Happy Caturday: temple cats got mackerels from a kind lady.

I had to stay in the city during the last ten days of December as the trains were fully booked. I would have liked to be with my orange cats. Luckily, Joan seemed to be dropping by quite regularly so Kwan wouldn’t be so lonely. On the other hand, stray cats at the temple would get more food during this week. So, I had to pack up sachets of wet food and refill the dry food into two bags to be stacked in my car the following day.

The little black cat always recognised the sound of my car engine. She would be waiting by the cat door as soon as I finished parking my old car with loud engine noise. She used to be very timid and wouldn’t get close to me last year. Now we have become good friends. Only three to four cats were left hiding around the car park, there used to be about ten cats two years ago. Most of them were persecuted by the crazy woman almost two years ago. I was so glad she had disappeared forever.

There used to be a very friendly orange cat at this car park but he was gone for over a month now. I was wuite concerned about him as he was very timid and was often chased away by bigger cats. He was so sweet and gentle so I was very fond of him. I hoped he would come back soon. After feeding these four cats at the car park, I would go to feed my old favourite cat that I have been feeding for about three years. She’s called ‘Samsi’.

Samsi has moved from the car park to living in the buiding of the Buddhist school. She was often harassed by the only black temple dog. This dog was quite jealous of Samsi as he could see that I looked after Samsi very well. This dog was rescued by the staff of the temple. He was still a puppy floating in the river. He probably fell into the river and was fished out by the staff. So, he has been living at the temple ever since. To my surprise, Samsi has been adopted by a couple during Christmas. The monk told me that this couple liked Samsi very much and they had a house with big garden. So, Samsi would be well looked after with daily food and plenty of space to herself. I would miss her a lot.

Then I had to feed three cats that were hiding near the pier. There used to be at least five cats there. Nowadays, there were two old cats plus a new orange cat who appeared out of the blue. This orange cat was very friendly and talkative. The black cat’s brother and another white cat were drown by that crazy woman. I couldn’t understand that crazy person who took pleasure in inflicting pain and suffering on these poor cats. The skinny monk told me that they probably had some complicated karmic relationships from many lifetimes.

The other day I was presently surprised to see an Indian lady feeding stray cats at the car park. She brought a big bag of steamed mackerels and her own small chair to sit on so that she could comfortably dish out food for these cats. She couldn’t speak Thai very well so we communicated in English. It was her first visit at this temple so she didn’t quite know that she needed more instruments in feeding several stray cats at the same time.

I could see that stray cats really enjoyed steamed mackerels very much and they ate very fast. The plastic spoon was broken so I had to lean her my stainless steal spoon. She brought only plastic bag to place the food. This could make these hungry cats quarrel for food. So, I handed her my plastic dishes so she could distribute food to several cats systematically. In the end I offered to be her assistant in feeding these cats.

She was very kind, when she saw a black cat with wound on his body she wanted to put some medicine on him. But the black cat was rather shocked by her sudden movement and backed off. This told me that she didn’t have much experience with stray cats. I told her that his wound has healed up nicely as I had already given him medication for several weeks. I told her that there were more cats and kittens in the inner courtyard. So, she fillowed me to a nearby place to feed more cats.

I could see that the growing kittens were very excited with real fish, they made growling noises while they were eating. Other cats also came down from the building to join in the frays. I had to use about ten plastic dishes for distributing food to satisfy the hunger of these cats and to prevent them from fighting with each other. The Indian lady was very happy to be able to empty the big bag of steamed mackerel and rice. I was so grateful that this kind lady came on her own impulse to feed stray cats at this temple. She told me that she also went to feed stray cats at another temple. I wish there would be more people going around temples to feed stray cats. The skinny monk was so happy to see these cats looking fatter and very happy.

Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.

Stay strong and cheerful.