Strong and gentle

One day she entered the large garden which generously surrounds my brother and sister -in-law’s house.  She was slim but not underfed, and probably found most of her daily need for food  by catching small lizards and field-mice in the vineyards beyond the garden.  The taste of tuna-fish and other similar fine food which she had surely never tasted before, generated the immediate beginning  of a continuous cohabitative relationship,  with all those advantages a cat can receive from a generous human heart. Very soon the catch of lizards and other small animals became only leisure-time practice.  She is in full strength now, showing a beautiful mix of colours and sparkling green eyes in a harlequin mask. The only obstacle to total serenity remains the presence of good-natured Jan, the splendid five year old tall German shorthaired pointer, who puts precise limits to entries into his  territory, welcoming only close family members and friends with sincere manifestations of affection .  Another cat has in the meantime decided to share this paradise of food and warm shelter in winter, in specifically prepared baskets containing “old” soft-woolen pullovers of my protesting brother-in-law.  Jan has in the meantime been trained to limit his aggressive and punitive actions against these “trespassing  enemies” to a warning growl which comes deep from his throat, when they face each other nose-to-nose through the lower part of the window of the kitchen door, but when both cats are absent , he jumps onto the wall, empties their food-bowls, takes away the “old” woolen pullovers and destroys the baskets.  He then lays flat on the floor with the usual innocent look in his eyes, satisfied with his actions and clearly convinced they will never come back again, now that they have no food and no shelter anymore….