IT'S A CATS' WORLD

Cats, at times, behave like humans. Some are very well behaved and display good conduct and respect towards other cats as well as humans. Some, however, harbor a stubborn streak and wants to control a territory which is not theirs. Since the day we were depleted of our own band of feline members, our house has been invaded by several uninvited furry guests.

Mayo aka Tempang, basking

One is a stray, scruffy, dirty, white (beige??) semi long-haired which resides liberally between our house and those adjacent to us. We call him Nahar (now please don't snort again, Anne!) because Nahar, a village jack-of-all-trade once came searching for him, saying that the cat left him. Nahar (the cat) is such an adorable one (not that Nahar the human is not adorable but that is a totally different story!). He won't dare go near us and would scurry out of our way, as if in great fear of incurring our wrath! He would lie peacefully under our parked car outside even when the day is hot if he knows we are in the house.

Nahar, the ever frightened one, won't even stop to pose!

His only crime is to snitch Mayo's (our only cat left) biscuits, which neither Mayo nor us, mind. Each time when he comes for the food, he would eye me intensely. As if to elude us, he would surreptitiously take further route and circle the premise, only to approach the biscuit dish when he thinks we are not watching him! Should he catch us eyeing him, he would not nab the food straight but would make pleading eye contact, silently asking for our permission. Once, I even told him, "makanlah". Nahar is also a peaceful creature, not wanting any confrontation of feline sorts. Never do I hear him making deep roaring sounds to initiate any cat fights. Thus he gets along well with Mayo and they would laze around and gaze indifferently at each other.

Nahar has a peculiar gait. Watching him walk from the back, you'd notice that his hind ankles sort of meet together with each step. A bit like knock-knees. So when he runs, it appears as though he is hobbling . And he has a cute rotund face, a bit like Nahar the human. Which gave me the theory that a cat tend to look like their owners as they grow!

My immediate neighbor has three siamese cats. Apparently they are very bold and shows irritating bravado. The most brazen of them is this guy with pointed genes, meaning he has dark pigmentations on his nose, ears, feet and tail. We call him Mafia for obvious reasons. He would mark his territory by pissing and defeacating all over our lawn! Once as he was stuffing himself with Mayo's food, I shooed him away but he put on a deaf ear and kept on eating. When I tried pushing him away physically, he won't budge at all! Imagine! Worst still was when he wanted to fight Mayo over the biscuits. I wonder if he gets any food at home! This evening he picked up a fight with Nahar whilst he was eating. I chased him off by spraying a gush of water from the hose. I hope Mafia will get the message that his insolent audacity is not welcomed and that Nahar's presence is more accepted here, despite his unkempt persona!

Mafia, up to one of his ploys

Another of Mafia's vice is to enter our bedroom through the balcony door which we would leave open at most times. On several occasions he would creep in unnoticed and trail downstairs into the kitchen to rummage the rubbish bin. Due to this, we now have to keep the balcony door closed.

I know Mafia is just a cat with natural predilections but his impertinent intrusive habits just vex me more and more each day. Once I tried to be nice to him by stroking him. Mayo came near me, requesting me to pet him too. In an instant Mafia growled and put on a fighting stance. Sheesh! And I thought I could be nice to him. Since then, I have no heart to be amicable towards him.

Sorry that I have to blog about cats again. Not that my life revolves only around them but I see a lot of uncanny similarities between cats and human behavior. How some human love to 'pick' up fights and destroy relationships. And how some cats can manage to be more human by being more amiable to each other. Observe these feline beings and maybe we can learn how to be more humane from them!

*By the way, Mayo's eating corner is now an attraction to many cats from areas nearby. There's an orange-white one from the left side of the near kampung. And various others have also come for their share of Mayo's yummilicious biscuits. Maybe it's turning into a soup kitchen or something!