THE PROFESSOR COMES BACK

THE PROFESSOR COMES BACK

THE PEACE PARK CATS part 2

It was early in the winter; leaves had fallen from the trees in the Peace Park and blown into drifts under the park benches.  Shadow sat at one end of the park bench near the shrubs and Tansy sat in the leaves underneath.  On another bench under the Plum tree Buttercup and Pickwick sat where a basket should be and opposite Sunni sat at one end of the bench and Gillard the other end.  They were all very hungry but not as hungry as Pickwick because he was old and didn’t know how to hunt. Every day for two weeks they had waited for the basket and the old professor to come and they watched, and watch the tall gate to the Peace Park. I think there was a great reduction in the Rattus minnimus population at that time when the hungry Peace Park cats went hunting in the evening.

Bump, scratch, bump came something up the stone path just after 11o’clock, it was human-like but with extra legs and carried a big green bag.  Bump, scratch it came closer, the Peace Park cats sat very still until it called “Pickwick” and immediately Pickwick jumped from the bench but Buttercup was quicker.  “Buttercup, Shadow, Sunni, Gillard, I am back” and all the Peace Park cats came running, even Misty from under a bush and Midnight from the car park.

Slowly, slowly the extra noisy legs were put on the bench under the Plum tree and the old professor started to unpack the big green bag.  The plastic boxes with the yellow lids came out first and were put in a row, then the dishes came out and little by little they were filled up.  Of course Pickwick received his dish first, then Buttercup, Tansy and Sunni and Shadow, and some was left for Misty, Gillard and Midnight.  How happy the Peace Park cats were.  Then the old professor ate her lunch.   Sunni didn’t like the metal sticks and decided to fight them, she reared up on her back legs like a little ginger kangaroo and beat the sticks and one fell off the bench with a clatter which frightened her but also made her cross.  There were lots of little bits left for Crow and Crow who had probably been a little bit hungry as well.

Now everything was nearly back to normal.  The big green bag had food in it just like the basket but took longer to take out, and the old professor was much slower doing things with four legs than with two.  But the old professor was very pleased to be back and only a little bit worried that Pickwick was much thinner and dirty, he still had a very good appetite.  She wondered what the Peace Park cats might like for Christmas.