***A Holiday Tail*** The year is 2007 and the brazilian Sum..

***A Holiday Tail***

The year is 2007 and the brazilian Summer approaches it's peak. And even though most houses don't have air conditioners and feel like little ovens most of the time, the ones that suffer the heat most are those living on the streets.. the homeless and abandoned pets.

I had made it a mission to bring jugs of water with me whenever I went to school or work to leave for those in need. As for the animals, when the situation was too bad I had to fight myself to not bring them all to my apartment.
That very morning my father made me promise:

-***"Only one animal at a time in this house! Right now you are caring for Baruk (the first succesful rescue kitten I tattooed on my arm) so until you find him a home no more rescues.. Are we understood?***"

-"**Yes, dad**" - I agreed, while 2 baby kittens recovered in my bathroom with bad fungal infections. I quickly learned when they are that sick they mostly sleep and don't make noise anyways.

He did work a lot and stayed over at his girlfriend's often so I mostly saw him late at night and early mornings. The plan was to have the kittens nearly recovered and bring them to the "Donation Fair" in a couple of weeks. I knew they would find a loving home. They were so cute and looked like very little versions of "Sylvester, the cat".

I was excited to watch them get better. The poor babies had bad fungal wounds all over and seemed to be suffering a bad lung infection along with the skin issues.

I had been giving them antibiotics every 8 hours, given by my beloved friend whom was an experienced animal rescuer.

"***Never give them names***" she advised me.
I kept that in mind. But when the alarm went off for antibiotic time I ran up to check on Lilo and Stitch.

I got the bathroom keys from my nightstand drawer and opened the door slowly to not scare them off. Stitch was shaking under his blankets and on the other little basked, to my shock, Lilo had passed away.

I wept hard while making her a grave downstairs.

Out of all my rescues only Baruk and Stitch had made it so far. And Stitch wasn't doing very well himself.

Upon seeing my despair my friend asked me to bring Stitch to her home. She knew how to administer stronger medicine and was more experienced than me after all.. I felt like a failure. But at least I didn't have to lie about pets in my bathroom anymore...

A few days passed by and while waiting for the bus I noticed a miniscule black ball in the park on the other side of the street. It was hiding under a bench and as I approached I saw one of its legs was hurt and it also had a deep cut on his back. He looked small even compared to my hand which isn't very big. The most adorable black kitten I ever seen, even his little eyes were a deep gray color. And as everyone knows, in Brazil all-black and all white animals like this are often at risk of being used in voodoo rituals. I couldn't leave him there.. and my bathroom had been feeling very empty.
I also followed my friends advice this time and didn't give him a name.

"**Little one, my father cant know you are here okay**? - I'd tell him everytime I was giving his meds.
And you know what? I don't know if it was my luck or if he understood, but whenever my dad was home he managed to stay incredibly quiet in the bathroom.

The one thing that was worrying me was that his hair had been falling A LOT for the past week he had been with me, but it didn't look like a fungal infection so I was relieved and let it be... maybe it was just the meds?
The days kept passing by and he kept recovering and growing..

***

Christmas eve is when we have our family dinner in Brazil. That year I thought it would be my dad, my sister and me. But grandma payed us a surprise visit. It was a merry night.

However, on Christmas morning I hear some commotion in the living room as I wake up. When I get out of bed I notice my bathroom door is open. Ugh...I forgot to lock it last night!

I walk down the corridor slowly, expecting to hear my dad's disapproval. But no one even noticed when I arrived in the living room.

Everyone looked in awe at the Christmas tree. The ornaments broken all over the floor and at the very top the most beautiful patchy black star one could have.. his bald spots now were growing weird white/grayish hairs and he was no longer an all black kitten.

My dad finally looked back at me and to my relief he was smiling:
"***So.. who is that little one?***" - he asked.

I looked at the kitten's little patchy white, grey and black face peacefully sleeping at the top of the tree for a few seconds, then back at my family:

"**That's Michael Jackson, this new house's super star*"