The Cat I Never Named: Chapters 15–20

by Amra Sabic-El-Rayess, Laura L. Sullivan
This memoir recounts how teenage Amra, with the help of a stray cat, survived the Serbian invasion of Bosnia that killed about a hundred thousand people, especially Muslims, from 1992–1995.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Chapters 1–5, Chapters 6–14, Chapters 15–20, Chapters 21–25, Chapter 26–Epilogue
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. relish
    derive or receive pleasure from
    It’s hot, blissfully hot, and I relish the sensation of my flesh baking like a potato skin in the oven.
  2. animosity
    a feeling of ill will arousing active hostility
    I forget any past animosities. All of these young men and women are my friends, by virtue of the simple fact that they’re here today. We are the survivors.
  3. envoy
    a diplomat having less authority than an ambassador
    Right now our main mission is to write impassioned letters to anyone we think might listen—the UN Security Council, heads of government, special envoys—telling them the truth of what is happening here, begging for intervention.
  4. conscript
    enroll into service compulsorily
    He and the other teenage boys too young to be conscripted into the army run messages and medical supplies around the city and feel very important.
  5. tactfully
    in a considerate, careful, and appropriate manner
    He swerves carefully around what he is tactfully calling a pothole, though we all know it is from a bomb.
  6. wean
    gradually deprive of mother's milk
    When the kittens were weaned we gave two of them to Fatma to take to her farm.
  7. whimsy
    an odd or fanciful or capricious idea
    So he decided to make their vacation house out of those abandoned refrigerator doors. The result is adorable, like an industrial midcentury fairy home, a blend of practicality and whimsy.
  8. bounty
    the property of being richly abundant or plentiful
    The rest of the property is all flowers. Inside, the walls are papered in floral designs. A cunning little cabinet holds a tea set with briar roses. And outside—oh! Bounties of flowers!
  9. apprehension
    fearful expectation or anticipation
    He gives me a big reassuring smile, but I can see apprehension in his eyes.
  10. imposing
    befitting an important, distinguished, or powerful person
    He is no longer young, no longer strong, but he has an upright dignity that makes him seem imposing.
  11. fortification
    a defensive structure
    “More like a pickax and shovel. They need ditches and fortifications near the front lines, to protect our soldiers. The young men need to save their strength for fighting, so it’s time for the old fellows like me to lend a hand and dig.”
  12. pittance
    an inadequate payment
    He doesn’t want to spend time away from his family, and he doesn’t want to take valuable time away from his various schemes to bring in a pittance of money or food.
  13. abiding
    unceasing
    And so the tall, gray-haired intellectual, the man who recites poetry, who is too gentle to kill a chicken, who loves humanity with a deep and abiding love...this man, my father, departs our home the next morning to dig trenches on the front lines.
  14. ashen
    pale from illness or emotion
    Tata isn’t ready for it, and I see his face go ashen all of a sudden, his smile slack and his gaze distant with the knowledge that he’s not the strongest one in his family, the protector anymore.
  15. jaunty
    having a cheerful, lively, and self-confident air
    I put on such a show of confidence that Tata cheers up even more. His steps as he leaves us are jaunty.
  16. attrition
    a wearing down to weaken or destroy
    Chicken ended up in the pot a time or two since their arrival, and our chickens vanished by slow attrition, but we never saw any more slaughter, and I think my parents traded our live chickens for prepared chicken parts, so we didn’t have to eat chickens we actually knew.
  17. gaunt
    very thin, especially from disease or hunger or cold
    Mama takes my hand, circling her fingers around my gaunt, fleshless wrist.
  18. allotted
    given as a task or a portion
    Apartments are allotted to people on a waiting list, and bribery or connections can move a person up a list.
  19. requisite
    necessary for relief or supply
    The apartments are technically rented and owned by the state, but once a person lives there the requisite thirteen years they unofficially own it.
  20. expendable
    suitable to be used up
    Traitors and cowards get sent to the front lines.
    Traitors and cowards are expendable.
  21. innate
    inborn or existing naturally
    I’m burning with anger at a world that can hate my father for his innate goodness.
  22. uncouth
    lacking refinement or cultivation or taste
    But Tata thought Adem was uncouth and immoral.
  23. grovel
    show submission or fear
    He made Tata beg. This rat of a man who always groveled to Tata—he insulted him, called him a fool for not putting away more money, bribes, when he was in power.
  24. clamor
    make loud demands
    “I meant to visit sooner,” Davor says, “but you’d be surprised how demanding horses and mules are. If they’re not asking for hay, they’re clamoring for oats.”
  25. demur
    politely refuse or take exception to
    “Come along, young man. We’ll see if we have any refreshments to offer you.”
    “If you’re sure it’s okay?” Davor demurs politely, catching my eye.
  26. straggling
    spreading out in different directions
    We lead him just off the road into the overgrown lot, half straggling grass and summer flowers, half garbage dump, on undeveloped land that leads to the Una.
  27. plaintive
    expressing sorrow
    She would hide in the wildflowers and call to me with her plaintive mew, then spring at my feet, pouncing with her velvet paws, her sharp claws tucked safely away.
  28. ordeal
    a severe or trying experience
    Davor is examining Maci (who is back in my arms but lets him check her paws, her eyes, her teeth), and I’m watching the process anxiously, waiting to hear that she is in top shape despite her ordeal.
  29. loam
    a rich soil consisting of sand, clay and organic materials
    “This dirt,” he says, digging his fingers into the moist loam and pulling up a handful. “This is good dirt. Here, smell it!”
  30. arable
    capable of being farmed productively
    “We live in a city and just see the concrete, but look, here in this empty lot and all along the riverbank there is good, arable land, a close water source. Why didn’t I think of it before? We can grow our own vegetables! Your little Maci showed us the way!”
  31. scurvy
    a condition caused by deficiency of ascorbic acid
    Instead it will be our means of preventing scurvy. Between lack of toothpaste (we brush our teeth with superfine sand from the banks of the Una) and lack of vitamin C, many of us have bleeding gums. We can’t wait for our vegetables to be ready.
  32. evoke
    call forth, as an emotion, feeling, or response
    When we have to separate, I tell him exactly what this tea means to me, the memory it evokes.
  33. chaff
    material consisting of seed coverings and pieces of stem
    Tata worked in wheat fields when he was a little boy in the orphanage—before he got wheat chaff in his eye, which led to an infection that almost blinded him.
  34. penchant
    a strong liking or preference
    She knows little about gardening, but she’s an expert seamstress, and her penchant for neat, straight lines shows in the furrows she’s prepared.
  35. furrow
    a long shallow trench in the ground
    She knows little about gardening, but she’s an expert seamstress, and her penchant for neat, straight lines shows in the furrows she’s prepared.
  36. scrutinize
    look at critically or searchingly, or in minute detail
    “It all looks a little...wild,” I say, scrutinizing Tata’s plot.
  37. tendril
    slender structure by which some plants attach to an object
    Vines have taken over the garden, spreading broad leaves and curling tendrils so that I can’t tell where one plant ends and another begins.
  38. morosely
    in a sullen, moody manner
    Their cucumbers have shriveled to the size of shrunken pickles hanging morosely on yellowed vines.
  39. wizened
    lean and wrinkled by shrinkage as from age or illness
    And the squashes are no better than the cucumbers, dry and wizened.
  40. scant
    less than the correct or legal or full amount
    So poor Omer’s crops are grown in a scant few inches of soil, over sand that drains any irrigation away in a heartbeat.
Created on Mon Sep 09 17:15:40 EDT 2024 (updated Wed Sep 11 09:48:45 EDT 2024)

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