Solomon's Kitten by Sheila Jeffries Read Free Book Online Page B

with me in it, lying
there, a useless dysfunctional wreck of a cat.
    What would become of me now?

Chapter Five
AN ANIMAL HEALER
    I didn’t know what was going to happen next, but my life with Gretel was over. For long days and nights, I lay in the animal hospital on a white bed with a light in the
roof, listening to the whimpering and wailing from other cats and dogs who were stretched out in recovery beds in that place.
    The humans looked after me beautifully, and stroked me a lot, but their talk was gloomy.
    ‘This cat is borderline,’ I heard the man saying. ‘We don’t know what long-term effects the heat stroke will have. She could suffer from multiple organ failure and have
to be put down. A pity. She’s only a young cat.’
    Every day they stuck a sharp needle in me and, yes, they took some of my blood! I could see it in the syringe. Then they put something in through another needle, and I felt better afterwards.
Clever stuff. But I knew what I needed, and it wasn’t available.
    ‘What’s happening to me?’ I asked my angel.
    ‘It’s a window,’ she replied.
    ‘A window?’
    ‘A time of waiting, a time of transition between two life times.’
    ‘Am I going to die?’
    ‘Not quite,’ she said. ‘But you are like a cat sitting in the window, watching what is outside. You can’t move on to the new life we have planned for you until you help
yourself to get better. You will need to be a strong healthy cat to cope with what is ahead.’
    ‘Help myself!’ I was surprised. I thought I could just lie there and let the humans work their mysterious magic with those needles and tubes.
    ‘All the purring and the medicine can’t make you right again,’ said my angel. ‘You need to HELP YOURSELF to find the healing you know you need.’
    How could I FIND anything? I was lying flat in an animal hospital. Angels can be so unreasonable, I thought, and twitched my back and tail. My paws quivered in frustration. I stretched each of
my front paws, splaying my toes and letting my claws curl out, then in again. Bits of me were working. It seemed a good time to wash, so I lifted each paw to my mouth and began licking and brushing
my pink pads and the downy fur between my toes. It felt good.
    ‘Oh, she’s washing!’ exclaimed one of the nurses who was walking past. She stopped by my cage. ‘Good girl!’ she said, like Gretel. Then the vet came and looked at
me.
    ‘I think we’ll let Roxanne look at her later. Has she eaten anything?’
    ‘Little bits. She still doesn’t want to stand up.’
    ‘But she’s washing. That’s a start.’
    Later that day, the animal hospital went uncannily quiet. I wondered why. Then the main door opened and in came a girl in a blaze of light. Was she real? I stared, and found I could see a human
in there, inside that blaze of light, just an ordinary lump of a girl with a long dark plait over one shoulder. I wanted her close to me, immediately. I couldn’t wait.
    My angel had told me to help myself, so I managed an echoing meow and at once the girl came to me and looked in with the most beautiful eyes.
    ‘We thought you should start with the dogs, Roxanne,’ said a nurse.
    ‘No.’ said Roxanne. ‘This cat. She needs me now. She’s right on the edge. I’ll do her first.’
    First. I was first! I meowed in welcome as Roxanne came right up to me, and the light from her aura flooded into my cage. She unlatched my door, and looked deeply into my eyes, like TammyLee had
done.
    ‘I’m Roxanne,’ she whispered. ‘I’m an animal healer, darling.’
    As soon as I heard her voice and felt her touch, I wanted to cry, and I sort of did by sighing and making little mewling sounds in my throat.
    ‘Is it OK to take her out?’ Roxanne asked the nurse, who hovered beside us, watching and learning.
    ‘Sure. She’s not going anywhere. She’s just laid there for days.’
    Roxanne picked me up and sat down with me flopped on her lap.
    ‘What’s her name?’ she