Cats

October 3, 2010

On the other side of the world, in England in the old days, I was brought up in a home without pets. My mother was too sensible, or if you like, too house-proud to have it messed up by animals. When I had my own child I was anti-pet, but my wife soon put me right. “Your deprived children just dont understand the joys of pets” she explained.

She cleverly started small, with a long series of very short-lived pets, including sickly goldfish, balding hamsters and tunnelling tortoises. I remember rushing down to the pet-shop to try to replace dead creatures with ones that looked just like them, but my son was usually too smart to fool. The garden became full of pet graves. Talking about tortoises reminds me of a story about a great practical joker. The guy in the apartment downstairs kept a small tortoise on his balcony. The joker devised a special grab, and one day picked up the tortoise and replaced it with a bigger one. The owner stared at it, scratching his head. The following day the joker made another grab and sent down an even bigger tortoise. The owner was really alarmed. The joker took a few days off, then grabbed the big tortoise and put back the original small one. The owner saw the change, rushed back into the apartment and didnt appear on the balcony for days, but just nervously pushed out lettuce to the tortoise. Our home life changed when my son arrived home from grade school carrying a “lost” kitten, named Wednesday after the day he was found. That started out our lifetime subservience to cats. Soon Friday and a whole series of other kittens entered the house, and life started to revolve around them. Cats are very clever creatures. They give you just enough affection to get fed, then curl up on your lap on the bed or wherever takes their fancy. But dont expect more. Actually, it was Wednesday, the cat who brought us one of my favourite pets, Adolphus the mouse. I rescued the mouse from the cat, rushed down to the pet shop and bought a cage, complete with exercise wheel. To keep Adolphus safe, we hid the cage on a high shelf in the guest bathroom. In truth, Adolphus was not very affectionate, but he did give us a lot of fun by jumping on his squeaky wheel whenever a guest used the bathroom, causing regular screams.In Manila, we have three cats. One is called Par because we rescued him as a tiny kitten from Wack Wack Golf and Country Club. Because of a previous sad loss, they are protected in a maximum security garden, with high fences all round and fishing nets festooned over the trees to stop them climbing. Are they grateful? No, there are still regular break-outs. Yes, in reality I do love cats. But no, I havent been to the musical. That would be too much.Isnt it an odd world that we live in?

Post by Brandon Smith in Uncategorized