Anatoliy Dzhavinov, A Story About a Cat

Abstract

Anatoliy relays a story about how in his childhood a cat saved him from a snake. That snake, according to his grandfather, was Anatoliy’s guardian-protector: Once I was sitting with my grandfather in the courtyard and drinking tea. Suddenly the sky turned cloudy. But since the summer rain does not last for long, it ended soon. I took a book and sat down in the shade of the house to read. While I was sitting there, a cat climbed up the post. All of sudden it jumped down towards me and hissed. I looked around and saw a half-dead snake crawling towards me. The cat jumped on it, and after a short fight strangled the snake. And then it jumped up and ran into the steppe. Terrified, I ran to my grandfather to tell him about what had just happened. My grandfather said to me: ‘It is your protector. It came to you in the form of a cat. This means that your protector always looks after you’. The cat ran to the steppe to find herbs for snakebite. In fact, all animals know about medicinal herbs. In the steppe if a cow gets bitten by a snake, it will also find the right grass.