“A Portrait of Simba in 2026”
Photographs © CatsHope™
Simba: When The Ground Shifted Page 2
When the Ground Shifted
Not long after Kopi left, another journey began.
This time, Mother came with us. Rockie, Cougar and I climbed into our carriers beside her. I thought we were simply going on another adventure together.
When the carriers were opened, we stepped into a place unlike anywhere we had ever seen. Everything smelled different. The sounds were different. The air was filled with unfamiliar scents.
At first, it didn’t seem frightening. There was so much space. The ground floor stretched from room to room, with quiet corners and countless places where kittens could hide. There was another floor above us to explore.
Behind the kitchen was another world altogether. A garden opened beneath the sky, with trees, bushes and another building beyond. The space between the buildings was covered, and there was a large cage filled with all sorts of interesting things.
At the side of the house stood a smaller building. It smelled strongly of cats and birds. I had seen birds outside the windows before, but never so many bird scents gathered in one place. I heard the humans talking about the birds that had once lived there. Once this tiny building had been a chicken coop, and then later it housed many cats. Even though they were gone, their scent still lingered.
There were more hiding places than we could count. It felt as though there was always another corner waiting to be discovered. Every room, every doorway and every scent invited us to explore a little further.
Not long afterwards, we met the only other cat who lived there. She was a black, medium-haired cat, older than us by about a year and a half. She watched us carefully, and we watched her just as carefully. None of us knew quite what to make of one another.
Cougar soon discovered her favourite hiding place beneath Grandma’s bed. Rockie stayed close to Mother, while I wandered from room to room, trying to remember where everything was. Before long, we knew every corner of the house, every staircase and every favourite hiding place.
Each day the strange house became a little less strange. We explored the rooms, the garden and the grounds together, chasing one another from one hiding place to the next. It was a different world from the one we had left behind, but it was a world we were slowly beginning to call home.
I had no idea that the biggest changes were still ahead.
“The First Night”
An illustration of Tami and her kittens Simba, Rockie and Cougar at the home of Mr. P. on the first night.
Photographs © CatsHope™
The First Night
The first day passed quickly.
There were new rooms to explore, strange scents to investigate and more hiding places than we could ever have imagined. By the time evening came, we were tired from our adventures and gathered around Mother as we always did.
As darkness fell, the house slowly became quiet. One by one, the lights disappeared until only the soft sounds of the night remained. It wasn’t the same as home. The house smelled different, sounded different and even the silence felt unfamiliar.
We curled up beside Mother and waited.
I remember feeling hungry that evening. Our meals had always followed a familiar routine, but everything seemed different now. There was food, but it wasn’t the food we were used to, and it wasn’t where we expected to find it. We sniffed at it uncertainly and wandered away.
I wasn’t worried.
I thought tomorrow everything would make sense again.
I thought we simply needed time to learn the routines of our new home.
None of us knew that tomorrow would not bring the routine we were expecting.
“Tami, Tired, Sad and Depressed”
Photographs © CatsHope™
Mother Changed
For a little while, everything seemed normal. We explored the house together, chased each other through the rooms and curled up beside Mother whenever we grew tired. Although this was not the home we had been born into, we were beginning to think of it as our own.
Then our daily routine began to change.
From the day we arrived, meals were no longer the same. We had always been fed indoors at regular times, but now food came differently. Sometimes it appeared in the garden where the older black cat ate. Sometimes it was food we did not recognise. Rockie, Cougar and I looked at it, sniffed it, and often walked away.
We were used to eating inside our home.
The garden belonged to another cat.
It didn’t feel like our place.
As the days passed, we became hungrier. Whenever our stomachs were empty, we turned to Mother, hoping to nurse as we had always done.
This time, Mother became angry.
She growled and hissed whenever we tried to nurse. If we came too close, she pushed us away with her paws. Sometimes she swatted at us before we had even reached her. We jumped back in surprise, looking at one another, wondering what we had done wrong.
None of us understood.
Mother had always welcomed us before. She had always cared for us, cleaned us and gathered us close whenever we needed her. Now she seemed upset whenever we approached. We kept hoping things would return to the way they had always been.
They never did.
Each day Mother became thinner. She spent more time outside and disappeared for longer periods before returning. When she came back, she looked tired. We stayed close to her whenever we could, but she was no longer the same.
We were hungry.
Mother was hungry.
None of us understood why.