Lola: A True Story, Mostly

Pauline Gibb

Description

This is a furry tale in contrast to a fairy tale, telling the true story of Lola as seen through her own eyes. She takes the reader on the journey of her life from the moment she was rescued at Harding River Caravan Park in Roebourne as a three week old homeless kitten, to the day she arrives in Perth as a mature two year old cat. Lola chronicles the personal trials and tribulations she faced growing up without a mother to guide and teach her what she needed to know to become an effective adult cat. Her story has elements of humour and sadness as she moves from the loss of her feline family to finding a human one who take her on with few expectations for her future. A myriad of situations with both positive and negative outcomes shape Lola's personality along the way to adulthood. These include learning to control her emotions and reactions to unfamiliar experiences, striving to find her niche in a family of other animals and coping with ridicule for being "different". Lola however has a quirky philosophical and thankful attitude to life and no matter what hand she is dealt she develops resilience in the face of adversity, including the break-up of the family she came to love and respect for saving her. You will laugh and you may cry following this fortunately unfortunate little cat who learns that growing up has many lessons, some harder than others. She becomes the feline equivalent of "The Three Stooges" fumbling her way through life. Despite the rough road she not only survives, but thrives thanks to her perseverance and enduring will to live!

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Date de parution: 29 mars 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528959605
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Lola: A True Story, Mostly
Pauline Gibb
Austin Macauley Publishers
2019-03-29
Lola: A True Story, Mostly About the Author Dedication About the Book Copyright Information Acknowledgement Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33
About the Author
Pauline has been writing for three years since leaving her position as an educational administrator and this is her second book to be published. When she is not writing, she is busying herself with a number of other creative activities, such as painting and making art pieces from recycled materials. One of her greatest interests is fitness, so she participates in a number of team sports, including women’s Australian Rules Football. She also enjoys the challenge of activities such as kayaking, bike riding, running, swimming and surfing.
Friends have always played an important role in Pauline’s life and she continues to enjoy their company when travelling, watching live performances, eating out or simply relaxing at home over a meal and a few quiet drinks.
Small parts in interactive live productions have allowed her to pursue her passion for theatre, where she has taken on character roles, as well as engaging her creative talents in set design.
As for Lola, the co-author, she is content just being a cat!
Dedication
For Georgia, because she loves me almost as much as Pauline does!
About the Book
This is a furry tale in contrast to a fairy tale, telling the true story of Lola as seen through her own eyes. She takes the reader on the journey of her life from the moment she was rescued at Harding River Caravan Park in Roebourne as a three week old homeless kitten, to the day she arrives in Perth as a mature two year old cat.
Lola chronicles the personal trials and tribulations she faced growing up without a mother to guide and teach her what she needed to know to become an effective adult cat. Her story has elements of humour and sadness as she moves from the loss of her feline family to finding a human one who take her on with few expectations for her future.
A myriad of situations with both positive and negative outcomes shape Lola’s personality along the way to adulthood. These include learning to control her emotions and reactions to unfamiliar experiences, striving to find her niche in a family of other animals and coping with ridicule for being “different”. Lola however has a quirky philosophical and thankful attitude to life and no matter what hand she is dealt she develops resilience in the face of adversity, including the break-up of the family she came to love and respect for saving her.
You will laugh and you may cry following this fortunately unfortunate little cat who learns that growing up has many lessons, some harder than others. She becomes the feline equivalent of “The Three Stooges” fumbling her way through life. Despite the rough road she not only survives, but thrives thanks to her perseverance and enduring will to live!
Copyright Information
Copyright © Pauline Gibb (2019)
The right of Pauline Gibb to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528910552 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528910569 (Kindle e-book)
ISBN 9781528959605 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Acknowledgement
Thank you Jen and Georgia for helping save my life at Harding River Caravan Park. You were there for the start of my new life and I will not forget everything you did for me when I was growing up. Lisa and Shez, thank you both so much for being there for Pauls when things got tough. I do not know how we would have coped without your true and dedicated friendship and support for her and us, her fur family!
