Great Encounters of the Other Kind (1)

In the beginning was a kitten

Rexit is our first feline beauty.  I found her when we were still reeling with relocation adjustments.  She was weak, was shivering with cold and hunger, had a gaping wound in her neck and, to my horror, judging from her labored breathing and swollen watery eyes, was suffering from feline-deadly pneumonia.

When the husband exclaimed “Wow!”  instead of what I feared when I brought in that dying kitten that evening, I knew one more reason why two beings can be kindred spirits.

That ‘Wow!’ was followed days after with cat books and magazines he brought home.  After comparing experts’ tips, experimenting, and trusting my sixth sense, I now think of myself as sufficiently capable of caring for cats.  Not to be discounted is the expertise of veterinarians, one of whom advised us not to look down while walking on the streets because there are too many of those homeless and suffering alley cats around in numbers we could not take.  The advice was professional and thoughtful, but dangerous.  Taking it may shoot me straight down to those open manholes in the metropolis whose covers have been stolen.

With the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi on October 4, which is also observed as World Animal Day, I chose to focus on cats, on record the most abused domestic animal.  Unfortunately for us, the top abusers are humans.

Yet cats could make us feel good about being, well, just ourselves.  Like dogs, they could unwittingly show us a perspective on life that we tend to forget.  If we bother to give a second look, we may find in cats a good measure of resignation and resilience, discreet gratitude for the littlest of human kindness, and quietude in adversity that we could emulate.  They are not cool cats for nothing.

Our major problem over Rexit came when we had to move to a condo unit near the husband’s place of work.  That meant staying in Cavite only on weekends.  No doubt she had to come with us.  I was happily carrying her that dawn when the condo’s guard said in no uncertain terms that cats were not allowed.  Whether or not lack of sleep was the cause, I went into hysterics.  She is a resident, part of our family!  I cried.  My sympathies were with the guard who was only doing his job well and the husband who did not add to the din by keeping quiet and allowing me my own disquiet.  I held on to Rexit just the same.

It was a moral dilemma; we could not compromise the guard’s job nor throw the cat out.  The only solution then was for us to defend the guard all we can by claiming he did not see a cat and to go up the building through a different and more difficult entrance.

Later, a colleague of the husband advised me to go on and keep Rexit, not as a pet if pets are not allowed, but as a “medical implement.”  If one could keep live bacilli to ferment vinegar or to help one’s digestion, why not a cat to sooth one’s nerves?  You can say that without her you get nervous.  He would volunteer his legal services if things go from bad to worse, he assured.

The advice was wise.  But I had apprehensions.  The husband’s colleague just came in from New York after a diplomatic tour of duty.  He passed the New York Bar by reading on the bus commuting between home and work.  Brilliant lawyer then that he is, his mindset, I believe, was still that of a litigious US.  If we had to live in this condo it would be healthier for us all to have good relations with management sans courtroom duels.

(2004)