Personal social service
The elder generation believes that if your house is often frequented by domestic animals especially cats, it means your house is filled with good aura. And chances are, you and the rest of the household will always be blessed with good fortune.
Our house seems to be the favourite hang out pad for the neighbourhood cats - to be more specific, in the compound of our fenced up backyard. Strays, pets, pests (???), very furry ones, fat cuddly ones, mono coloured, spotted, with stripes, blue eyes, grey eyes, bi-coloured eyes…and the list goes on.
My husband decided since the visitor list from this visitor group doesn’t seem to cease, we might as well learn to live with the situation and just manage them better. So he (and the children, outvoting mummy dearest) adopted the 2 most regular of the lot. 1, an orange + white male while the other a very cheeky dark grey + white.
Since the adoption became “official”, it has now become one of our Bibik’s duties to feed these kittens-fast-growing-up-to-be-cats in the mornings. I managed to have my say heard on one matter – no more cooked food for them (hubby dearie at one time would steam or boil fish and de-bone them before serving the flesh only to his adopted kids!). So it was that our grocery list now includes cat food…
The kitty cats somehow are pretty well behaved; they litter outside our house compound. Accidents do happen and often in our front yard, but then, we usually find out that these “accidents spots” exit from non-residents. Our lot seems to know meal time very well; or rather our meal times are now dictated by their timings. Occasionally, dark grey + white dared to bring back guests…and so Bibik now have to set aside a bowl for these guests’ food.
I don’t normally take to the idea of keeping pets; the only exception being the gold fish that used to swim happily in our aquarium. Now all that’s left in the aquarium is water, waiting for us to release a new batch of fish after the sudden death of the previous occupants. But that is a different story...
Yet I have grown to accept the kitty cats as part of our household. I now look forward to their gentle meows as they both sit by the kitchen door waiting for food to be served. I enjoy moments of light banter with them – pretending to shoo them off with a stern voice, then letting them twist themselves playfully around my legs as I walk back into the kitchen.
These short moments are therapeutic and for that short span of time, I can just relax and not think of work related matters. On a positive note, too our house fail to attract guest-house from the rodent family – at least, those of the unhygienic type, anyway. We do get occasional visits from the neighbourhood squirrels, though! But that too, is a different story.
Now, while large corporations have their publicly announced CSR initiatives to make their peace with to the society they serve, I think a higher power has made the kitty cats mine, my own personal service to society, my PSR (personal social responsibility)…
As for good fortune, well that same high power has been great to us in that respect, too!
Our house seems to be the favourite hang out pad for the neighbourhood cats - to be more specific, in the compound of our fenced up backyard. Strays, pets, pests (???), very furry ones, fat cuddly ones, mono coloured, spotted, with stripes, blue eyes, grey eyes, bi-coloured eyes…and the list goes on.
My husband decided since the visitor list from this visitor group doesn’t seem to cease, we might as well learn to live with the situation and just manage them better. So he (and the children, outvoting mummy dearest) adopted the 2 most regular of the lot. 1, an orange + white male while the other a very cheeky dark grey + white.
Since the adoption became “official”, it has now become one of our Bibik’s duties to feed these kittens-fast-growing-up-to-be-cats in the mornings. I managed to have my say heard on one matter – no more cooked food for them (hubby dearie at one time would steam or boil fish and de-bone them before serving the flesh only to his adopted kids!). So it was that our grocery list now includes cat food…
The kitty cats somehow are pretty well behaved; they litter outside our house compound. Accidents do happen and often in our front yard, but then, we usually find out that these “accidents spots” exit from non-residents. Our lot seems to know meal time very well; or rather our meal times are now dictated by their timings. Occasionally, dark grey + white dared to bring back guests…and so Bibik now have to set aside a bowl for these guests’ food.
I don’t normally take to the idea of keeping pets; the only exception being the gold fish that used to swim happily in our aquarium. Now all that’s left in the aquarium is water, waiting for us to release a new batch of fish after the sudden death of the previous occupants. But that is a different story...
Yet I have grown to accept the kitty cats as part of our household. I now look forward to their gentle meows as they both sit by the kitchen door waiting for food to be served. I enjoy moments of light banter with them – pretending to shoo them off with a stern voice, then letting them twist themselves playfully around my legs as I walk back into the kitchen.
These short moments are therapeutic and for that short span of time, I can just relax and not think of work related matters. On a positive note, too our house fail to attract guest-house from the rodent family – at least, those of the unhygienic type, anyway. We do get occasional visits from the neighbourhood squirrels, though! But that too, is a different story.
Now, while large corporations have their publicly announced CSR initiatives to make their peace with to the society they serve, I think a higher power has made the kitty cats mine, my own personal service to society, my PSR (personal social responsibility)…
As for good fortune, well that same high power has been great to us in that respect, too!
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