He was always special

More than 10 years ago, Tabadzija and his brothers were born not far from the building I lived in. They were growing up together under the watchful eye of their mother and turned into cute little fellows. One day, unexpectedly, Tabadzija suddenly disappeared. I looked for him everywhere but he was nowhere to be found, as if the earth had swallowed him up. The other three kittens were adopted.

A few months later, while I was riding my bike in a completely different part of town, I heard a familiar “meow” and there he was, standing in someone’s yard. He was not a kitten anymore, he was bigger and heavier, but he was as sweet and handsome as I remembered him. When I called his name, he ran towards me and jumped into my bike basket. The owner of that house told me the kitty appeared some time ago, they were feeding him and liked him a lot. I didn’t know whether to take him or not, I gently put him on the ground and tried to leave but then he began to run after me trying to jump into my bike basket. Finally, we went home together.

The next few years he was living in my garage, fighting with all the other cats and that’s how he got his name - Tabadzija means The Batterer. He was going out whenever he wanted and then he vanished again. I haven’t seen him for almost a year, until I ran into him by accident and discovered that he was living near restaurant. When he saw me, he followed me home but continued to return there. For quite some time he kept coming and leaving. But something strange was going on – whenever any of my cats died or was killed, he arrived as if he knew it. I think he witnessed every burial in all those years…

Couple of months before we all moved to the shelter, Tabadzija came to my garage and stayed there. He didn’t want to go out at all, it might sound silly but it seemed he somehow knew we were supposed to leave and didn’t want to be left behind. And here he is now, living life to it’s fullest.