З життя
Two Weeks a Cat Kept Coming to the Window. Staff Were Stunned When They Discovered the Reason

**Diary Entry, 15th April**
For two weeks, a cat kept appearing by the window. The staff couldnt believe it when they discovered the reason.
Emily, fresh out of nursing school, burst into the on-call room, her cheeks flushed with excitement. “Matron! Hes back againcan you believe it?”
“Whos *he*?” Matron rubbed her temples, exhausted from the night shift.
“The cat! Grey, with one white ear. Hes been sitting there an hourevery single day!”
“Every *day*?”
Matron, head of intensive care, sighed and glanced at the charts. Their newest patient in Ward Four still hadnt wokenfourteen days in a coma after being hit at a zebra crossing. Some reckless driver had run a red light. As if they didnt have enough to deal with.
Emily perched on the edge of a chair. “For two weeks, this cats been coming to the window where Mrs. Anne Wilkins lies. Just sits and stares. The porters shoo him off, but he always comes back. Weve started calling him Watson.”
Matron frowned. The last thing they needed was strays. She meant to scold Emily, but something in the girls voice made her follow her to the window.
There he wasa grey tabby with one white ear, perched on the ledge like a sentry. Thin, but clearly once cared for. His gaze never wavered from Annes room.
“Good Lord, what nonsense,” Matron muttered. “A woman fighting for her life, and were fussing over a cat.”
Yet something unsettled her. That stubborn devotionhow many people could claim such loyalty?
“What do we know about this patient?” she asked suddenly.
Emily shrugged. “Not much. Anne Wilkins, fifty-two. Lives alone, visited occasionally by her daughter. Hit just outside her flat, near that grey block behind the hospital.”
Matron looked back at the cat. He turned his head, meeting her eyes with an unsettling intensity.
The answer came unexpectedly that afternoon when Annes daughter, Sarah, brought paperwork. A photo slipped outAnne in an armchair, cradling a grey tabby with one white ear.
“Is this?” Matrons voice caught.
Sarah sniffed. “Thats Whiskers. Mums cat. Went missing two years agodarted out when the plumbers left the door open. She put up posters, searched everywhere” She wiped her eyes. “She even refused to move. Said, What if Whiskers comes back? How will he find me?”
A chill ran down Matrons spine. The cat *had* found hertoo late. Maybe hed watched the ambulance take her away, tracked it here. How hed pinpointed her window, she couldnt guess.
Just then, monitors shrieked from Annes room. They rushed inMatron, Emily, Sarahto find the first signs of consciousness. The cat was forgotten.
When Anne finally opened her eyes, everything was a blur of light and voices.
“Mum?” Sarah squeezed her hand. “Can you hear us?”
Anne managed a weak nod.
“Easy now,” Matron soothed. “Youre doing brilliantly.”
Later, Sarah whispered through tears, “Mum Ive a surprise. Youll never believe it. Whiskershes *alive*.”
Annes eyes widened, disbelief melting into joy.
“He found you,” Sarah went on. “Every day, he sat outside your window. When I showed the nurses his picture, they *knew* him. Hes home with me nowIll bring him to visit, I promise.”
When Anne was moved to a general ward, Sarah arrived with a carrier, its occupant yowling indignantly.
“No pets allowed!” snapped a porter.
Matron waved him off. “Let him stay. That cats earned his place here more than most.”
Whiskers bolted to Annes bedside, purring so loudly it echoed down the corridor. She wept and laughed, stroking his fur with trembling fingers.
“Bloody hell,” Emily muttered, dabbing her eyes. “Like something off the telly.”
From then on, Sarah visited daily. Oddly, Whiskers seemed to *know* the schedulepromptly at four, hed pace by the door, yowling impatiently.
“How dyou *do* that?” Sarah marveled. “Can you read clocks now?”
Hed just flick his tail, as if to say, *Hurry up, Mums waiting.*
“You know,” Matron said one day, watching them, “in twenty years of medicine, Ive never seen anything like this.” She paused. “We humans could learn a thing or two about loyalty.”
At home, Whiskers curled up beside Anne as if no time had passedno coma, no hospital vigils.
Now, whenever Matron passes that grey block of flats, she glances up to the third floor. Often, she spots a familiar silhouetteWhiskers, basking in the sun, eyes squinted in contentment.
**Lesson learned:** True miracles arent magic. Theyre love, pure and stubborn, refusing to let go. Even when logic says its impossible.
