We drove back up from Split to Zagreb on May 13, arriving in the late afternoon. The devotees were out on hari-nama so I was free for the evening.

Next morning I was flying to London and Bhakta Marko Jirasek volunteered to drive me to the airport.

Bhakta Marko making me feel at home in Zagreb

As we loaded my luggage into his car at the side of the temple we were joined by two kittens.

I saw them disappear under the car and just before we set off I asked Marko to check to make they weren’t still underneath. One of them popped up in front when the motor started and Marko assured me, “Don’t worry, they are clear.”

So we set off. We got half a kilometer down the hill when we heard a muffled sound coming from the back of the car. We both turned and looked at each other. “Did that sound like a cat?”

Marko stopped the car and went round the back, peering underneath. Sure enough, one of our little friends had somehow lodged itself up in the wheel arch and obviously got stuck when we drove off. Amazing how it found any space, and how it managed to not fall out under the wheel.  Marko reached under and extracted it, a bit frightened

but none the worse for its little excursion.

As he trudged up the hill to deposit it back in the temple car park I thought about the famous saying that cats have nine lives, for their almost miraculous ability to survive life threatening situations.

And then I thought, “Well, actually cats have millions of lives, just like everyone else. Everyone dies, even cats.

Nothing special in having many lives. What’s special is in ending them.”

You must be logged in to post a comment.