3 posts tagged “cat”

The other day a man in overalls carrying a box into the school building I had just left paused a moment to tell me that there was a dead cat in the garden. He nodded towards a concrete fountain thing in the flower bed beside us and told me the cat was just behind it. “It’s going to stink up the place”, he said. “Somebody better take it away”.  He was still talking as I went to have a look and when I saw it I felt a sharp pain in my chest. It was the same black cat that was often around the school yard. A beautiful sleek creature that would turn onto its back when you approached, purring furiously if it succeeded in soliciting a cuddle. Just yesterday I had stroked the soft fur and its stomach. I had grown very fond of it. Now it was dead. It lay stretched out as if it was asleep except its eyes were open.

A disproportionate sense of grief welled up in me. “What happened?” I asked but the man just shrugged his shoulders. I walked back to my classroom, closed the door and put my face in my hands. It would have been a comfort to cry, but I haven’t so much as shed a tear in years. My heart doesn’t respond to much, but I was really sad about the cat. The thought of one of the cleaners picking it up by the tail and sticking into a refuse bag was just too awful to bear.

I took the newspaper on my desk and went to the store room to get a spade. Then I walked around the school looking for a suitable place to bury the cat - somewhere quiet, under a tree. When I found the kind of place I had in mind I began digging a hole, half a metre deep through roots and stones that left me sweating and out of breath. I wrapped the cat neatly in newspaper and laid it down in the hole in what would have been a comfortable position if it were alive and filled the hole, patting down the soil at the end.

After that I put the tools back in the shed, cleaned up and went back to my classroom. I felt strangely comforted after burying the cat. Nature had taken its course and the cycle of life went on. I made a cup of tea and thought about how people must take a similar comfort in being able to bury their loved ones and how it really seems that they are able to rest in peace thereafter. Cremation might be a practical thing to do but it doesn’t provide the same emotional comfort or sense of closure for those left behind, at least not for me.

The next day I was at my computer when a colleague told me she had just seen a black cat walking about the school. “Come have a look” she said, “It looks just like that friendly one”. I followed her outside and spotted a black cat identical to the one that was now buried under a tree around the corner. As I stuck my hand out it rolled onto its back and when I picked it up and it began purring, rubbing its head against my chin.  It was the very cat I was so fond of!

A pang sprang up in my chest again and I felt like crying. I was embarrassingly overwhelmed with relief and confusion to be holding something warm and alive that I thought was gone. My colleague laughed about the needless effort I had taken to bury a different cat, but I am glad that I did it anyway. I still feel comforted knowing that it is lying in the earth and not in a dumpster somewhere.

While I was cycling I stopped to take a picture of a cat sitting on the front steps of an old house. As soon as I had my camera in position the cat noticed me and came all the way up for a cuddle.

I wish our cat, Jeffery, who currently resides in Taiwan with my parents-in-law could be that sweet. Most cats are quiet creatures who keep to themselves, but our cat is an incredibly noisy and destructive animal, who if left alone will literally tear the house apart and keep the neighborhood awake with his howling.

Sometimes I am tempted to have Jeffery put down by a vet even though that is tantamount to murder. It would be less cruel than putting him in an animal shelter say, or just booting him out the house. He is such a delinquent. Even my sister who is a vet is at a loss with him.

Meanwhile his voracious appetite is satisfied with the most expensive cat food available, he has every imaginable toy to to keep him somewhat amused and has an entire section of the house to wreak havoc.... The things we do for those we love.

Our cat Jeffery is a holy terror. Amongst other things he:

•    Jumps up walls and knocks pictures off their hooks
•    Claws the sofa and to pieces and scratches up all the other furniture
•    Has a particular fondness for ripping up the toilet paper in the bathroom
•    Climbs into every nook and cranny he can find
•    Has a way of standing up straight behind doors and slamming them shut
•    Runs around manically completely regardless of what is in his way
•    Knocks things off shelves and table tops to hear them smash
•    Bites hard enough to draw blood
•    Plays in his sandbox
•    Meows at odd hours in the night
•    Constantly tips the water from his bowl
•    Plays with anything that makes a loud noise
•    Chews on the computer and TV cables
•    Cries loud enough to wake the neighbours if we put him out

With our new apartment being considerably smaller we were worried about the havoc he would cause there. Desperately I asked my sister for advice because she’s a vet who loves cats, but even she was at a loss what to do with him…

We bought some calming tablets to keep Jeffery somewhat subdued just for the first week in the new place, but of course he would not eat them no matter how well we concealed it in his food. Force-feeding him would have required an army of 6 men who were not on hand and would have come off second best anyway.

So reluctantly we resigned ourselves to the pointless task of re-educating the cat and keeping anything of value out of harms way.

But now here’s the strange part: since Jeffery moved into the new apartment he has been a different cat altogether.

He sleeps in a little ball by the windowsill during the day, curls up at the end of the bed at night and pads around the apartment like a proper housecat. Every now and again the old Jeffery emerges, but a loud word or two in his direction and he goes back to being the sweetest, most adorable little thing you can imagine.

I have no idea how this came about, but I hope it lasts. I much prefer having a pet to the antichrist in my living room.