Nashi

It was Damien that led me to meeting Nashi.
He had gone out one afternoon and was really fussing around a lot near the back door and the wheelie bin. I had tried to give him a fuss but he was not really interested - just sniffing around and miaowing at me incessantly. I had just put it down to my own stress levels at first, and though he was just picking up on my anxiety. I had been busy helping make arrangements for a community planting day as part of my neighbourhoods "in bloom" entry and was due to be interviewed by a local newspaper later that afternoon about the project. Knowing that a photographer might be present I was trying my best to not only do my housework, make the arrangements for the planting day and prepare for the interview but was also doing my best to look presentable despite the hot weather and my rising stress levels. So with Damien acting funny I was nearly ready to snap.


I had gone back into the house for a few minutes determined to arrive for the interview calm, composed and on time when I heard my neighbour round the back of the house.
At the time we were living in a small red brick terrace and to access the rear of our property we had to cross the gardens of four other houses. Luckily we were fortunate in having good neighbours, especially our closest neighbours who have become close friends of ours.
The back gardens of the houses were south facing and would get very warm in summer, so the backdoor was often open and I always put a large bowl of water on the patio for the cats. When I heard my neighbour sounding slightly concerned I popped my head out of the door to see what was going on.


It seemed that Damien was right to be fussing around the wheelie bin, as a very small, very ill little cat had crawled out from underneath and this was who my neighbour was talking to.
Now, this little cat was not in a good way at all. He was only a small cat anyway, but he looked like a skeleton wrapped in dirty fur. His coat, which was white with small tabby patches was grey with muck, totally matted and riddled with fleas. He was so weak he could barely stand and he looked absolutely pitiful.


I looked down at my smart clothes, realised I should be setting off for my interview and decided to sod it all. It looked like something more important had just come up.
I fetched one of the cats food bowls and put out a generous portion of biscuits and pured some water over the top. Once I saw that the cat was eating I phoned another neighbour who was working with me on the "in bloom" project and asked him to go for the interview instead and explained what was going on. I then got out one of my cat carry boxes and put the little cat inside with some bedding and some water in a bowl and contacted a well known animal charity. They said they would send someone out to see to the cat and I quickly set about giving both my cats, and this little one a flea treatment.


When the lady from the charity arrived she wasn't impressed, telling me that the cat was old and ill and that they would put him to sleep. Looking into the box at this pitiful little creature I decided to send the woman away. The cat already seemed a little better now he had eaten and taken a drink and I thought I would see if I could help him. I knew it was likely to be an expensive undertaking and that it might not have a positive outcome but I felt that I had to give him a chance.


Once the lady had gone I took him out and sat with him on my knee to look him over. He was obviously quite old, seriously malnourished and had hardly any teeth. His fur was matted beyond belief and he only had half a tail. He was so unwell that even the fleas seemed to have given up on him and I made a mental note to buy some flea killer to put down on all the carpets and furniture. Watching him relax slightly I vowed to do what I could for him.
That said I was dreading by boyfriend arriving home from work to discover that we now had 3 cats to look after. I needn't have worried though - as soon as he saw him he realised that I didn't have any other choice.
And so now there were 3 cats in our home...