#26 Don’t Bite People

Hilda. The cat responded to her words immediately, but left her knee-highs in shreds. Hilda went home in a heugh and cleaned up her bleeding ankle. China turned to the cat, which had not run back in bedroom, and under the bed, and decided to have a talk with him

She said out loud, ‘so you think you have won, eh. You stood your ground alright, but I’m gonna throw you out if you do that again. Don’t bite people. You get one more chance. Maybe you hate your name. Fine, I’ll change it. I’ll call you Ginger on account of you are orange, and because you are spicy, but the spicy part will just be our business. People don’t need to know that about you. You are a guard cat. I see that. You thought you were protecting me, and maybe you don’t like Hilda, but too bad, I do. You better be on your best behavior. You can stay under the bed if you want, but I don’t go for that biting business. Now, you’re on your honour, Ginger.’ After that, the cat only stayed out when Hilda visited but was well-behaved. It got so she knew it was Hilda when someone knocked because the cat stayed out.

There was a mice problem; everyone, but China, had found signs of them. The cat made sure there was no mice in her apartment. He killed and ate them. There was something in their brains he needed but he ate the whole thing. He slept with her at night and hunted while she visited. Ginger wasn’t hungry; he was just doing it for fun. The landlord decided he was going to fumigate, and people had to get out for three days. Some people had nowhere to go, like China, so he sent them to another building he had, but they would have to bunk together. They didn’t mind being together, but they didn’t like the inconvenience of being somewhere else. They weren’t allowed to bring their furniture but told to get all their food out; of course their pets too. Some people had pets that didn’t get along with other pets, some people had allergies, and people couldn’t get along with other people; the landlord said ‘tough’. He put them four to a room, and let them ‘argue it out’ about the space.

China found her long lost mother, Sophia, was in that other building; of course, she offered for her to stay there. China thought her mother was still in the states somewhere, but as it turns out, the five kids went with their father to California when she got sick. He sold the house, divorced her, and Sophia moved back to Canada. What a sad story. She didn’t have a bed, or other furniture, and not even kitchen things. A neighbor brought her hot soup every day. China asked Sophia to move in with her, and she would take care of her; of course, she accepted.

Sophia moved in with her blankets; China washed them because they stunk, and totally cleaned Sophia’s apartment. She put her in her bedroom, and Ginger followed China to sleep on the couch. Ginger changed his tune to hiding under the couch all the time. ‘…he must like the smell under there…’ China always said. China was somewhat right, but also Ginger didn’t like the smell of the old lady, and he could keep eye on Hilda from there. As a matter of fact, Ginger didn’t like the smell of the whole place since they got back.

China had a lot of work to do, now that Sophia lived with them. She was happy for it, after all, she was her mother, and she got in trouble with her landlord too. The landlord threatened that she would have to pay twice as much since two people lived there. Sophia never offered to pay a dime, and she didn’t lift a finger. How could she. She was sick in bed all day. He had a key, came in when he wanted, looked around, and took stuff from her fridge. He never took much, and she would have given it to him, and she would let him in, if he would only ask, but she couldn’t afford the rental hike. He saw the litter box, and started