Happy Caturday: my cat brought me a gift.

I always looked forwards to reuniting with my orange cats after a long train journey. These cats would be frightened away into hiding when they heard the sound of vehicle in the front yard. After the whole place became quiet, while I started unpacking, one orange cat would came up to greet me. Usually Kwan would be the first cat to meet me and complain all about her life during the past week. She would stopped meowing as soon as Joan came up to see me. Kwan would then give more attention to Joan and started licking him.

It seemed that Joan tended to be more aloof and kept some distance from Kwan while I was away. My gardener told me that Joan disappeared for two days so Kwan was crying around the house for two days. Joan seemed to need to go into the wild and hunt like a little tiger. He seemed quite well fed after his adventure, so we knew he could fend for himself in the fields and wooded areas. Kwan wasn’t capable of hunting for field mouse. I had never seen her hunting or eating a mouse. Sometimes we would see Kwan with a small bird in the garden. She would never eat a hunted mouse brought by Joan.

So, I suspected that Kwan couldn’t survive on her own in the fields. That’s probably why Kwan was keeping close to the house most of the time. But I still worried about her emotional dependence on her big brother who needed his hunting trip from time to time. I have been thinking about how to feed my cats in time of emergency such as a failure in supply chains or a sudden outbreak of kinetic conflicts in the near future. The unexpected unpleasant situation would also forced me to cut down my consumption. The solution would be the possibility of gathering food around local area which would mean learning to hunt like local villagers.

I did talk to Kwan and Joan about the problem of securing cat food for them in emergency situation. I asked them whether they would find food for me and feed me in time of difficulties. But I wouldn’t know how to cook a bird if Kwan went out and bring me a big bird. Actually, there are several big birds which couldn’t fly very high around this area. In the past, I had to ask some stranger/ hunters who came around shooting these birds with homemade guns to stop trespassing this area. There were at least three big clans of these big birds in the nearby woods.

Several villagers asked to set up traps for field mice around the land. These field mice used to be commonly hunted in the past as the rice fields were totally organic and full of food sources such as frogs, shrimps, crabs and fish. Since farmers depended more and more on chemicals, the ecology of rice fields was ruined and there were less field mice than before. But we had planted sources of food for both birds and mice, so field mice and birds have become abundant in this area.

To my surprise, one evening Joan was calling loudly at the front door. He would never make noises or meow so loudly as if to call for my attention. I opened the door and saw Joan guarding a big field mouse in the corner. I was afraid that he would bring the mouse inside the house like last time, so I rushed inside and shut the door. I told him to take the mouse into the garden and ate it there instead of in front of the door. I haven’t seen Joan bringing his catch to show me quite a long time.

I waited for over an hour to make sure everything had been dealt with according to nature’s law. I opened the door to find a big dead mouse still laying in the corner and two orange cats sleeping five meters away. So, I realised that Joan went out on the fields to hunt for me. That’s why he’s calling me loudly to see his gift. That’s why he didn’t eat the mouse as usual. Kwan also wouldn’t touch the field mouse as it’s supposed to be for me.

Joan looked at me in disappointment for not accepting his gift. I had to thank him for bringing me such a big gift but I preferred vegetarian food. It was easier to deal with a big dead mouse which was uneaten; I had to throw the mouse into the bamboo woods nearby. It seemed Joan was able to understand my worry and he was trying to reassure that he could always hunt for field mouse in the evening. So, I shouldn’t worry so much about finding food in bad times.

I dared not tell Kwan about my worry, I was afraid that she might decide to bring me a bird to comfort me one day. It seemed these orange cats could look after themselves much better than I could myself. When I looked at them sleeping soundly together all day, I could hardly believe these cats could turn into little tigers. They could understand my voices and gestures while showing their affectionate behaviours. So, it came as a shock to realise that these cats could become ‘wild’ animals at the right moment. These fluffy fat cats, sleeping quietly all day without any care, could look after themselves as they still have natural instincts to survive in the wild.

Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.

Stay strong and cheerful.