I saw this message on the power cuts app during the present blackouts:
Has anyone seen a long-haired ginger cat around, in the last two days? Our little guy has gone missing!
Cats always seem to go missing. It’s in their nature. A cat is free to do what it wants – to go stalking on roofs at night and generally run around as they please.
Someone I know tells me the story about how their cat would go away for weeks and live at another house — they didn’t know this at the time. They thought their cat had gone missing. When the cat came back, the neighbours (down the street) were in for a surprise when they came to collect “their” cat and were told that the cat didn’t belong to them.
Cats are much less dependent on humans compared to dogs. It’s basic sense that a dog needs its owner (what a terrible word) for food and water. A cat can find his or her own food.
They catch all sorts of things from birds, rats, lizards and even snakes. But often they do it just for the fun of it.
However, cats also know who butters their bread. We stayed at a cottage in the Southern Peninsula. My dear partner stayed with us for two weeks and every evening the neighbour’s cat would come for its meal. When my partner left, the cat didn’t visit me and my daughter. Then weeks later when my partner came back the cat made a reappearance in the evenings. It must have really enjoyed my dearly beloveds cooking.
It’s a beautiful thing to watch a cat adopting a hunting stance. I saw one recently on a roof, creeping up towards where a bird was on a tree. Suddenly, the cat froze like a statue. Not a movement. Then the bird flew away. The cat shrugged it off and continued hunting.
Cats seem to have a sixth sense. I was staying at a home in the Cape where the homeowners had a cat that never took any notice of me or my daughter. That’s how cats can be. On the night before our departure the cat came into our living space and spent the night with us. How did it know that we were leaving the next day? Perhaps it was glad to see us go.
Cats can teach us a lot. The way they rest their bodies. Their stretching exercises. Razorlike focus in their moment of attack. And their discerning (often aloof) attitude towards humans.
