he was with Alice for quite a while.

A few months later, there was an interesting article in the local newspaper:

“O.A.P. LEAVES HER LIFE’S SAVINGS TO LOCAL CAT RESCUE”

Mrs Alice Forsythe who died recently, aged ninety, has left her money to the local Cat Rescue Sanctuary. The manager of the Sanctuary says he is delighted and plans to use the windfall to build an extension to the cattery so that more homeless cats can be helped.

Mrs Forsythe’s son George is said to be very disappointed although he has inherited his late mother’s house and contents. It has been proved that the old lady was of sound mind when she changed her will shortly before her death.

George wandered gloomily around his new home, all his at last, but no money for its upkeep. The furniture was shabby and not worth much either. He fumed at the thought of his mother’s wealth going to cats, pesky creatures, he hadn’t even known she liked them.

He climbed the stairs, but upstairs wasn’t much different, nothing of value there either. He shivered as he noticed the marks in the dust, he could swear it was little paw prints.

That was very strange, thought George, as he knew his mother had never owned a cat……

Ruth aka Kattaddorra