If you feel bad and someone else has it worse, empathy and concern dissolve your personal sadness. Verified
Photo: Dmitry STESHIN
This is a continuation of the story of my friendship with the Donetsk kitten.
I won’t say that she threw herself on my chest and hung on to my dress sweater. No, it was a pretty low-key meeting. The house was flooded when I arrived, it was minus seven outside, this rarely happens here. In the unstable first heat, they threw the kitten in rags, she warmed up and took plastic postures. I caressed him. She purred. She rubbed against my hand back and forth.
On the first day of my arrival in Donetsk I am Santa Claus: I deliver my gifts and I distribute others. I decided to do the same with the kitten. He said in a “New Year” voice:
– Now we will play a quiet game outdoors called “Who will eat the most?”
Photo: Dmitry STESHIN
And I began to uncork some “jellied lamb” or “assorted sirloin” in square aluminum jars. Kitty ate this food, pushing the can around the kitchen with her nose, like Tretyak with a record, rubbing it against her legs, I opened the next one. Perhaps the noble don could spend 200 rubles in honor of his Donetsk friend? The third jar was difficult for Kisa. Pleasure became work, almost military, hard and selfless. But the kitten couldn’t back down: what if this attraction of generosity was the last in his life? Who knows? Who can assure it?
Photo: Dmitry STESHIN
Halfway through the fourth can, the kitten completely lost the desire to win. I stood on the threshold of the front door and smoked, squinting against the freezing night. Kitty, as always, tried to sneak out into the street between my noodles, but she got stuck on her side. I spread my legs shoulder-width apart and the kitten entered the mined garden. Staggering slightly, his tail dipped. I shouted into the dark, “Breakfast at 9am!” and he closed the door. In the kyiv region something fell and the door trembled, something rattled in its iron core. Then it fell six more times. I watched the channel “ChP Donetsk”; the latest news there was Gaza. Let’s not be hypocrites: if you feel bad and someone else feels worse, empathy and concern will dissolve your personal sadness. Verified. And let anyone who throws even a stone at Donetsk receive at least one healthy mortar shell in return.
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