Life seems to be incomplete and unsatisfactory without my routine visits to the temple to feed those over twenty stray cats. I must have been doing my rounds of feeding for almost two years now. How time flew by quickly and quietly! No wonder those small kittens have grown into adult cats. New kittens by adult cats have increased the number of cats around the area. But some cats have also disappeared without a trace. I used to be so worried about them, it took me some time to let go of my memories.
I always carried medicine for cats in my bag just in case some cats were down with flu. Luckily these cats allowed me to drop small pills in their mouths. For some small cats, I had to give them medicine with wet food. I have no idea how long I would be allowed to feed stray cats in the temple ground. There seemed to be new buildings under construction, so there would be less space for trees, cats and squirrels. People have become very materialistic and new buildings represent signs of progress. Buddhists like to donate towards new buildings much more than helping abandoned animals. There must have been some bad wiring in some neurons somewhere.
Stray cats were tolerated inside the temple as some visitors liked to take selfies with some friendly cats and a few odd people kept feeding stray cats from time to time. I met an elderly Chinese lady who liked to feed stray cats by the riverfront after dark. Another young lady came to feed Spotty and Little Tiger late afternoon. So, I was relieved that my prayers for these stray cats has been answered. These cats live too far away from the skinny monk’s lodging so they wouldn’t be fed by him.
Some grown up kittens have moved from the skinny monk’s quarter to the car park area. These cats wouldn’t be well looked after and ran the risk of being hit by cars. I found out that there’s some kind of conflict among higher ranking monk who were gifted with cute small dogs which represented wealth and status. Some people liked to wheel these decorative dogs in shopping mall to attract attention. But monks were not supposed to have pets or expensive pets which required money for medical bills and special food.
These two noisy dogs were normally kept upstairs in the monk’s apartment. But these two rowdy dogs habe been allowed to chase all the cats around the skinny monks’ quarter. These cats just went berserk in all ditections. I had to persyadd them to come back to the safety of the skinny monk’ shelter to be fed by me. So, I had the rude awakening of two dogs barking and chasing after all the cats. I was quite angry and stood my ground.
I did shout at those dogs and frightened them back to their quarter. The cats were quite surprised that I could stop these dogs from approaching them. The monk owner of these dogs were wuite shock that a visitor dared to shout at expensive dogs. I was quite exasperated whenever I saw people paraded their expensive dogs as status symbols. Seeing Buddhist monk doing this just made me lost my cool. I tried hard to be quiet and calm down. I was afraid he would take his revenge on those cats.
What could one do or expect from supposedly learned Buddhist monks these days? They spent so much money to expand the buildings inside the temple. Trees were cut down to build car park area for visitors and tourist coaches. To make the place looking tidy and mudless, more trees were cut down so cement floor could filled up the earth. Cats no longer have any sandy area with natural earth so that they could do their business. They had to sit on pot plants instead! I shook my head at the intellectual poverty of most educated and high ranking monks.
There’s a disease of materialism and status seeking in monks’ society. The more buildings the abbot could build and the more mumbers of monks in the temple, the higher the ranking he could achieve next year. So, fierce competition among powerful abbots becomes like a horse race. Organised religion had been designed to destroy the spiritual side of Buddhism. People have less respect for uniformed monks these days; they gonto temple to be peaceful and pay respect to the ancient goodness of the Buddha. Most modern monks are very ambitious, self-indulgent and parasitic to the old monastic tradition. Good monks are very hard to find these days; they are mostly hiding away from the limelight and mad crowds.
I just hope that kind monks with gentle hearts could still survive amidst competitive surroundings. So, abandoned animals could seek refuge and food through their rough times. I hope that I could remain calm and restraint myself for the sake of stray cats in the temple.
Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.
Stay strong and cheerful.