Then 'Pushkin' went on to do some more things that were very much like what Binda would have done. He sat where Binda's mat had been in the room. He waited for me while I showered, looking in at me as Binda had done and sitting in exactly the same spot that Binda had when alive. 'Pushkin' was also vocal and needy like Binda. While I had been able to discipline the dogs, the cat inevitably ended up on my bed with me. I wasn't used to cats so I didn't know what to do or expect. All through the night of half sleep and shock, 'Pushkin' remained awake.
I had opened my eyes on several occasions to see him watching over me. I thought, this is all very peculiar. The cat must have been sent to assist me. 'Pushkin' did a few more things that reminded me of Binda. He constantly put his front paw on my chin. While he remained seated on my chest, he had appeared to fall asleep, but with one cat arm stretched out, so that his paw was now planted on my chin as if to hold me in place.
Binda had done this for most of his life. When he was a younger dog, I had always said, "Paw down." 'Pushkin' also liked feet and, like Binda, didn't mind being patted by my toes. I couldn't help but think, a slither of Binda's consciousness had found its way back into my life by somehow now existing inside this cat.
It was almost dawn when 'Pushkin' finally fell asleep in the arch of my foot, with his little arms wrapped around my ankle. I would not keep him, since I was moving and I just couldn't do it in the state I was in. I decided that I had to help 'Pushkin' to either find his owners or a good home. He seemed to want to be with me. 'Pushkin' was such a lovely cat. For the entire time that he was in my life, he watched over me like an angel. He became very sleepy over the next few days, but he wasn't letting me out of his sight. One day I saw that 'Pushkin's urine was orange when he went to pee in the cat tray. Oh no, I thought. I wondered if the nightmare wasn't about to repeat itself. I took him to Parap Vet where he was diagnosed with having a bladder infection that would reoccur, but the condition was treatable.
'Pushkin' spent a week at the RSPCA, where my company paid for him to have his operations and shots. I told the staff at the RSPCA that if no one wanted him after a week, I would take him back. During this time Cyclone Ingrid passed within eighty kilometres of Darwin, sending an eerie wind along the beachfronts. This had stopped people from coming in to look at the animals on death row. Once Ingrid had passed I picked up 'Pushkin' from the RSPCA. I got him some toys and put up notices at all the shopping centres. I then used one of the photos I had taken of him and advertised him in the NT NEWS as: Sooky Pushkin. Well suited to family life. Very affectionate. Free to good home. This did the trick. Once people saw those angelic topaz eyes gazing at them, I had no fewer than twenty calls. I even received a call from a woman who had looked after him for awhile, but who had gone away, leaving him behind in Malak. She said it was good that I was helping him out, since one of her male friends had intended to kill him with an axe.
To be fair, I took the first caller who I knew would have cats inside the house. A lovely mother and her two kids from Leanyer came to pick him up from Giuseppe Court that morning. So 'Pushkin' was driven away inside a car with a young family who loved animals and who would have him inside with them. It's what he needed. He'd been through a lot. I watched them drive away and as they did, I saw him look through the car window at me. Good Luck, 'Pushkin', I thought.
Another 'coincidence' occurred after 'Pushkin' had gone. I had opened the front door and a second cat had suddenly shot past me into the empty living area of the unit, as if she had the wind up her, or perhaps, in this case, the ghost in her. Once the dogs had gone it was as if I had now suddenly become a cat magnet. If 'Pushkin' had behaved exactly like Binda, then this cat was behaving exactly like Kindi! The colouring on both cats had been similiar to the dogs. This cat was black and white and even wore a red collar the same as Kindi. I was being told, the consciousness of the dogs has gone into the bodies of the cats. But it was just all too painful for me to be able to deal with.
