Cathedral cat story 2022... Decani was cleaning his paw pads.

He thought they were pads, not "beans". He knew what a pad was. Brother James sometimes used one. He would write words on one. Decani often found those difficult to read because the writing looped around in an untidy sort of way. When he had been a very small kitten he had found out about those sort of pads. His pads felt a bit like that, smooth and firm with just a little bit of bounce. 

It took Decani a long time to do this every morning and then he sometimes had to repeat the process more than once during the day. Even before he had been given the very special position of Cathedral Library Cat his mother, Cadenza, and his father, Bach, had taught him about the importance of having clean paws. 

"All cats need to be careful about clean paws  but Cathedral cats need to be especially careful about clean paws," Cadenza had told him. When he was a kitten she had shown him how to clean his paws. He had grumbled at first but not for long. Clean paw pads felt so good. They might feel both firm and soft but they felt tough too. 

Clean claws were important too but, being the special library cat, meant that he was given some help with his. Brother James  the Cathedral Librarian, helped.  Once every week the two of them would sit together. Decani would hold out each paw in turn and Brother James would carefully rub each claw so that it was as smooth as the milk coloured cope the Bishop wore on special occasions. Decani knew the word "silk". It was a purring sort of word, soft and sensible. He liked it. His paws always felt especially good after that. He would thank Brother James by giving him an extra little head bunt.

One morning though Brother James was late. He must have been in very early because there was already a book on Decani's special desk.  That meant there was work to do. It was already open ready for him to start.

Decani jumped up and then stopped. His fur fizzed with fright. It was the worst possible thing! How had that happened?How had he not noticed! He was always so careful! He was so careful but now this had happened? How could he have done something like this without noticing? It wasn't possible! But there was no doubt at all. He made himself look again. He looked just quickly, ever so quickly. Was he wrong? No, there was the evidence. He had done something so terrible he could not believe it was real. How could he have done such a dreadful thing! He was always so careful!

Decani felt as if everything, absolutely everything, inside him was being stirred around like the Bishop's wife making something called cake with the noisy machine she called the "electric beater". This was much worse than hearing the noisy machine. His head didn't feel right. His whiskers hurt. It was hard to breathe. His fur felt wrong. He was shaking. It was so bad he could not even give a distressed purr. 

He dropped to the floor and sat there trying to think and trying not to think. How could he explain this? He couldn't. He would never be able to explain because he did not know how he had done it. It was not something he could tell Brother James. He understood Brother James but Brother James did not always understand him. They tried and Brother James was often good at thinking the right way but it was not quite the same. Decani thought that sort of thinking was called "guessing" but it sounded strange to him.  Brother James was going to be so angry, so upset. He was probably away seeing the Archdeacon and the Bishop right now! Decani felt worse than he had ever felt in all his young life. He was utterly miserable. He might even lose all his nine lives over this. He had let everyone down. Bach and Cadenza would be so disappointed in him. Cantori would never even look at him again. It was the worst moment of his life.

Could he just go away? He tried to think. Where could he go? He was a Cathedral Cat. He didn't know about the world. He had seen some of it when all the Cathedral Cats had gone to visit Mouse. Mouse lived Outside with the Organist.  It had been interesting but Decani knew he preferred living Inside. He knew the other Cathedral Cats. He knew all the humans. They gave him good things to eat. They bought those things with something called money which he was somehow given for the work he did in the Cathedral Library. 

He would not be able to feed himself. He knew some cats killed mice and ate them. It was the most horrible thing. He couldn't kill a Cathedral mouse! They were his friends. He couldn't kill a mouse and eat it even Outside. There would be no comfortable banana box with his special sleeping mat or, on the coldest nights, the bottom of the Bishop's bed.

Going away would not be right. He might get sent somewhere. He might not like it. It would be punishment. He deserved to be punished. He knew that. He was not feeling brave but he would have to be brave. Cats could be brave. Bach had told them about being brave, about always behaving like the special Cathedral cats that they were. It was not like being an ordinary cat.

All this seemed to take a very long time and a very short time to think about. Decani knew a little bit about time. He knew about the black sticks on something called "the clock". He knew when they walked around to special places things might happen. This morning Brother James was not there when the sticks were in the usual place to start work. Decani watched the sticks. They went very slowly. They also went much too quickly. When would be Brother James come back? He had to clean himself, clean himself all over. He had to clean every bit of himself from the very tip of his tail to the tips of his ears to the ends of his whiskers. His tongue grew tired but he kept working. He didn't really understand why it seemed so important but he thought it was. At last he was finished. He crouched there again shivering and shaking and still quite unable to purr at all.

Then, suddenly, Brother James was there. Decani sat there on the floor with his head down, his whiskers drooped. His ears felt uncomfortable because he was holding them in the wrong place. Everything inside him went faster and faster.

"Decani! What's the matter? Are you not well?" Brother James did not sound in the least bit angry. He just sounded worried, very worried. 

"I have something very special to show you this morning."

Decani felt himself being scooped up and examined.Brother James touched his nose, "No, that's a nice cold wet nose. And your paws all look fine to me.  Has someone with big feet trodden on you? You must have had a fright, a very big one." 

Brother James must have seen what he had done by now! Decani still shook all over he felt so frightened.

"Come on little one, what's the problem?" Brother James asked, "Here, let's see if this will help. Have a look at what I found last night. It is something very special indeed. It must have happened a very long time ago. It's a very, very old book. I don't think anyone has opened this page for hundreds of years. I wonder which Cathedral Cat did it? That cat must have had very big paws and he didn't clean his paws properly. You would never do anything like that."

Very cautiously Decani looked again. It was true. The paw marks were much too big to be his! He was only a little cat. Oh! He felt so much better. His inside slowed down and down and down. He snuggled in to Brother James Now he could purr again. And this time Brother James seemed to know what had upset his little friend.

"Oh Decani! Did it give you a fright? Did you think you had done it? Of course you didn't. You are much too careful for that. I chose you to help me because you are so careful."

Decani gave Brother James a paw pat.He rubbed against Brother James arm. He was so clean he did not leave a single hair on the Librarian's black shirt. It was time to start work.  

 

 In case you are wondering there really are paw prints on a page in the "Sermones Thesauri novi de tempore" (Strassburg 1497) held by the Metropolitan Seminary Library in Warsaw. Thank you to Martyna Osuch for alerting me to the fact. Here's the picture

Martyna Osuch

@osuch_martyna

 Sermones Thesauri novi de tempore. Strassburg, 1497. Metropolitan Seminary Library in Warsaw.