A great big thank you too to all our Hedland friends for the fun you brought into our lives in the final year of our stay.
To those who said I was skanky, well, I am all grown up now and I have helped write a book, so I am doing pretty well for a cat most people had given up on.
Finally, to Pauls, who never said never. We did it! This book is our story and may we both live long enough to write a sequel.
– Lola
Chapter 1
The most vivid memory I have of the first few days of my life is a noise. It was a loud bang and a crash kind of sound which seemed close at times but also far away as well and it was relentless. I had no idea what it was and I couldn’t see much in those days…actually, to be honest, I couldn’t see anything at all and as I wasn’t able to walk, trying to figure out the source of the noise was impossible. I wouldn’t come to understand the extent to which that noise was going to change my life until several weeks after I first heard it.
My family lived in a shed up the back of a property on Harding River Caravan Park in Roebourne, WA, and that is where we were all born, me, my brothers and sisters, that is. My mother was a responsible parent and an extremely good provider. She went out each day and would feed us as soon as she returned home. This happened several times a day in that early part of my life and like my brothers and sisters, I looked forward to her return as milk was on the menu every day and it was sweet and warm. We were totally reliant on our mother so we knew nothing different to those daily rituals. As long as our bellies were full, we were content. The noise continued day in and day out from what I can remember and then, it suddenly stopped.
The day it stopped, my mother did not return home. We waited and waited as we always did but she never came back, not once. I can remember much restlessness in our hay bed that night as our bellies grumbled through lack of sustenance.
As the days came and went, we waited; sometimes calling in the hope Mum could hear us and answer but there was never a response. All we could hear were sounds from outside the shed and we had no idea what they were.
One by one, my siblings closed their eyes and never opened them again so eventually, it was only me who was left. I’m not sure why I was still around but I was and some instinct told me that if I didn’t want to end up like my brothers and sisters, I had to get out of the shed and find some food. Of course, being so young, my selfish thoughts were on the warm milk and finding my mother to supply it.
I must have been about three weeks old by the time I had some sight, although not wonderfully clear, it was enough for me to decipher light and dark and I could see I was in the shed in the dark and the light was on the outside. On what I have to say were quite shaky legs, I managed to get myself out of the hay the day I decided I needed to move and crawl down to a crack in between two broken boards at the side of the shed. From there, I could see outside. I wasn’t entirely prepared for what I saw though. My eyes (as mentioned before) were working but only about as well as my legs so the view was a little hazy. As a result, I could only make out shapes and they were strange and they scared me. I was hungry though, very hungry; however, I had no idea what would curtail the emptiness in my stomach nor where I would start to look for it. All I had was the unshakeable memory of my mother’s milk. Despite the fact that my stomach was grumbling, I still didn’t feel strong enough to face whatever it was that lay outside the shed, so I staggered back to my hay bed and collapsed exhausted.
I can’t say how long I had been sleeping, but when I woke it was dark inside the shed. From my hay bed, I could see through a crack and it was dark outside as well. By this time, my stomach was aching from lack of food and I was really beginning to feel weak and sick. That voice inside my head told me I needed to get out as soon as possible or I would definitely be joining my siblings. I dragged my body off the hay and on still quite wobbly legs, I climbed back down to the crack in the boards and peered outside. It was certainly dark outside but there were bands of light shining on the ground that I could just make out in the distance. The light was fuller and brighter on my earlier excursions to the crack in the wall but this time, because it was so dark outside, I could only see patches of light above my head. The differences between the environment I knew and the one I didn’t unnerved me, so I began wondering if it was sensible to be venturing out into the unknown after so much time in the shed.
My stomach continued to remind me why I needed to get out and what wasn’t helping my hunger was a delicious smell that began wafting past my nose. I lifted my head, pointed my nose into the air and sniffed. This was something I had never done before. It was like my nose and stomach were going to do whatever was needed to get me moving, so I pushed through my fear and slid out through the cracked boards falling head first onto the dirt. Once outside, the smell seemed stronger and even closer causing my mouth to start watering. Dribbling and weak with hunger, I stood the best I could and moved towards one of the patches of light. As I got closer to the light, I could hear noises but they were not