Sidiro
peered into the cage again, trying to get a feel of the animal. Yup, she was scared.
Sidiro took a deep breath and let it out, trying to muster a gentle face. But
inside he was
seething. Who would be that cruel? Wrapping up a live animal like it was yesterday’s
garbage? She was so thin that he estimated she weighed little more than a cub. “Hey
there, cubby. How are you doing?”
Sidiro
thought he heard a whimper. He stretched out one hand inside of the cage and opened
his palm. “Hi there. I’m Sidiro. Would you like to come out?”
Still no
reply. However, he noticed that the silhouette had stopped shaking.
“Hey that’s
good,” Jeremy whispered. “Whatever it
is you’re doing Sid, keep at it. I think she’s
listening.”
Sid resumed his sweet-talking, hoping that the jinniyah
understood English. “Do you understand
me? I’d really like it if you’d come out into the light. That way I can see you close
up. Don’t worry, I won’t bite. I just wanna meet you.” Then, as if somebody had put the
thought in his mind, he said “I promise I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
The cat had
in the meantime come closer. Eventually Sid
could see the gray face, then the
front paws and then the whole body, as if she had materialized from shadow. She was
beautiful! Her coat was dove gray instead of dull, sprinkled with short hairs
of blue. Her
bushy tail swished on the cage floor and her slender body emanated the magic that
was part of her.
The moment
Sidiro looked into the cat’s eyes, his breath caught in his throat. The cat looked
at him as if she could read his soul, as if she did trust him. If their roles
were switched,
his normal reaction to an invading human would have been to withdraw. The cat didn’t
seem to share that reaction. In fact, he found it amazing that it – she had decided to
trust him. He could do nothing, even move, as the cat resumed her approach and
eventually rubbed her side to his forearm.
“Well, what
do you know?” Aisha whispered. “I think she likes
you, Sid. You think you could
take her for a while? Normally I’d contact the department about an endangered
species found in the dumpster, but she’s not an ordinary animal.”
