The Cat lady

Madame Vera Baiucci was the cat lady of Maadi.  She lived in an apartment building not far from our house.  Her husband was a fastidious man in both dress and deportment.......alwasy a gentleman.  Vera was not, she was often disheveld and smelled of old cats, and the fish /scraps she carried around the town to all the animals that she fed.  When ever she went outside, she was followed around by a long line of cats and dogs who were more interested in the aroma of the food she was carrying.  They walked behind her with their noses in the air like they were in ecstasy.  At night the animals congregated around her building waiting for her to come out again.  One of the stops she made was our house on road 17.  Although we had a dog named Pedro at that time, Vera came to feed a cat that had been left behind years ago by the previous residents of our Villa.  Twice a day Vera came into our yard, (pedro following her like she was a goddess)  calling out Neferr..............TITI!!!     NeferrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrTITI!.  The old black and white cat would come out of  the jasmine bush and climb down the portcullis to get her bowl of food.  The cat lady gently would pick her up and place her on a sunny window ledge out of reach of Pedro and feed her.  She would scoop a mash of food from her bucket into a small battered aluminum bowl  (recovering the bucket so that pedro counldnt stick his nose in it, and hold it up on the ledge for the old cat.  She would then pet the black and white cat talking soft nonsence while Nefertiti ate.  Then when she was done eating, Madame B would take her bowl and bucket and walk back out to the street.