Happy Caturday: Orange cats are growing up.

Suddenly this week I have realised that my orange cats have really grown up a lot. I felt like seeing my little sister turning into a matured woman. My cats seemed to have much stronger personality with more self-confidence. They were no longer little kids that I could tell them what to do. Orange cats have their own routines and habits. I also noticed their hiding spots when strangers came to our house. I had to admit they have become grown up adult cats with their own sense of self-esteem; they were quite firm about what they liked or disliked. In a sense, orange cats demanded some respect and basic cats-rights too.

They are now about five years old; I still missed their biggest brother (Snow) and original orange grandmother cat. It would have been very nice to have both their grandma and aunty Rosy around the house these days. These cats caused me lots of pain and happiness at the same time. My life has been influenced by these funny and timid cats.

I was very glad that Kwan always showed me his much she missed me whenever I arrived from the train station. She just wouldn’t leave me alone without complaining about her life and budding her head against me. She demanded that I apologise for causing her emotional anguish during my absence; she still behaved like a kitten despite her big size. Kwan has become a very loving cat and she kept on glooming her brother everyday.

The brother cat, Joan was quite a gentle giant. He let a smaller stray cat chased him around the garden without trying to out on a fight. That stray cat was trying to hit Joan with his sharp claws so I decided to chase him away several times. I didn’t want the same thing that happened to their grandma cat to happen to my cats.

The grandma cat migrated to my neighbours’ house where she was showered with love and mackerels everyday. One day a bit stray cat arrived at that house to enjoy fresh mackerels too. He was quite big and aggressive. My neighbours didn’t know that they had to protect the weaker old cat. So, the stray cat chased the old orange away and took over the whole house. We couldn’t find her no matter how hard I was trying to search for her.

My neighbours suspected that she was attacked by the three German guard dogs further down the lane. My other neighbour’s kitten was killed by these dogs when she went into that house to have a look around the big garden. They heard the gardener talking about having to bury a dead cat. It’s just incredible that my cats didn’t have the inclination for fighting.

I was afraid that the two orange cats wouldn’t be so close to each other as they got older. Luckily, Kwan has always been loving towards her brother and Joan didn’t mind sharing his food bowl or had Kwan slept by his side. As they got bigger and older, they had their own spots for sleeping during the day. They preferred to sleep separately during the day. But during the night I caught them going out in the fields hunting together. They would disappear for two hours then came running back from the fields or banana groves.

They would just sit quietly on the front yard while looking at the front gate for stray dogs. I saw two dogs running along the dirt road at night. I didn’t know dogs liked to go out to the local pubs before midnight. My cats liked to watch me doing my walking meditation and praying at night in the front yard. My cars could perhaps become spiritual cats one day!