Now that Frank is feeling better again, he wanted to go on telling the
story of his life. As his humble slave, I agreed to take dictation and
here is what he had to say.

I mentioned before that I met my sister Matilda and my father Svarta
Pantern (Swedish for the Black Panther) when I went to the island for
the first time. I also mentioned that I didn't believe it when my hoomin
said they were my sister and father, since they treated me abominably.
Here is one example of their meanness.

One day, I was looking for someone to play with. I played with my
hoomin for a while, but she's pretty dull and very slow. Then I caught
sight of Matilda and Pantern, sitting by a low mound near the edge of
the big forest. They both looked so serious and stared so intently at
some little holes in the side of the mound. I thought I'd go and
brighten their day a little. Liven things up, you know. Matilda was 8
months old at the time, like me, and I thought she was being much too
serious for such a young'un.

So I sauntered along and said, 'hey there, whatchyer up to?' Can you
imagine, they both just glared at me? What way is that to greet an
amiable fella who is being pleasant? So I ambled a little closer and
said, 'what's so interesting about these holes? Let me see...' I flopped
on the ground (just to lighten up the mood, you know), stuck one paw
into one hole and the other into another hole, and scratched around
wildly with one paw, then the other. I was clowning around, just to make
them laugh, and maybe play with me a little.

You should have seen the looks on Matilda's and Pantern's faces! Pantern
hissed, 'you idiot!' Matilda said, 'I can't believe I'm related to a big
mouse-brain like you!' Pantern said, 'we've been watching those vole
holes for the whole morning, and now you've gone and scared all the
voles off. They'll be on the other side of the island by now, laughing
their heads off. At us! And it's all your fault!'

This was the thanks I got for trying to amuse them. Hmph. Well, that
taught me not to try and lighten up thosw two grumps! The next summer, I
had Nikki to play with, so I could ignore them. They don't come to the
island any more - the hoomin says they got something called cancer. She
says their hoomin was very sad, but I don't think she can have been,
because she now brings two new cats to the island each summer.

This brings me to some other cats I've met on the island. There is Linus
and Ronja, two grey tabbies who are terribly rude. They should know I am
the patriarch on the island and revere me, but that Linus is such a
young macho, he seriously tries to challenge my authority. And Ronja is
just a little chit of a girl who doesn't even bring her catch to her
hoomin.

Then there is Bella, a brown tabby who lives with my hoomin's brother. I
think she had quite a crush on me when she was a kitten, her first
summer on the island. She would follow me around and try to make
friends, but if Nikki saw her get close to me, she would chase Bella
away immediately. I thought it was cool to have someone adoring me like
Bella did... huh? I didn't say that! You stupid hoomin, erase that!

OK, where were we. Oh, yes, the following summer Bella had a new friend,
Kevin, and now she was suddenly grumpy at me and just wanted to protect
Kevin from me. I had no reason to hamr him as long as he showed proper
respect for me.

Some years later, those grey cats turned up. There are two of them, and
they say they are purbreds Russian Blue cats. Well, I don't care what
kind of fancy-smancy airs they give themselves, as long as they too show
me proper respect as the eldest cat on the island. The little one, Kira,
tried to challenge me when she was just a kitten, but I soon showed her
who's top cat on the island. And you shut up, Nikki!