Several days ago I did persuade my old friend to feed stray cats at Yannawa temple. She was quite impressed with the spaciousness and cleanliness of the temple. The first time she turned up was a bit disorganized but she was very entertained by all the cats jostling for food and running after her like exciting monkeys. So, she knew what to prepare for the second visit. She bought many plastic bowls (which indicated that she ordered lots of food delivery from restaurants). I helped her with dishing out at canned food and pellet food in bowls ready for distribution.
Waking up the sleepy cats! They were taking afternoon nap.
So many cats turned up around the car park and in front of the monks’ residence or ‘kuti’. This was because some cats were crying loudly for food so other cats knew there was a party nearby. I had to help with strategic placement of food bowls so that we could separate these cats into groups. Bigger or faster cats had to be fed far away from slower or more timid cats.
We used the stairway of the kind monk’s residence for our preparation. This thin and small monk has been the guardian angel to all the cats in this temple. I was quite amazed that he could describe to me about a family of cats for three generations! So, I knew which cats were the aunts, grandmothers and grandkittens of two mother cats who had the same mother.
He told me about Samsi: how she was chased up the twenty meter tree nearby and she didn’t turn up at feeding time. The monk walked around searching for the small kitten and found her lying in pool of blood. He knew straightaway that she fell off the tall tree and got badly hurt. He had to call in the vet to collect the injured kitten lying quietly on the ground for treatment.
Samsi had a brief meditation before eating her food.
Samsi the small kitten had kidney rapture and other injuries; she stayed in the animal hospital for weeks. I thought the vet also neutered her during the operation as the monk said she never got pregnant. Samsi didn’t turn out to be a problem adult cat or aggressive; on the contrary she would always be very gentle and timid.
Surprisingly this monk was also very fond of Samsi and said she’s very different from other cats. Samsi wouldn’t fight for food and would let other cats eat her food and she would just walk away from conflicts. I couldn’t imagine myself allowing others to seize my food without a fight or some kick boxing. But if the person asked me nicely, I would probably share my food. This cat is a favourite cat for a young novice as well, he liked Samsi a lot. So, I didn’t have to worry about her life at the temple any more.
Once my friend got to know these cats, she started noticing how some cats would look after each other. She observed that there was some hierarchy among cars. She placed a bowl of food in the car park where three cats were waiting. One cat would approach the food bowl to eat the cat food. She was surprised that he didn’t finish all the food, there wasn’t that much food in the bowl. Then, a second cat would approach the bowl to eat the leftover cat food but he didn’t finish all the food either. Finally the third cat came to eat the rest of the food; she cleaned up the whole bowl.
She was so impressed by this kind of relationship among temple cats. I thought these three cats could belong to the same tribe. It’s just amazing that these cats could be so considerate. If I were that hungry, I would gobble up all the food as I might not get any the next day! These cats are more considerate than me.
The strange thing was that two temple cats had some typical Siamese kittens. One black mother cat had four beautiful Siamese cats with blue eyes. The other one had three rare Siamese kittens which looked like Egyptian temple cats. But we couldn’t see any Siamese male cats anywhere. One visitor had reserved all the blue eyes kittens for fostering at home. These Siamese kittens could fetch a very good price when they grew bigger. The other hairless Siamese kittens looked like old rags to me but my friend told me that these were very rare and expensive cats. I would never spend money on buying kittens or exotic cats; I would spend it on good food!
The monk was very grateful that we came to give these cats a nice feast. He told me that he had limited budget so he could feed these cats once a day. He did spend money on vet’s bill for any cat that needed medical treatment. I saw one cat with a deep wound on his tail as he scratched off the bandage. So, I asked the monk what had happened to that black cat.
The monk told me that this naughty cat disturbed a big monitor lizard while he’s sleeping by the waterway. The big lizard turned around and swiped the cat on the back and tail. Luckily the tail didn’t drop off but the wound went deep to the bone. The monk had to take this wounded cat to the vet straightaway. The vet said this cat could die if untreated as the poisonous wound looked deep and serious. So, I got the answer to why this cat had a bandage around his tail. He bit the bandage so I could see the cut in his wound; but the bandage appeared back on his tail the other day.
The atmosphere at feeding time was quite exciting and full of frenzy as all the cats were jockeying for the best food bowl. It was nice to see that each cat had a personal bowl without the need to compete for food. The monk looked at his happy flock of cats; even the kittens joined in the fun. He was very pleased and became more talkative toward us. His aloofness had disappeared and he told the novice to give my friend some washing-up liquid for cleaning the food bowls afterwards.
My friend really had a good time feeding temple cats and a passerby dropped by to pet some cats. It seemed she was very fond of cats and she just couldn’t resist picking up some cats. I had to warn her about how to pick up cats without being hurt by cats’ sharp claws. I hope she would join us in feeding these cats too. But most regular visitors don’t bother to bring some food along when they came for a walk in the temple.
Now we could donate money to this skinny kind monk and bring him cat food so that he could feed the cat without strict rationing. My friend told me she would come to feed these cats whenever she had free time. Feeding these cats has been a very rewarding experience for me as I could learn to communicate with these cats and feel their personalities. They have very good memory with sharp eyesight. Some cats would run at full speed to greet me as soon as they saw me coming through the temple gate. They were acting just like puppies!
These cats gave me the opportunity to do good karma and practice compassion in real life. These cats have very nice and positive vibes; they never complained about their lives nor did they ever express any self-pity. Temple cats have given me good vibes and positive inspiration to live in the present and enjoy life as much as we could everyday.
Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.
Stay strong and cheerful.