It Takes Just One Cat

by Martin Dansky

"I tell you that it is a strange phenomenon when your cat dies in shock for no reason. Their health is good and then they are all found stretched out the same way and with no markings."

"How can you say they died in shock?, his friend interjected.

"Well the skin was pale before they passed on and when you pressed the gums, they were white for a few seconds before their red color came back."Adam knew how the flow of blood in a cat is a sure sign of impeding shock. "They are very much like us when it comes to physiology."

Such was the case when the cats in the neighborhood were dying like flies, specifically the ones in the apartment complex where the boys lived. There were no signs of foul play but there was a strange dude who would invite the strays into his home for table scraps and they would breed until the whole courtyard would smell of their urine.

"The problem started with Bruno who gave Albert his first cat thinking this would keep him occupied but he couldn't care less what Albert was going to do with the animal or how it would be treated," Albert's neighbor Adam used to say. "I had a cat and it stayed indoors. I didn't want to create a problem here, by creating too many kittens."

So Albert in the meantime kept feeding his cats in his cluttered place and there was one who had a pair of eyes that were weir to look at. You would think that this was the mark of some evil spirit, enough to scare any other feline who crossed its territory.

"And I don't believe in black cats or anything that has to do with their carrying some secret powers to undermine what people do," Adam would retort whenever his neighbor referred to that cat and how it seemed to get preference at Charles's window. Other cats never seemed to confront it; they would scurry away.

The cat knew that his owner was there to serve him and the haircut was just a small incidental that he had to go through. Otherwise it was always aware about when he had to go out of the house and for how long. He had his hiding places to stay when he disapproved of being brought outside the house. This was an indoor cat different from the others. He had his own dark personality.

"Well you had him neutered so of course all of the behavior relating to getting out and protecting his territory outside has been compromised."

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Looks like there are two kinds of extremes here. "One cat is like the devil and doesn't care about the others and yours is remissive and hides in your arms," I was told about my cat's behavior. But my neighbor noticed something strange that freaked him out when seeing a strange cat in the hallway. As it approached his door and began to meow to be let in. You could see that it had no color around the pupils; I mean the eyes were all black! "That's impossible", I retorted.

No, it's not. I refused to answer not recognizing the cat and then he seemed to squeeze into someone else's apartment door through a tiny flap at the bottom of the door!

But there were sittings of this feline, with the same markings and sometimes it came with a friend and they both had black eyes and the same infernal gaze.

""Just don't let them in!", I would say.

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"I am so bored taking about cats," Tom. "Can we talk about something else?"my bizare downstairs neighbor would say.

"The cat is a controller of who I see and how often, I see them."

"Then I can see it is also limiting in that you don't speak to your old friends anymore."

So slowly this neighbor decided not to be disappointed by the friends who would call to borrow and those who only wanted to show how much more they knew. But he knew how to take care of his feline friends and soon his following grew as well as his hair and he became reclusive.

The man, Albert, soon began to accumulate all sorts of cats: long haired ones and Siamese ones. It seems they came from all over the neighborhood and from well to homes as well. His neighbors were at first concerned and then they gave up.

"I am trying to get him to see that is unhealthy to keep so many cats in one place, "Bruno, his upstairs neighbor said but Albert wouldn't hear of it. Bruno would comment also on how the friendlier cats seemed to disappear when they encountered "balckie" the one with eyes so terrible you wouldn't want to look too long.

Months passed and one could see how Albert,who became a hermit was less even less likely to speak to people concerning his behavior. "Why should I bother when all they want me to do is give up my right to help these animals?"

"But you have yourself to look after," he was told again and again. The landlord tried to intervene but he didn't know how to proceed with someone who would not easily converse.

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If he continues to take in cats, we'll have to kick him out, the landlord stated when asked about the state of affairs in the courtyard.

The courtyard had then exceeding its normal count of feline friends with several roostings on the garbage bins outside his apartment. And there was one cat who knew he could get a better life by appealing just to about anyone else in the apartment complex besides waiting at Albert's door.

"I am sure that some of the other cats have the same idea", Bruno said."But like I said, I tried to get the man to reason that if he is going to leave his door open, there was going to be an endless line of feline friends. Then we're going to have a cat explosion and that is not good for the neighborhood!"

How I hated Bruno's deceit, after all he was the one who got Albert to pick up strays in the first place.

"And now with the appearance of this malevolent cat, that transmits all kinds of bad luck. Who knows what those cats are exposed too when he lets them out!"

"Never mind the effect it has on the other cats of his house." Think of what that could do to you or anyone else who decides to let the him in!" I remarked.

Soon enough some tenants decided to let in the strange cat that meowed and those people soon moved out in great fear. They were exhausted and stressed extremely, I was told, like there was no reprieve for them.

Albert too disappeared and was probably admitted to a home for schizoids. His cats roamed the yard for a bit and from reported accounts, there were other cats with black eyes that came out of Albert's house! That cat had passed on the strange trait of cat's eyes with no color and a creepy stare.


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