A Kitten & A Familiar Stranger.

On a cold midnight, some time ago. A young man called Gracious heard a constant meowing outside of his parent's flat. He had always loved the thought of being a pet owner, but had never had a pet of his own. He once had the opportunity to stay in a home where the owners had two dogs, and he loved the dogs as though they belonged to him.

"The neighbors have no cat, but this sound is so close " he thought to himself.

As a lover of pets, Gracious who sat on a chair with both his feet off the ground, got on his feet and walked towards the front door of his parent's flat. It was a heavy and cranky polished wooden door. He thrust the key into the key hole and twisted it, got his right hand on the door handle and pressed it down, and then he yanked the door towards himself (as the door opened by a pull). The door opened with a loud creak. There was another door juxtaposed with the first door, a partly wooden door with a huge opening in the middle of it. The opening had a transparent net spread across it to prevent the deadly mosquitoes from entering into the flat. Behold! Through the net, he saw a cat escape, one with white fur on it's limbs, and brown fur spread from it's forehead to it's tail. He felt disappointed, as his plan was to take the cat and make it his pet. He pushed the door with the net open slowly, quite differently from the way he opened the first door. His hopes of owning a cat had evaporated like a little pool of water on a red-hot metal plate. He stepped outside onto their porch, and to his surprise was a kitten. The kitten tried to escape through the space between each individual security bars standing side by side on a straight line before the porch, just as it's parent had.

Gracious, moved by his selfish desires, sprang forward and prevented the kitten from following it's parent. He cornered the kitten and took the kitten by it's tail and brought it into their flat. He was full of joy, for he had long wished for a pet, but his mother being quite superstitious would not permit him the joy of being a pet owner. She believed cats to be possessed by witches, or to be witches themselves. He had brought the kitten indoors out of pure selfish desires, and now he was plagued by a heart wrenching feeling of fear. His feeling of fear was brought about by the realization that his mother would sooner or later discover that he had brought a stray kitten into their abode.

Gracious spent the next two days in mental turmoil. He regretted taking the kitten from it's parent. Firstly, because the kitten was rejecting food and that made him sincerely concerned about it's wellbeing. Secondly, His mother warned him several times to take the kitten back to where he found it. This incident had added a thorn to his already faulty relationship with his mother. The days were almost gloomy for him, but the kitten seemed like a ray of sun, brightening dark days. He had a lot of fun with the kitten, he enjoyed when the kitten purred in his ear. He bathe the kitten, spent much money on food for the kitten, but the kitten was still refusing to feed. A lot happened in a few days, joyful and sorrowful moments came and left like night and day. He was faced with a dilemma of ending the kittens life and ending his own too.

The kitten got seriously ill. Gracious did all he could to save it, stayed awake long nights taking care of it, but one thing was sure he loved the kitten and his self sacrificial actions to save the kitten's life proved he loved it.

The kitten woke up late at night and saw a skeleton figure with a long black robe, and in it's right hand was a scythe. It was death himself.

"I sensed grief, depression and suicidal thoughts" said death.

"The boy is sad and it is because he desires to keep me, love me, and care for me against his mother's will, and that would cost him a lot. If you take my life, the weight of guilt from having to keep me against his mother's will would be lifted off of him" said the kitten.

"Sad, truly sad. Fear not, I shall not harm you with the scythe. Come with me" replied death as he walked away with the kitten.

The next morning, Gracious woke up and discovered the kitten had breathed his last. Yes, it was a male kitten.