A Day in the Life of Saladin
Finally, back in Boston! I love hanging out with Amy, Dan, and Nellie around the world, but pet space on airplanes is way too loud. I just go off one, and I couldn't sleep at all listening to the obnoxious yapping dogs or the cats whining about how they miss their owners. I'm not really sure what the place we came from was called, but it was pretty cool; most of the buildings had several colorful roofs that were curved up, lots of buildings overflowing with color and light, and LOTS of red snapper. We dropped Dan off somewhere- I think I heard Amy say something about ninja training, but that doesn't really mean much to a cat. After we dropped him off, we went all around the city. I'm pretty sure I had been there before a long time ago when Amy and Dan first started traveling around the world, but I can't be sure.
I miss Dan, but life in Boston is so much quieter without him. Grace's old mansion was rebuilt and now I get my own room! It's pretty large with lots of tunnels, cat trees, scratching posts, and several ledges attached to the wall. At the top there is a big ledge with lots of soft, fluffy balls and my bed inside a small fuzzy hut. My favorite part is the refrigerator built into the wall filled with lots of delicious snapper.
Today Amy and Nellie are gone again, so I'm going to go on a walk in the park a couple of blocks away. Some of the windows were left open so I just jumped out. I do this occasionally, but not quite frequently. I haven't been to the park before; I usually go to that place in the mall that always smells odd. I think it's called Abercrombie. Last time I went it smelled like a great citrus accord with a bit of warming cardamom spice and a touch of rosemary and bit of rosewood and oak moss (I have a very… detailed nose). Or most of the time, I'm too lazy to, and just end up going to Wal-Mart.
I was almost to the park when a strange cat walked out in front of me. He was an Abyssinian cat with a warm beige coat ticked with various shades of slate blue with a blush beige undercoat. I noticed on his right hind leg there was a large V dyed into his fur. I saw the same V on his collar. I thought I might have seen this before with Grace. I didn't trust him, but I wanted to find out what his mark meant.
"Hello," I purred to him, "what brings you here?" He looked at me for a minute.
"Hello," he replied. He paused for a second and continued, "I am looking for someone who said they would meet me here. Can you help me find him?" I didn't think it was a good idea, but I agreed anyway. We looked for his friend for almost a half an hour, but we couldn't find him anywhere.
"Maybe he saw a bird and chased it into that forest," I suggested, motioning towards the forest.
"That's a great idea!" he exclaimed. "Let's go and check." We wandered deep into the forest, but still didn't find him. We looked everywhere, but there wasn't any sign anyone had been there. I was starting to think that there was never another cat.
"Hey! What did you say your name was again?" I asked the mysterious cat.
"Damien," he answered, "after one of my owner's old relatives."
"Damien, what does this cat look like?" I asked him. He thought for a second.
"He's a umm… medium-sized Persian cat with reddish-brown fur," he answered hesitantly. I still wasn't sure if he was telling the truth but I wasn't going to doubt him. I looked again at his mark at tried to remember where I had seen it before. Then it clicked.
"So, you said you were named after one of your owner's old relatives, right?" I questioned.
"Yes, why?" he answered nervously.
"Did that relative happen to be Damien Vesper?" He didn't respond, but I could tell from his expression I was correct. I was about to continue when he suddenly pounced on me. His claw caught behind my ear and I tried to shake him off of my back. He flung off and I lunged at him and missed. He started to run towards me but I grabbed him right before he attacked me. I threw him into a bush and started to run.
I got away from him and continued walking in the forest. I noticed my ear was bleeding so I stopped at a small creek to wash off the blood. I was about to head home when Damien jumped off of a limb on a short tree onto my back. I didn't want to fight him again so I just threw him into the creek and ran back to the city. I walked to the park just in time to watch the sunset.
A couple of minutes later I hurried home, hoping Amy and Nellie were not back yet. I reached the house and jumped into a window. They were just getting home. I climbed up onto the couch and stretched my arms. Then Nellie walked in with Amy, looking very tired.
"Oh, hey Saladin," Amy greeted me. "How was your day?" I pondered my day for a while then gave her the best answer I could come up with.
"Mrrrp?"
A/N Sorry it was awful! Thanks for reading and please review!