Stories of the Street - Twenty One

A cat so black that occasionally it seems to lose definition when people stare at it too intently is walking carefully along the road. Male and neutered but unaware of any of that, he moves smoothly from one special area to the next.

The shops along this particular stretch often have pigeons strutting around near them. The birds peck and puff themselves up on the pavement near the rubbish bin and the vegetable stalls. Slipping down between the parked cars and the kerb he begins to move more cautiously as he detects the right sort of movement.

Definitely birds up ahead.

His walk slows and his profile lowers as he approaches. There is elegance in all of this animal’s movements but the power and simplicity of each step as he enacts the hunting ritual is pure grace.

His last few steps are smooth transitions from one space to another with hardly any sense of movement being broadcast. Eyes, ears, smell, touch are at maximum levels of sensory intake. He focuses on the bird that will be easiest to reach and which seems to be least aware of its surroundings. It is a puffed up, randy male pigeon strutting and crowing at the females around it. The cat can smell the scent exuding from the bird in heat and knows that this is the most vulnerable bird on the pavement.

At the perfect moment the cat launches himself at the bird. Taking possible trajectories into consideration he is anticipating the birds escape flight route and will either hit it as it leaves the ground or will take it with tremendous momentum and propel it across the pavement as its claws and teeth begin their deadly work. The pure joy of its nature is charging through the cat’s whole being at it takes off from the gutter.

At some unfeasible speed and from the cat’s left a human suddenly appears, travelling on a brightly coloured board set on top of some wheels.

The bird takes off with its companions and just misses the human in several places at once. Pigeons have been doing this sort of thing for a long, long time.

The cat and the young man are not so fortunate. Cats, once launched, cannot change direction and boys on skate-boards seldom remain upright when they have been hit in the legs by a high speed, claw festooned beast.

The cat’s own escape is aided by digging its claws deep into the soft surface of the downed boy as he bounces across the pavement and stops with a loud thump by the door to the grocers shop.

A strange old man on a stool stares down at the boy and escaping cat with a vague smile on his face. Two women rush out to see what has happened.