cat man

J fulfills his promise with this virgin post:

This fellow is outside Y's house every sunday night. I saw him again, late tonight, when i walked out to catch a cab. This time he brought the whitest white friend along this time, maybe the girlfriend. They kept staring at me. A long hard stare - but not vicious, a somewhat longing, curious, wanna-be-friends type of look. When i walked further, a tree blocked his view, so he tilted his head to continue the stare. Then he glanced at his friend, as if to say "See! I told you, this guy always walks by here."

We saw him again last night. With the same stare, unhurried, unwary. Not watching, but looking. I was thinking - what a human gaze!. Maybe because this chap has a head of black fur above its eyes, the fringe slightly parted in the middle, and 2 streaks down the side of its face, like sideburns.

I've been thinking. Whatever inspired God to make them cats? In fact, all the animals - then place them on this earth, and to top it off, trust us humans to look after all creation - the furries, the fish and the fruits!

OK, even if you don't share this same view of creation and man's fall, I guess most folks would still agree that our boast of human progress is mainly one of running away from this task and building a world apart instead. Aiyah, we admit animals into our cities in twos or threes, and into our homes if they respected the integrity of the four walls and, if dead, didn't jump out from the pot. We tolerate strays maybe because they are like public, communal pets, there to prove our compassion.

To compensate for all this, we like to bestow on their representations a semblance of humanity: dress them up (even if half of their nakedness still shows - poor Winnie, Donald and Yogi!), have them walk upright, eat from plates...and make them take on our day jobs.