Happy Caturday: checking up stray cats at Yannawa Temple.

As soon as I arrived from the countryside, I would visit Yannawa temple to check the number of cats to see whether some had been abducted or made to disappear. I kept hoping that the small black kitten would come back; but I knew he was abducted by the crazy woman along with another orange kitten several weeks ago. At least all the black cats living by the pier were still alive though very skinny. They were very happy to see me and my food bag. Sometimes the small cat tried to get inside the bag for extra food. These cars were very inquisitive and smart.

I always used the same phrase and tone of voice to call for their attention. These cats would be emerging from the gap under the wall of the construction site. Then they would run along side me to the yard by the stone Buddha shrine by the river. I chose this place as it was spacious enough for feeding six cats at the same time. Some newcomers tended to get hostile reactions from local cats, so I had to place the food dish a bit further away. Luckily these cats would accept my gentle scolding to prevent their quarrels. They had never bitten me so far!

Then, I had to check up my favourite cat, Samsi, the only cat that would allow other cats to take her food. So, I had to separate her from other cats while feeding her. I had to distract other younger cats with food. These young cats were quite smart and knew that Samsi would have lots of wet food. She’s getting old so she couldn’t chew so fast. It’s quite tricky trying to prevent two stubborn male cats who always tried to get closer to Samsi’ s food. Samsi is a pacifist cat and she practice non-violence. Sometimes I wished she could have become more aggressive.

The third stop would be feeding a few cats at the car park. There used to be about a dozen cats there; the crazy woman had perished almost twenty cats abd kittens at the temple. The skinny monk was very upset and angry with her and had a shouting match with her last month. I had been quite friendly and polite with the crazy woman so that I could persuade her to leave these cats alone. She might take a revenge on the monk by killing more of his cats. So far, he lost about fourteen cats through drowning and food poisoning.

Fortunately, the crazy woman had seemed to stop hurting more cats during the past three weeks. I did ask her to look after the cats for me as a way to accumulate good karma. I never mentioned anything about the monk to her and I never showed my anger towards her. Being hostile towards her would bring more troubles to the monk and all the cats. I believed that her bad karma would catch up with her in the near future.

There were five young kittens in white with few black patches near the skinny monk’s front yard. The skinny monk told me that two cats were poisoned by the crazy woman. He had to bury the dead cats; he was very angry as these cats suffered a lot of pain. That’s why he finally had a shouting match with that cruel and sickening woman. She even threatened to throw acid at him and the novice. I found out that one of my favourite cat, called Panda, was poisoned. The other, Black Nose was safe and his smallest sibling also escaped from poisoning.

The skinny monk told me that one white cat was injured by some kind of rope tie around his neck. I was confused as this cat was quite timid and wouldn’t let anyone touch him, including me. So the crazy woman couldn’t possibly tie some string or rope to his neck. The monk told me the rope made the skin looking very bad. So, I reflected on this matter and realised that the crazy woman couldn’t catch the cat so she was very annoyed and threw the whole bottle of acid at the cat. Fortunately, the cat tried to escape from her, so the acid missed his face and landed on the back of his head. That’s why the fur came off like rotting cottons the whole week.

I told the skinny monk what actually happened to this cat. I tried to put some medicine on his back but he wouldn’t let me get close to him. I was rather worried about his wound, but it seemed his thick fur saved him from having an open wound. A few days ago I was able to take some photos of his back. That crazy woman did empty the whole bottle of acid on this cat. The balding area was very big, from the back of his neck to his back. But the monk told me new fur has started to grow back. The smallest sibling was so nervous and timid that he only came out to eat his food in the night. I wished I could have the chance to tame these two cats so that I could help them in time of emergency.

The black and white mother cat came for her food after being absent for four days. I gave her extra food as she had recently delivered her kittens. But I couldn’t find the other ginger mother cat for several days. I had to ask a novice about her, he told me that this cat just had her kittens this week. At least some monks have been looking after her, I could rest easy and didn’t have to be suspicious about the crazy woman. I saw her a few days ago, she was very polite towards me. She seemed to have some accident with her leg as there’s a bandage on her left leg. I thought perhaps her bad karma was catching up with her. I hoped that she would leave the temple and return to her home in the south of the country.