Wednesday 23 June 2010

Food Donations

Saturday 12 June 2010

The Andeok Cats

I was peacefully working away at the computer when I caught two movements out of the corner of my eye.

On top of the neighbour’s shabby outhouse (her bathroom), there was one large, calico cat, and one tiny grey, striped kitten. Looking nothing alike, I assumed that the larger cat had adopted the smaller one.

It appeared as though the calico mother was trying to teach her kitten how to climb down a tree leaning against the roof of the outhouse. The kitten, while attempting it at first, quickly inched back onto the roof.

I thought, what a moment worthy of a video! I ran for my camera and started to shoot the darling cats in one of life’s most important lessons.

Its mother climbed halfway up the sturdy tree trunk, meowing…trying to convince her baby to face her fears. The little guy didn’t budge. The calico cat then went on to leap onto the roof, bite the kitten by the nape of its neck, and pull it towards the edge of the roof. The kitten tried once more, but couldn’t overcome its vertigo. It scurried away into a hole, just underneath the outhouse’s roof. The mother cat was just about to go after her kitten…when she spotted me, holding my camera, in the sunroom.

For one hour she didn’t move. Frozen like a statue, she kept her eyes locked on me, in one iced-over glare from the rooftop. I was afraid to leave the house. She then raced to the ground, focusing her gaze upon me once more, only having it broken by another cat, a grey, striped cat. He must’ve been the father. I thought of it then. The two stray cats, doing their dirty business inside of our neighbour’s roof…producing a baby that couldn’t even leave the vicinity of two square meters, all around.

I warned Ken of the cats by phone. They were right beside the walkway to our house, and I was confident that they would be keeping a watchful eye on anyone passing by.

A couple days later, we left a peace offering at the bottom of the tree trunk – a dish of flakey tuna. The next day, it was licked empty.

- Jess