Sailor and the Ruined Castle, Con't

Could this cat be walking down your street or path today?

 

This could not be a normal 'cold' that he was feeling in his bones! Why would the fog affect him so? Morning found Sailor still taking shelter in the wooden doorway as the rain continued to pour from a leaden, unrelenting sky. There would be no fishing today and no child would wander without. Sailor had been so cold all night that he couldn't sleep and he was exhausted now. All he could think about was the ruined castle that stood away on the hill. The last time he had visited it, it was bathed in warm autumn sunshine that made the brown walls glow and radiate a sweet sense of home. He fervently wished he was there now in the enclosure of his birth with his mother and his siblings to break the extreme loneliness he felt. It wasn't fair that no human noticed him when they helped other stray cats. And it was not fair that children gave food to the homeless of the feline population in the village, yet paid no heed to Sailor when he was in gravest need of it. It was as if he were, to all intents and purposes, invisible to them all. And he was lonely. Never once in the years of trying to belong to this village had he felt a kind, human hand touch him or a gentle voice greet him. Now, crouching in this narrow, rain-filled doorway with water blanketing his fur, soaking his paws and with a stiff coldness in his bones, he silently mourned the abject loneliness and cruelty of his existence as the rain hitting cobblestones pounded in his ears.

Will you be the one to turn the other way and deny medical care, food, shelter and compassion?

Catspaw