Twinkle: Our Cat

"Twinkle" at our home

Cats are carnivorous mammals just like tigers and lions. However, cats are physically much smaller and domestic animals. Today, cats have become favorite pets.

My wife and I did not have the habit of keeping pets. One of the reasons was that we did not have time, and we often had to be out of town to visit relatives and friends in different places. Since the breakout of COVID19, we have to stay at home. After a period of time, we thought of adopting a kitten.

The main reason that prompted us to keep a cat was that there were rats at our environment. We couldn’t really get rid of the rats, the unwanted visitors occasionally appeared in our home. Although we live in a suburban area with some flowers and trees around the backyard, we still couldn’t stop some mice from entering the home. Indeed, rats do cause unhygienic condition. And we must find a way to stop rats to entering our home.

After much effort, all our methods had failed to eradicate mice. It seemed that the mice were very smart and able to play hide-and-seek. They only showed up when we were not in the kitchen. When we woke up in the morning, and we often found that our food on the table was messed up by the unwanted visitor.

My wife did go to the hardware store to buy a trapping cage. The salesperson told my wife humorously, “Today’s mice have gone to university, so it’s difficult to catch them.” Indeed, it later proved that the mouse cage had no effect.

Since we couldn’t do anything with the mice, we recalled our childhood days living in the villages. We realized that there was no mouse as long as there were cats around. Therefore, my wife suggested to adopt a kitten. We contacted an SPCA, a Rehabilitation and Adoption Centre. Someone from the centre came and inspected our home. Our home is ideal and we were able to adopt a cat on the first day of the Chinese New Year this year. According to the kitten birth certificate, the cat was already about one year old at the time of our adoption. The cat’s name is “Twinkle”. We were told that she was wounded and rescued by a ditch shortly after she was born. With the care and nurture given by the SPCA cat lovers, she was healed and grew up healthily.

Before "Twinkle" was adopted, she was with her sister. Photo from SPCA.

We let “Twinkle” to live in our spacious kitchen, and we also have our regular meals in the kitchen. Nearly a year now since “Twinkle” first came to our home. Ever since the adoption, there was no sign of mice visiting our home. And “Twinkle” has also added a lot of fun to us.She is tender and occasionally acts like a naughty child. Being a part of our living, we are familiar with her voice and aware of whether she is around.

Human beings are spiritual living beings. But we are also the most dangerous community. Owing to selfishness, we often fail to manage our world properly. We have endangered the livelihood of many animals. And there are many animals on the verge of extinction.

Therefore, we must take good care of the animals we have adopted. Although we would not let “Twinkle” affect our daily life and sanitary conditions, we do take good care of her. We ensure she has good and healthy food and a comfortable environment.

“Twinkle” stays in the house most of the time. We do know that she also needs to go to the backyard from time to time. In order to prevent her going out of the fence to endanger herself unknowingly, we usually are around when “Twinkle” is in the backyard.

While “Twinkle” is in the backyard, she can climb some small trees and lie down on the grass. Often this is also the time when she looks for grass for consumption. Cats are not herbivores, but they eat small portion of grass from time to time. The grass would help to activate a cat to spit out bad stuff to help maintain her health.

We seldom bathe “Twinkle” because she always cleans her body with her tongue and saliva. And cats are also apprehensive of water pouring on them. We notice that during rainy days, “Twinkle” would not go out even if the kitchen door is left open.

We regularly feed “Twinkle” with cat food. However, when we have our meals in the kitchen, she would draw near and meow to get our attention. When she smells we are eating fish, she would meow unceasingly. Occasionally we feed her fish, but have to make sure that there is no fishbone that might endanger her. The cat also needs clean water, so clean water is placed in two places that are easy for “Twinkle” to drink at any time.

I believe that "Twinkle" has developed a good urination and defecation habit before moving to our house. And we have prepared a litter box in one corner, and “Twinkle” does go there to urinate and defecate as needed. And we have to clean up the litter box frequently and maintain hygiene. Certainly this is one of the things we must take care of when raising a cat.

After all, cats sometimes may get sick. We can observe some signs of illness through her unusual behavior. About two months ago, we found that “Twinkle” kept going to the litter box to urinate, but only a small amount of urine was being discharged. Seeing this unusual phenomenon, we quickly consulted a neighbor who is a cat lover. We realized that our cat was most likely sick or even suffered from urethra inflammation. Other than that, she looked fine. We contacted a veterinary clinic the next morning, and promptly went to the clinic for treatment.

After a detailed examination by the veterinarian, including the use of ultrasound examination, “Twinkle” had been diagnosed and was found no serious health problem. Given the medicine and having settled the expensive bill, we took “Twinkle” home. And for the next few days, we had to carefully feed “Twinkle” with the medicine. Gradually and steadily, “Twinkle” recovered. As in the past, “Twinkle” has fully recovered and become normal and occasionally mischievous.

As mentioned, cats are carnivores, and they also have sharp claws and fangs. They are able to catch their preys, some smaller animals than they are. “Twinkle” is usually tender and occasionally naughty inside the house. But as soon as she is in the backyard and notices some small size reptiles, she would rush up without mercy and use her claws and fangs to catch her prey. When we found out, she had already started to play with her prey.

By now, she has captured about ten chameleons of various sizes. In the past, we let these chameleons move around in our back garden. When “Twinkle” appears, we see the phenomenon of the survival of the fittest in the animal world. We would not interfere with the freedom of cats, nor do we deliberately protect these chameleons.

I have a friend who has a hobby of beekeeping. In addition to the need of having enough flowers and plants for bees to collect nectar, he has to make sure that there are enough bees. Overtime, he did harvest some honey. However, he did encounter a dilemma, that was, there were a decline of bees, and that naturally had affected the yield of honey. Later, he discovered that chameleons were around devouring bees. Unless he could get rid of the chameleons, he had to give up his hobby of beekeeping.

Some days later, I asked him about beekeeping. He told me that the problem was resolved. He found that cats can restrain chameleons. And he ensures of having cats around and consequently the chameleons are gone. He can now have a good amount of honey. And I am given opportunity to taste his harvest, the healthy honey.