Dorota Korwin-Szymanowska

Tale of a Tale: Driada

Added 2022-11-02 22:09:55 +0000 UTC

As the autumnal evenings are longer and longer, and my heart still keeps her very alive around me, I thought about introducing you one of my very first familiars - Driada.

Little girl has never felt the need to live with a cat. She respected some of them, liked some of them, but saying "hello" and walking her way was all she needed. Till time... At some point reality forced the pack to search for some "kitty predator". They found announcement in the internet about a cat, non-racial, but in type of Maine Coon. Looked like a little bat in photos... Decision done "okay, it will be cat living in the tower hunting mice, that's it". Little girl and her demon drove about 200km for this tiny kitty who... made little's girl crazy at the very first feeling.

After few weeks little girl discovered name of beautiful-bat kitty: Driada. Wild, amazingly smelled, intelligent, fearless lady with unforgettable gaze. Both girls became almost inseparable. Kitty used to wake up little girl with licking her nose every day, early morning, they played together a lot, at some point Driada started even to walk outside the tower. She wasn't creature made to live in the cage. Great older sister to Rogu, rode Agresja with little girl to the Forest, run with them, also attended lectures at the university (fortunately-un-fortunately it was time without smartphones; I have few photos from it on very old phones...), hence travelled by bus, by underground in Warsaw. Not in a special transporter, but in an ordinary wicker basket. She really enjoyed walking out of it, sitting next to little girl and watching the travellers carefully.

Her superpowers: silence, patience, bravery, great hunting skills, extremely cleanliness. She murdered rats easily, run over the squirrels on the trees, one day she was even going on the swan... Driada was really wonderful mother, including ability to say her children "it's time to go and live your own lives". Through whole her life little girl heard only one "meow". During giving the very first birth by Driada. She was really terrified by everything what happened...

In every place where the Pack has moved Driada came like to her very own. There have never been other owner of the house flat etc... Unfortunately she lived very short time, because only eight years. One day little girl saw some changes in Driada's mouth, blood around the bowl every day... They went to the vet. Diagnosis: cancer under the tongue. Solution: operation but with not guaranteed success. Leaving Driada in strange place, without allowing to keep her paw during operation sucked little girl from energy extremely. Driada survived operation but after few days she lost her tongue. But not her spirit.

First days after operation the Pack was extremely worried about the condition of little kitty. She didn't behave well, she looked like she was in enormous pain. The Pack decided to take her to other vet - Warsaw Bemowo. As it turned out previous vets installed the tube way too long, which was very hurtful. After small intervention Driada came home full of life. First thing which she did was walking to the orchard, murdering mouse and "eat" it. For about six months little girl was a tongue for Driada. They learned to eat, drink with a syringe, to clean Driada somehow, who "depilated" herself in frustration, tearing out any hair she could possibly have... Before the operation she was beautifully clean kitty.

You may ask, why the Pack didn't decide about euthanasia, even if Driada didn't look well. They knew her, they felt her. She want ready to walk away. She was a fighter till the very end. Two days before passing through the veil, Driada's eye stopped working properly. The third eyelid wasn't retracted as it should, the kitty seemed to be dim. One day she knocked to the room where little girl was training. She came just to cuddle and purr. The next day the Pack needed to call the vet. To help Driada walk away without pain.

Her body rested under the oldest oak in the Roots of Spells. But her spirit is still alive in little girl's heart.

Photos are arranged chronologically (2010-2018), so you can see changes by your own.