Elegy on two pets

I saved Jo Jo, a new-born kitten, out of a cardboard box before he was going to be disposed of as an unwanted cat. That was in 1989. He has been a very faithful pet and has followed the family to Madrid, Suffolk and Athens, and returned with us to Malta.

Now in his 16th year, he was hoping to spend his remaining years at Victoria Gardens, where he must have been born. He had been a nuisance to no-one.

Pepper, another kitten, was picked a year ago from a window-sill of Ta' l-Ibrag church, where she had been left in the hope that someone would pick her up and take care of her. She was as lively and playful as one would expect a kitten to be.

Both had a collar with their name, my surname and telephone number, and they called regularly for their morning and evening meal, and spent most of the time in the garden and in the house. Both have disappeared in a space of two days. No one has phoned to say that they have come across them, or that they want to speak to me about them for some reason.

Where are they? Will Pippa, a sister to Pepper, and Nicky, a stray saved from the Athens traffic, meet the same fate?

I understand that the neighbouring Pembroke council has warned cat-owners that someone has been poisoning cats in the area, a cruel and dangerous practice. Could it be that the culprits have moved our way?