I hate cats from my childhood.
The day our cat caught my squirrel and killed it I started hating all cats including our cat (never my cat in my vocabulary).
I cried and got hold of the tail of the cat and trashed her on the floor till my anger subsided but felt short of killing her. The cat got the message and would not come near me and then one day I handed over her to one of my aunts whose house had lot of rats.
I cannot remember having a cat till late in my life.
Then we had two orphaned male cats one was killed by a dog and other was poisoned and dished out during Perehara for supper.
My daughter looked after 33 litters (she had counted) in her childhood and the last litter she came and told me that all five of them were blind to a different degree.
The had no defense from Kala Waddas (Ceylon Civet) and we looked after them in a cage and were disposed and I told her no more caring for cats (litters).
This year, New year’s eve I found three kitten in an open area of the house (neighbor’s cat) not protected by civets.
My decision was wait till they are bigger and dispose them quickly.
I frightened the mother cat (thinking she may take them away) but she was cunning and secretly come and go but not caring for the litter but I found her catching birds in a nearby house.
Then she did not come to feed for three days and I found one dead and two others just surviving.
Called a yesteryear servant girl now a big woman and told her to take them away and give them to somebody with two small packets of milk, vitamin enriched and cash for another big packet (now over Rs.300/=).
Today, I was watching over my cup of tea and there we over 10 young squirrels come out of the nest due to rain. Many of them were barely able to jump and their mothers did not had any control over them.
I knew the worse would happen.
One missed the jump and fell over 40 feet down and before I could reach, the cat had already caught it.
The irony here is there are very few trees below that would have prevented the young squirrel from landing on the ground .
Thirty (30) years ago when we moved here there were many trees and during this period at least 7 jack trees were felled in addition to other trees.
This is what we call development in Buddhist Style.
Before the turn of the last century monkeys would go from Hanathana Range to Knuckles range without ever climbing down to the ground and then there were more monkeys than business monkeys of present.
Read my verse on Kandy the so called heritage
That is it; killers in my neighborhood.
To my surprise there were 4 cats guarding below watchfully.
I could not believe Westerners love them and feed them and there was an old woman in America, neurotic about the lost cats and not the house.
People are saying how cute when one cat was found.
Unlike dogs they can fend themselves in the wild and they are wild animals domesticated and never can be trained not to kill.
The other reason I hate them is they steal food.
Cat in the neighborhood come and secretly drink my dog’s milk.
Now I sit with him till he finishes.
My dog deliberately leave them for the cats (probably learned from me).
1. They kill (not appropriate for Buddhist ethics) birds, squirrels and rats and any animal at their disposal
2. They steal (not appropriate for Buddhist ethics)
3. They can be never trained
4. They know how to coax
5. They make very ugly noise in the night
6. They urinate on linen
7. Their scat has an awful smell
8. They are never at home but always at the neigbour’s house stealing
9. They breed so often
10. Above all they are nuisance to the neighbors
11. They never look after our household
I think we should have a cat’s law (we have a law for dogs- why don’t we round the cats up and kill them since they also transmit Rabies) for Cat Buddhists.
But our cat’s law goes like this, Yes it is my cat but I did not ask him or her to kill or steal: it is it’s (their) instinct to help Cat Buddhists and Cat Philosophy.
I call it my cat logic or catelogic (how it is pronounced in typical Sri-Lankan Style!)
They perpetuate catalogue of errors of discretion.
We Buddhists in Sri-Lanka have bizarre law and ethics and very selfish too.
I cannot think of anything good except the purring.
Sri-Lankan keeps cats and they never feed them.
They say if they feed them they won’t catch the mice ( I must call them Cat Buddhists to add to my list of Buddhists in Sri-Lanka) at night but go and give Bodhi Puja every weekend.
I feel like killing my neighbors (this feeling was there for the last 30 years) having cats and not feeding them but until now I have resisted it.
