THE HOME FRONT
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dinary grey cat with white mittens, a white snout and a shell pink
nose. He was rather ugly, for he was underdeveloped and rangy and
since he spent a good part of the day in the coal bin, his paws were
always smudged. But he had a full, healthy purr and a gentle nature.
Rarely did he strop his claws on the carpet, and thanks to the
doctor's weekly application of One Spot powder, he had very few
fleas.
Dr. Pakheiser realized once with half-ashamed amusement that
he had for Milenka a real love, whereas for Greta he had had only
a perfunctory gratitude. It was chiefly, he supposed, because he was
the eat's protector as well as
his
friend and had it not been for
his
suppers of cream and herring, the poor thing would have had to shift
for himself on the dump. Indeed, he was quite sure that if he moved
away, Mrs. Horvath would have the cat destroyed, for she had not
known, she declared cantankerously, when she took over the job, that
she would have an animal to care for as well as beds and bathtubs
and corridors. No one knew where Milenka had come from. The
landlord disclaimed all knowledge of
him;
the former manageress
denied that she had ever fed him or invited
him
in any way to stay.
The doctor neither liked nor disliked animals. He had always
been mdifferent to them, save for police dogs whom he feared and
cocker spaniels whom he scorned for their somehow homosexual soft–
ness. He had never known an individual dog or cat well. So this strong
feeling about Milenka perplexed him. Was he turning into an old
lady? And would he, together with his cat-fancying, get notions before
he was fifty? But these speculations did not really worry him; he was
sure that
his
fundamental motive in helping the cat survive was that
he did not like Mrs. Horvath and by his lavish purchases of fish and
cream, he was deviously repaying her for her impertinences.
:Mrs. Horvath was a dirty,. dumpy person in a brown coverall
and a blue work shirt. She was anti-semitic in the most extraordin–
arily forthright way Dr. Pakheiser had ever seen. On the first day of
her regime she had been introduced to the doctor by the departing
manageress, and she had said, "I think you are Jew, Doctor. But I
get rent every Wednesday all same. You don't worry." Each time he
recollected this speech (delivered with a smile which could not have
disarmed a child) he was so taken aback that he: was never able to
'analyze exactly what she meant. Evidently it was her intention to
announce her antipathy to Jews at the very
outse~
so that her tenant
would not start off under a misapprehension. It became clear, after a
few days, that her rule was
firm:
she decidedly was not one of those
people who say, "Some of my best friends are Jews." On the con-
