Caturday:my fat cats are pacifists and good at running away.

After my arrival at the farmhouse, from a long train journey, I was looking forwards to seeing my orange cats. I wondered whether my gardener had managed to get them to lose some weight. To my surprise, both cats seemed to have put on almost two kilos. They have become much bigger and heavier. But they still behaved like small children, Kwan would be crying for attention for fifteen minutes. She could be quite talkative and expressive; her eyes also showed lots of emotions.

The brother cat was usually very cool and acting like cat-gentleman with very good manners and social etiquette. I thought he would look very smart in three piece suite once he could transform into human for a day! Sometimes I wondered how they would look in human forms. I knew they used to be my soldiers guarding my camp several hundreds years ago. Would they turn out in old soldier uniforms with two swords behind their backs; with tall lean bodies and short dark (or orange) hair, both wearing stern unfriendly look on their faces?!

These cats just knew they had to behave and be polite in my surroundings. It was as if we were living
according to old custom in ancient royal courts. People knew their places, roles and duties, survival of the tribe depended on unspoken collaborations so that everyone was always ready to handle any surprise attack from enemies’ troops. People’s ways of life centered around food gathering, practicing self defense and handling weapons, intelligence gathering and maintaining the stability of the whole tribe and kingdom. Those were the old days of my long forgotten past life which revealed itself in my dreams years ago.

Old attachments died hard; so several of my soldiers and entourage reincarnated into this life time only to haphazardly stumble on my path. These old souls, either in human or animal forms would get on with me like good old friends. In some exceptional cases did I experience unresolved karmic issues with these reincarnated people. They came back to make me payback my old debt or they still had grudges against me. Sometimes I could ascertain how these people used to be related to me on my past life (without having to take past life regression sessions with some psychic therapists). This made me understood the bigger picture and I could accept all the torments and inconveniences they had inflicted upon me. It’s my pay back time! So, I had to look after these two orange cats as a return to their loyalty and sacrifice in the past. I was glad that these cats were not psychic otherwise they could have complained a lot about my poor level of service!

I couldn’t afford to give them freshly grilled mackerels everyday but I chose top quality cat food for their means. I also shared my simple omelette with my cats, I would use three eggs for my omelette. Only Joan seemed to like my omelette so I gave him a quarter of the omelette. I had to remember not to add any herbs and pepper into the omelette so that Joan could eat it. My cooking skill continued to go down hill, Kwan wouldn’t touch my omelette. I did wonder whether Joan are the omelette out of politeness or he didn’t want to hurt my feelings. These two cats were the most sensitive and considerate cats I had ever met!

As simple cats without any pedigree, they didn’t demand or expect any special treatments or food from me. They were just grateful for all the food I could afford to buy for them with occasional snacks and wet food. After their meal they would go for very long nap. This gave me the opportunity to observe their faces and changes in their health. This also gave me the chance to give Kwan some eye drops and some medicine. Luckily, Kwan just allowed me to open her mouth without any struggle. These few days I have been trying to reduce their food portions, hoping they would lose some weights.

I think that things happened for a reason in my life. So when I found the first stray cat under the mango tree, I made a wish in my mind: if the stray cat stayed willingly at my house even though I tried to stay aloof and not paying any attention; then the cat was meant for my companion. These cats have become very friendly companions and they taught me new things about cats and animals’ world of reality. I learned about their capabilities for memories and emotions.

Some cats could be tricky and cunning like humans. But they are very honest about their thoughts and emotions; they are straight forward in their desires and wants. Luckily, they are not yet interested in politics, power and economics. I am so grateful to be left with two descendants of the original stray orange cat; she was my favourite as she was very smart and understood our spoken words. I do miss all the lost cats and pray that they will have a much better reincarnation as Thai villagers who would grow up to become my friends in the future.

Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.

Stay strong and cheerful.