Cats …

I know a more appropriate title would be rats since it’s the Chinese year of the rat. But hey, I’m only changing one letter from ‘R’ to ‘C’. Besides, it has to do with an observation I made the other day.

I was waiting for my bus at the bus stop near the Old Airport Road hawker center. There was this fine feline(READ: cat) scratching and grooming herself at the bus stop. Anyway, a healthy cat is supposed to be pretty well groomed. They lick their furs, their paws and basically take care of their personal hygiene.

Here and there, she would be trying to scratch herself at the railing beside the drain or the pillars at the bus stop. There was this other old lady, probably in her 60s, waiting for a bus too. She would sometimes give a disapproving sound and the cat would stop. Strange thing was she would allow the cat to rub against her plastic bags which she had placed in front of her.

Finally her bus came. She picked up her plastic bags and told the cat to go home. Now I know what you are thinking. The cat is her pet and has offered to wait with her at the bus stop. I know cats and they are pretty aloft creatures. They are definitely not dogs. And the cat didn’t respond immediately. She sat there licking her paws again.

My queries were answered when after the lady had broaded the bus and the bus had left the bus bay, I turned around and the cat was gone. It was really nowhere to be found. I didn’t even see it’s hind as it makes her exit.

I’m throughly impressed that the cat has the emotional quotient to wait at the bus stop with the owner and when told to go back, she would actually obey her commands. And the cat waited for her owner to board the bus before leaving!

It reinforces the fact that everyone and anyone can be taught and conditioned. If you can even teach a cat to do that, and for pet owners, you should be able to identify habits in your pets, how much more for creatures of habits like us?

On a separate note, the CNY celebration was good today. I missed out on the earlier part of the ceremony. Was in the hall trying to get the sound right and all the actors ready for the performance. The actors did very well, kudos to them. Short of perfection but nevertheless entertaining.

Mrs Chew wanted the school to end with a loud bang so we did the Everybody dance now cheer with a little CNY spunk at the end. Hahaha.

Singapore is really small. It’s exactly 12midnight now which means CNY is officially here. And I can hear all the fireworks even though I’m residing so near to the northern coast. I believe if Singapore doesn’t have so much high rise buildings, the whole nation would be able to catch fireworks from anywhere on the island. Wouldn’t that be nice?

~ by Jae on February 6, 2008.