Happy Caturday: feeding temple cats and more newly born kittens at the temple.

6 months ago

I tried to visit Yannawa temple at least twice a week. Sometimes the sudden arrival of dark clouds made me postpone my journey to the temple. I knew some cats would be waiting for me at the same spots and looking for the arrival of my car. Whenever I turned up on the ‘wrong’ day, I had to explain my reason to these cats. They could remember my words very well and have very good memories. They were very kind and understanding so they never complained about my haphazard schedules sometimes.

The first place to feed temple cats was usually the car park. Some days, all the cats seemed to be hiding somewhere else, only a few cats would show up. But when they turned up at the same time, almost ten cats would be asking for wet food. They had to wait for me to lay out the dishes with dry biscuits. They would sniff and refuse to eat until I had opened some wet food and mixed it for them. I could afford to feed them only wet food as each trip would be too costly. I had to feed more than twenty cats around the temple.

During my last visit, a black mother cat had turned up with her small black kitten. I was sad that she had only one surviving kitten. I used to feed her extra wet food during her pregnancy as she was very skinny. Perhaps she had a few kittens but some died of cat’ s flu.
I found out that another mother cat with two kittens had now left with only one kitten. I used to feed those two kittens and noticed one kitten with watery eyes. I did try to give the kitten some medicine in her food. But I didn’t see her everyday to follow up on her illness. I thought it wasn’t serious and these two kittens were very timid like their mother.

During the rainy season, I had to carry extra medicine for these cats as several got drenched in the rain and became sick. I would crushed the tablet into powder and cover the powder with wet cat food. This would make them lick up all the medicine. The skinny monk was quite impressed that I did help healing these cats as had saved him trips to see the vet and the expensive medical bills.

The young mother cat with two kittens lived under the Buddhist school building. It took me a month to train them to get used to my voice so that they would come out to have their food. Now the kitten and her mother, including her uncle would came to have their meals. But they were still too afraid to be touched, they slowly learned to accept my presence. So, I could get closer to them than two months ago.

My old favourite Samsi has been well looked after by several novices at the school. She always called me with her special tone of voice whenever she saw me walking up to her. She has become my old friend and I have become quite attached to her. Fortunately the crazy woman (who used to harm temple cats) had gone away for months, so these temple cats could live in safety and peace.

There’s another young mother cat, probably a new stray cat that found her way to the temple. She brought two tiny black kittens to see me and asked for food two weeks ago. I only saw one black kitten this week. I hope the other kitten was still around and healthy. This mother cat used to have her kittens hidden in the nearby building. Since the kittens became older, the mother cat brought them downstairs to live a more adventurous life.

So, there have been at least five black kittens being born during the past two months. These kittens would make the temple more lively in the near future. Some of the cats I was feeding these days were just small kittens last year! They have grown used to my presence and we have become good friends. Most of them allowed me to touch them and carry them around.

It was fun seeing these hungry cats enjoying their food with such concentration. The skinny monk only fed them once a day, later in the evening. So, they were very hungry by late afternoon. Very often the skinny monk had to do some tasks which made me returned to the temple very late. These cats were quite desperate and very excited when they saw me walking from the car park. They would run very fast towards me while complaining about being very hungry. I wished there were more people or monks giving these cats some of their leftover food.

Sometimes I had to go away for a week, I would tell these cats to stuff themselves with as much food as possible. I told them they would get extra food from me for about a week. They would eat like crazy until they were very full. Then they would lay on the floor to rest while some would take a short nap. Their faces reflected contentment and care free feelings. It’s so easy to make these cats happy.

The black and white cat had recently brought her three kittens out of the hiding place. She introduced her three kittens to other cats in the courtyard by the skinny monk’s lodging. They were so tiny kittens about five weeks old. They were very jumpy and afraid of people. I couldn’t get near them yet, they would run away whenever I tried to put the food dish near them.

The mother cat’s name: Tam, she’s very friendly to me. But she wouldn’t let the skinny monk touch her. The skinny monk had about ten cats and kittens living in his place. The rest of the cats had their own hiding places around the temple. They have become streetwise and knew how to survive as temple cats. I was quite concerned that more cats seemed to be parking around the courtyard after the Abbot had expanded the bridge over the small canal inside the temple. The rich visitors with expensive cars tended to be very insensitive to other people and stray cats. They wouldn’t take extra car to drive slowly inside the courtyard.

They never seemed to show any interest or compassion towards stray cats and poor people. I thought they shouldn’t be wasting their time at the temple. Most rich people thought that they could wash away their bad karma by making offerings and donations at temples. Rich people, especially corrupt politicians, tended to make huge donations to temples as they expected that their sin or bad karma would be erased by making big merits.

But according to Buddhism, impure intentions would reduce the positive results of their charitable actions. It was as if they were making an investment and expecting very high percentage of returns. It’s quite hard for me to teach some of my rich friends not to have investment attitude while making merits or doing good karma. Doing good karma without expecting any returns would be most beneficial. It’s difficult for rich people to give generously without demanding any compensation. They were so used to making money that they couldn’t experience the joy of giving and making others happy.

I am afraid that materialism has spread into spiritual realm. Even monks could buy their own expensive cars. We have about 2400 years before the disappearance of Buddhism as a religion (as the Buddha had told his monks). I thought there would be an apocalyptic event on earth like a big flood or earthquakes to wipe away most living beings on earth. Then after a period of long silence, the final era of life would erupt in which the last Buddha would appear to help those surviving people to attain enlightenment. Then the end of the earth and solar system would be instigated.

The Buddha said there would only be five Buddhas then everything would ended. There was no record on whether any monks asked the Buddha to explain in details about what the ‘ending’ of everything meant. Meanwhile I have been stumbling along my path towards spiritual development and enlightenment. Being a human being on this earth has been quite a tough journey!