Animal Activities #95
Barnaby wasn't the sort of cat to lie around the sun-warmed porch; or to stalk sluggish flies. Barnaby was observant, as a clockmaker. His dark sable fur was the color of a city night, with the sole exception of the patch under his chin, which resembled a cravat carefully unfolded.
Barnaby called home an old cottage filled to overflowing with mountains of the well-worn pages of countless books, and he regarded himself as the official guardian of their silent stories. At the precise ring of eight o'clock in the evening Barnaby would perch himself at the top shelf, surveying the house with his shining amber eyes that saw all. He saw the spiral twirl of dust motes in the moonbeams and the scamper of the mice's latest dream.
One night in autumn a sudden gust of wind beat a hole in the loose windowpanes of the study and, for a second, took a strange thing on the air. It was a fresh scent of damp earth and paper-dry leaves, but beneath it a faint little frightened cry from the garden.
His ears whirled to the sides of his head and snapped to the front, fans turning. Quietly, he lowered to the shelf, so well balanced he felt as if he had no weight at all when he hit the braided rag.
He tiptoed to the heavy back door, where a little draft was blowing through a small gap in the weatherstripping. He pried it open.
Lying beneath the spreading arms of a stately old oak tree was a very small, shivering hedgehog that was lost. The tiny hedgehog had rolled himself into a ball of spines and was trembling with cold.
'Barnaby moved forward. Carefully, carefully, proudly flexing his tail. He set down his front paws and dropped his head to the snow-covered paws of the snake and gave a small, gentle purr, nestling his hard, fuzzy torso up against the broken back shell from the biting wind.
As the sun rose the fog curled itself against the grass and Barnaby curled himself into his usual cushion near the window and was gently washing a paw. The little wanderer had disappeared into the hedge and had taken the serenity of the friendship made in the autumn moon.
Thanks for reading my post I'm inviting @m-fdo, @ninapenda and @mesola .
