Late Caturday: some friendly stray cats at the temple.

Time has been playing tricks on me as I was gaining an extra day last week. I went to a shop thinking it was Sunday when all vegetables would be half price. But the shop keeper told me it was Saturday, the 50% reduction would be on Sunday. So, I suddenly gain one day as I thought I was living on Sunday timeline; in fact it was Saturday timeline! I was so glad to gain one extra day. So, I had to visit the temple by the river on Saturday to feed those stray cats.

I knew this cat since last year, I called her Julia. She has grown from three months old kitten to nine months’ old mother cat. Here she was heavily pregnant.

I have been feeding these cats for almost a year so most stray cats have become very friendly towards me. Sometimes some young cats would run after me and tried to follow me out of the temple. I guess some cats thought that they would be well fed at my place and it would be nice to have a proper home. Sadly I had to chase them back to the monk’s lodging as he has been feeding these cats for many years. He gave very funny and long names to these cats; I called these cats by their physical traits such as ‘Long Tail’, Little Tiger, Bunny Tail, Samsi, Julia and Johnny, English Gentleman (this elderly cat behaved like a polite English Gentleman with impeccable manner!

Grey was the only surviving kitten from a litter of three kittens. He was very alert and timid, very good at hiding. The construction at the temple had frightened him away for two months. He came back looking very skinny, losing about three kilos! So I gave him extra food.

These cats became much closer to me and they knew my ritual in feeding them. They knew where to find me in the car park and would run after me when I walked towards the monk’s lodging where I would have them their snacks and cat food. It has become a small commotion each time I brought the wet food sachet out. These cats’ eyes would lit up with hopeful suspense and they would jump in to compete with each other for a bite of the wet food. So, I had to make sure everyone had got at least two or three bites of the wet food.

I did teach Julia to tolerate Grey and stop chasing Grey away. I told Julia how hard life has been for Grey and she should show kindness to poor Grey who was always alone! Julia was very fond of my filtered water; she would drink for up to five minutes.

It’s usual to be surrounded by about fourteen cats and kittens during the feeding session. So, I had to be be very careful not to step on some cats’ paws! I did step on at least three cats so far. Each gave out a loud cry that I jumped up from my feet. Luckily, these cats understood it was an accident and they care back to me. Some mother cat actually did lay down under me while I was squatting and feeding small kittens. She probably felt very safe and secured under my squat. This was very tricky as she would come in very quietly. Luckily I never passed any wind to frighten her away.

The two sisters have always been very close and the younger one, Tommy, was emotionally dependent on Julia who was more of a fighter and extrovert. At first I thought Tommy was a male kitten so I called him Tommy! This name has become stuck and reflected the jumpy character of this cat; she’s always very defensive. These two kittens were badly treated in the past so they had moved to the other side of the temple. I had to feed them first before feeding the bigger gangs of cats.

I found about four to five cats which I would like to bring back to my farmhouse. But I knew they wouldn’t like my idea as they were so used to the freedom to roam everywhere inside the temple ground. They wouldn’t survive the Wild West kind of lifestyle in the countryside; these cats are city cats who are at ease in old buildings and car park. They would easily be attacked by snakes, big lizards, scorpions and stray dogs. It’s going to be very hard when I would have to bid goodbye to these cats. I just hope that skinny monk would be able to look after these cats and kittens for as long as he could till his old age.

Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.

Stay strong and cheerful.