Write@Home
Winter 2015

Pets

yellow cats eye. close up. Close up image of cat's eye

In 2006, my husband was presented with a very cute kitten. The kitten was named Masya and she became the most important member of our family. She settled in her castle, which was an apartment on the third floor where palm trees grew under the windows. They were very interesting to Masya. She sat on the balcony and tried to hunt for the parrots, who constantly flew from one palm tree to another. Her other favorite game was gecko hunting. She was a very wayward, independent and fearful cat. She was afraid to leave the apartment, but at the same time she did not like to sit in our hands, to be stroked and to purr.

Nine years of her life passed, and nothing foretold the troubles for her, but we had to move to Canada. She had to insert a chip and complete the necessary vaccinations. It was a great stress for her, but the beginning of a big change. The next step was a many-hour flight from Israel to Canada. Masya flew in the cabin in a special bag, but she managed to escape from it. The passengers of the plane tried to catch her, so everything ended successfully and she flew to Toronto, passed the customs and flew to her new home in Ottawa.

From this moment, in the 10th year of her life, Masya’s life changed a lot. I hung a bird feeder on the deck, the birds immediately began to fly to us, and I began to feed squirrels and chipmunks with nuts there. Masya began to hunt them; it was just a game without victims through a closed door. She also caught several mice, which came as a surprise to us; we did not think that there were mice in the house. Our cat had a face to face meeting with raccoons when they tried to get into our kitchen. She had to defend her territory. Masya’s adventure did not end there. She even ran away from our home several times, ran to the nearest bushes and hid in them. She became tolerant of young children because over several years of her life in Canada we gave birth to two more children. Of course, they pulled her tail and whiskers.

In a word, moving to Canada, Masya found a new home in which she became the most important, got a lot of new entertainments, a lot of new places to hide or sleep, and became more affectionate, courageous and tolerant of young children and wise.

Now we call her granny. She is the most important and beloved member of the family.