Cats – Teaching a Lesson

There were two tomcats and probably two or three female cats that lived among the backyards of homes in our street. The tomcats always fought with each other at night and would make eerie sounds that often sounded like babies cooing or crying in distress. There will be a period of cooing followed by a loud commotion when one of the tomcats start chasing the other and both run over tiled rooftops at high speed, toppling some of the old terracotta tiles. The behavior of these cats always piqued my curiosity as a child. Sometimes I felt that the cat instinctively knows that humans cannot see in dark or they cannot run over the rooftops. I first realized this behavior when I chased a cat that strayed into the open terrace at night. As I chased it on the well-lit open terrace, it would run fast, jump over the four-foot parapet wall, land on the tiled roof, and just stay there. He would not run after that point. He would simply sit there and stare at me. The rooftop would be dark as the terrace light would not reach there and this cat would think that I cannot see in the dark, and I will not chase him any further. I have observed this same behavior a hundred times when I chase them away at night. This always annoyed me. How can a mere cat know my limitation and how dare it can think that I will not be able to chase him once he jumps into the ghostly shadows of night. I wanted him to know that humans are better than stupid cats, we will not give up a fight, we too can see in dark, and we too can run over rooftops. I wanted them to know that I am way better than his kind and I can chase them all the way to the bottom of hell irrespective of darkness or light.

I prepared for this lesson in humility well in advance. I kept a bucket of water with a pail near the parapet wall in the terrace. Cats hate water. I want to use this as a weapon to impart a valuable experience that he would never forget in his pathetic life. I waited for an opportune night that I could execute my attack plan. One night, a tomcat came inside the kitchen at night. I tiptoed past the kitchen and closed the door to our backyard. That way he cannot escape immediately into the dark backyard. Instead, he has to go through the corridor past the prayer room, living room, and climb up the stairs to the open terrace, jump over the parapet wall and only then, he would be able to vanish into the darkness of the rooftops. I started making loud noises to scare him. He started to run out of the kitchen and instinctively tried to dash through the backdoor. I laughed when I saw him bump on the door desperately trying to sneak out between the closed doors. I raised my voice and made horrendous noises to scare the hell out of him. He ran past me and started running through the house. I ran behind him like a mad man. Obviously, he outran me, but being small, I zipped fast behind him, ran up the stairs, and even climbed up the parapet wall. He then jumped down over to the rooftop and simply stared at me from the darkness thinking I cannot see him. In a few seconds, I saw him like a ghostly shadow with two shining eyes. To fool him into a false sense of security in darkness, I stared back for a while. He sat there comfortably thinking I cannot see him in the darkness. Then I quietly brought up a mug of water, and in an instant poured it over him. Poor tomcat, he got drenched completely, and ran away shaking his body, and his legs all the way until he vanished over the dark rooftops of our neighbors.