Fangs. Killer claws. Hisses, grrrs...and later, yelps. Who is not
familiar with cat-dog combats? It's a "hair-raising" party of limbs
and tails and yes, the loser sheds most of the fur- mostly, the cat.
It was night time and I was in the living room reading a tear-jerker
when I heard a throaty, prolonged and wavering wail. Instantly I
dropped the book and rushed to the door with one thought in mind -
my cat was under attack. The thought brought an ugly picture to my
head. I feared an on-the-prowl Sparky or a hyperactive Caesar or
worse, the Big Dogs on the Block (BDOB a.k.a. askal) was circling my
Khufu in anticipation of tearing her apart.
So you could just imagine the shock on my face when I caught Khufu
chasing Sparky, a dog two times her size. A dog. My cat just chased
a dog. I thought it only happens on TV.
"You were supposed to be helpless," I scolded Khufu but actually I
was torn between being proud of the cat and being afraid of it as it
sat on its hind, licking its paws...Sparky completely forgotten.
But then my memory bank had retrieved from its archives a plausible
explanation about what had transpired in the scene of crime. Said
dog seemed to have a phobia with cats for once upon a time it
received a blow from a cat's paw on the head. So I thought my cat
was just plain lucky. Sparky would avert from anything that meows.
But then another weird night came and dogs were running for their
tails. The militant cat had struck again.
Dogs. Not one, but two. Dogs- definitely not puppies. One was Caesar
and the other was a BDOB- both bigger than Sparky. I was impressed.
Perhaps it would happen again, perhaps not. But I wouldn't want my
feline friend to make it a hobby or she'll drive all the dogs away.
Here's the norm: cats are to be chased by dogs. The poor cat must
have gotten tired of running for her life that she decided to make a
brave yet an unthinkable move to alter cat life in our dog-infested
neighborhood.
It seems she has gathered up her tattered pride and charge, come
what may, to make a statement in the name of the feline race. The
statement would be: We cats may be soft, but we are not fragile.
How easy it is for us to run away from our fears or to give in to
the unfairness of the bullies to avert the hassles and side effects
of battle, having known not the possible victories we could
achieve...dreams stay as mere dreams.
But fear is fear. If only we could just throw it out of the window
and have it locked out from our minds. But fear is a part of our
existence. It is a psychological battle, a tug-of-war between yes
and no. For me, it is not something we bulldoze in a day. I remember
how my cat used to sacrifice her food to the dogs and be rooted
indoors. It took her time to gain the courage to go against the norm
we thought could never be changed.
Have you ever experienced one of those rare moments when a thing or
two just happen way beyond normal?
You learn things from cats....
Perhaps the passport to courage is to be sure of who we are, to
believe, to act big no matter how small, like the cat that fought
for its claim of territory and demand for respect with a personality
bigger than a dog.
We all have our own dogs to chase to turn our "impossible" into a
badge we can proudly wear. As for me, I'm not done with mine yet.
By Sheryl is a junior editor of publishing company CannonCreek
Asia Inc., currently dealing with business news, and is a
contributor to the Sun Star Daily Cebu, goarticles, ezinearticles,
writing village, writing.com, and poetrypoem. A journalism graduate,
she writes short stories, poetry, essays and few novels.
