You are not going to believe this story. But it is a true story,
as true as I sit here writing it — as true as I will die in the
morning. Yes, this story ends with my end, with my death
tomorrow.
I have always been a kind and loving person — everyone will
tell you this. They will also tell you that I have always loved
animals more than anything. When I was a little boy, my family
always had many different animals round the house. As I grew
up, I spent most of my time with them, giving them their food
and cleaning them.
I married when I was very young, and I was happy to find
that my wife loved all of our animal friends as much as I did.
She bought us the most beautiful animals. We had all sorts of
birds, gold fish, a fine dog and a cat.
The cat was a very large and beautiful animal. He was black,
black all over, and very intelligent. He was so intelligent that my
wife often laughed about what some people believe; some
people believe that all black cats are evil, enemies in a cat's
body.
Pluto — this was the cat's name — was my favourite. It was
always I who gave him his food, and he followed me everywhere.
I often had to stop him from following me through the
streets! For years, he and I lived happily together, the best of
friends.
But during those years I was slowly changing. It was that
evil enemy of Man called Drink who was changing me. I was
not the kind, loving person people knew before. I grew more
and more selfish. I was often suddenly angry about unimportant
things. I began to use bad language, most of all with my