She was black and white with wild round yellow-greenish eyes. I wouldn't call her a very beautiful creature, but she was so special. Baby was a gracious half-Siamese cat; smooth fur covered her thin long body, a thin long tail usually stuck up. She was a stern cat: even in her days of being a kitten she didn't consider worthy chasing a toy mouse. Baby was not kind or affectionate, as might be expected from a normal cat, but rather wild and stubborn. Yet she wasn't a normal cat. All she wanted to do was eat, sleep or use her own litter box. I only had to change the sand on time; otherwise she would piss on the floor. I gave her food and water, gave her my home as a place to live. But to my regret, Baby never needed "sweet nothings" - when I tried to put her on my lap, pet her or toy with her, she would usually brandish her little claws at me. I never felt she liked me.
She was used to curling up on my blankets or on the pillows all day. So, in the evenings she was discontented with me going to bed, because I disturbed her and woke her up. But sometimes at night she liked to jump on the bed; it made me feel good, because I was so flattered by this black and white princess dropping in on me. I felt her hot little body on my feet and thought I had a strange but endearing alien in my home.
So it was. Till the day when she showed her need for me. It happened when Baby was giving birth. She began in the morning and ended in the afternoon, giving life to seven cute black and white kittens, three of them with blue eyes and four with yellow-greenish, like those of their mother.
By the way, she picked out the "perfect" place to give birth - on the shelf with white ironed sheets in my closet. I found this point out in the morning when I began to look for her all over the house. My appearance didn't scare her. On the contrary, I saw in her eyes the expression that surprised me so much; it was such a human expression, she was happy to see me! And since then till the afternoon, she didn't allow me to be absent even for a minute, leaping to her feet with a loud mew, even if I only intended to go out of the room, and following me, her most recently born baby attached to her umbilical cord. It was really disgusting, yes, I agree, but she was so pitiful, she expected help from me, as if I was her mother. And I felt I was her mother at that particular time, proud that I was able to do such a heroic task as delivering babies!
We were all (with kittens) lucky that I didn't go to work on Saturdays. We were lucky because my cat didn't agree to do without me this day, choosing me to be her midwife. It was such a strange thing to say, I never heard of a cat behaving like that. I never thought, that a cat would be afraid of this natural process in the same way a woman is during her first time in labor. On the other hand, maybe my strange little Baby was an exception to the rule of nature; after all she behaved like a human being.
I, who never before observed any woman in labor or have delivered any baby, was so touched by Baby's behavior. At last she showed her real attitude towards me!
It didn't bother me that she sullied my white sheets!
What do you think; she has become a friend of mine ever since? Well, you are wrong if you think so. She returned to be as cold as ever, immediately after her last kitten was given away...