SPRING IN THE PEACE PARK

SPRING IN THE PEACE PARK

THE PEACE PARK CATS part 4

The old professor sat quietly on the bench eating her olive bread roll.  Shadow was eating from her bowl on the right and Buttercup from her bowl on the left.  Gillard was trying to kill a cube of gravy beef.  Suddenly there was a tickle on the old professor's nose.  Gently she took off her glasses and put them with her olive bread into her basket.  Touching her nose very gently in case a small caterpillar had fallen from the tree she tried to find the source of the tickle. Gently she looked at her finger, and then she put on her glasses and looked at her finger again.  There was a tiny pink petal.  The old professor looked up at the Plum tree. “Goodness!” She said.  “It's spring time”.

The old professor went to look at the daffodils outside Mr. Rattus rattus residence.  There were two small daffodil flowers and three small holes where daffodil bulbs had been planted.  “Interesting”, thought the old professor.  There were five daffodils behind her bench but two had been jumped on. “Never mind”, thought the old professor, “they will come again next year”.  Then she looked at where the tulips had been planted and some were already breaking the soil.  Some seeds from the Larkspur had germinated and altogether the old professor was pleased.

After some days the old professor noticed something else.  Only Crow sat on a branch in the tree but he watched the Peace Park cats very carefully.  Then one day he flew close to the outside cat bowl and dropped a stick which frightened Sunni.  Quickly Crow took a piece of beef from Sunni's bowl and flew off down the steep stairs.  “Oh!”  said the old professor, “Crow has a family too”.  So every day she made a little extra beef and sometimes put the scraps on the wall for Crow.  One day Crow took a very large piece of beef from Sunni's plate and it was so heavy he flew directly home.  Now the old professor knew his nest was at the top of the old cedar in the corner of the lower car park.  “Clever Crow”, thought the old professor.

There were also two families of Shrike in the Peace Park (at lest the old professor thought they might be Shrike but she wasn't quite sure), they were black and white and a little bit noisy, and there were a pair of very small birds that the old professor thought might be finches but wasn't sure because they were very small and fast and her eyes were rather tired during term time.

So the Plum tree blossomed and grew leaves, the big Elm tree had flowers and then grew leaves, the old professor kept coming every day and Buttercup, Sunni and Shadow ran to meet the basket.  Mrs. Butcher gave the old professor some extra pieces of chicken free but also gave her a lecture in Italian which fortunately the old professor didn't understand and Peppe always made sure she bought the cheapest cuts of meat.  And Spring Time unfolded.  At last the Tulips flowered and more people stopped to say “Bo journo” to the old professor.  Some people with their dogs took special care not to disturb the Peace Park cats at lunch time and every month the old gentleman with the camera took another photo.

Sunni decided to be a Tree Cat and hid in the leaves of the Plum Tree.  She would suddenly drop from the branches when the lunch basket arrived.  Midnight didn't come to the Peace Park anymore, but that was usual, he only came in the winter when hunting was difficult and the old professor thought he would return in the autumn.  Misty still waited until last to eat and sometimes the old professor would buy her a special small tin of cat food from the little supermarket.  Buttercup and Shadow looked as if they might have kittens soon which worried the old professor a lot because the People would try to take the kittens away.

And then in the middle of spring the Gorizia City Council decided to dig up the narrow street beside the Peace Park and replace the gas mains.  Every day there were workmen and machines making noises but eventually the Peace Park cats became accustomed to the activity, it stayed outside the Peace Park, and the old professor learnt how to walk around the barriers and visit Mr. And Mrs. Butcher and Peppe and arrive at the Peace Park almost on time.

But because of the road block the garbage couldn't be collected and the grass couldn't be cut so for some weeks the Peace Park was not a very nice place at all and not many people used it as a way to cross that part of the city.  The old professor was very glad when the little municipal truck finally came and took away all the very smelly garbage, and cut the grass.  Most of the spring flowers unfortunately were also cut but the old professor knew that the daffodils and tulips would come again next spring. But than another nice thing happen.  One still, sunny day the old professor noticed that the very small birds she thought might be finches were teaching a lot of little birds how to fly from one branch to another in the big Elm tree.  The old professor was delighted because the Shrikes and Crow and Rattus rattus could have raided the nest of this small family and her heart was glad that the Peace Park lived up to its name.