Cats

Let’s talk about cats this time.

Well, for the last four years I’ve been living in Wiranta Street. For those who don’t know where Wiranta Street is, it’s in Kelurahan Cicadas, near Cikaso Street and PPI. I live in a cozy two-stories little room, with a cheap water and electricity monthly bill. Rent it from Mr. Albert, the owner of Wiranta number 56, and pay the rent annually. The previous renter was a small family; so, officially I’m lucky to have this room for my own (or a small house, like i often call it).

Kelurahan Cicadas is a crowded neighbourhood. Yet it can be so quiet sometimes. I mean really, really quiet. This is another reason why I love this place. It will be noisy in the morning, where a lot of people go to work or students goes to school, and in the afternoon, after Asar time, when children playing with their friends and neighbours gather around in certain spot.

Now I’ll introduce you with my neighbour. On the left there is a boys dorm, for college students from Tora-tora, Middle Sulawesi. On the right there is another part of Mr Albert’s house, with three rooms, that now filled only with two male renters because the other one had moved to Cimahi after he got married. My room separated from those three so I can call my room as my small house and I call the men live in that three room as my neighbours from the next door.

The Tora-tora dorm is supervised by a man I use to call ‘Bapak from Tora-tora House’. I call him like that because I don’t know his name. Let’s just call him ‘Bapak’ for short. He has supervise Tora-tora House for around a year. He has a male cat, named ‘Manis’. Well, I think it’s name is ‘Manis’ because that’s what Bapak call it. It’s a cat with a stripped-grey fur and a white fur in it’s chest. It’s not a domestic Balinese or Javanese cat I guess; know it from its tail’s fur and behaviour. But it’s not an Angora Cat either.

I’ve been told once, that the cat are fed well by Bapak. When Bapak bought a meal for him, he choose a very decent one, often without fish or other ‘lauk’. But when he bought rice with fish or chicken, it’s guaranteed that he bought it for Manis. Bapak treat Manis better than himself. It’s more like his wife, they said, even though it’s a male cat. But why?

But when he bought rice with fish or chicken, it’s guaranteed that he bought it for Manis.

It’s smarter then the other two yellow-and-white-fur cats. It has a certain wit for not afraid of me (while the other two quite shy). It’s playful, and I often found it observed in front of my window. It dares to play outside Tora-tora house while the other two only play around the roof or the backyard. And you know what, it called me once.

When it called me, I was just about entering Mr. Albert’s front yard, intending to buy something from his store. And suddenly, “Miaow...” I’m a little bit startled so I searched for the sound. It came from the roof. ‘Cause it’s after Isya, you can’t expect to see everything on the roof clearly. Then I saw a pair of green-marble-eyes. And the cat shows it self. I said, “Hi.. What’re you doing up there?” I mean, I was really talk to the cat. It looked at me for a while, then disappear. That’s the first time I ever been called by a cat.

It’s not that cats don’t think. They do think in their own way—instinctively.

To make it simple, you’ll know that this cat’s smart from a quick observation. You can see that Manis ‘think’. It’s not that cats don’t think. They do think in their own way—instinctively. But, you can see through Manis eyes that it really think like human do. It understands human.

That’s why I prefer to call this cat (and any other cat, actually) with ‘him’ (or ‘her’), rather than ‘it’. I feel like he can understand human well. Very well indeed. And he pay attention to human’s activity more than any other cat. Well, I mean, you know, most cat seems so indifference to human if it’s not only cares about our food.

About two weeks before, around seven pm, I heard a sound from my window. When I turn my back to take a look, I saw Manis entered my room. But he quickly return outside when he saw me. Maybe he was curious about my wide open window. So he took a chance to observe. But maybe he didn’t expect to see me so he startled a bit and quickly return outside my window. But he didn’t run. He just play there, between my aloe vera pots, chasing a cockroach he found, then catch and smash it with his front paws. He knows that I’m watching him, but he didn’t afraid though I’m a stranger for him. He even accepted my over for rengginang. He like it maybe because it’s crunchy.
Yum... yum...

***

Now let’s take a look into Mr. Albert’s house. We’ll found another cat with different ‘intelligent’. Around January, a yellow-and white male kitten stranded in front of Mr. Albert’s house. I know because I was there when the kitten first came. It played around my leg and try to have my attention. It succeed; how could I ignore such cute kitten? That time, Tasha, the granddaugther of Mr Albert, saw the cat too. Two days later I found that the kitten was taken by Tasha and it become a Mr.Albert’s house cat. His name is ‘Jacky’.

I didn’ t really pay attention to Jacky’s growth. But as I went to Mr. Albert’s house more often—to fill my water jug—I noticed that Jacky is getting bigger. I rarely saw Jacky for he’s been locked outside at noon and placed in Mr. Albert’s small store at night to keep it safe from rats. He’s bigger than any other average cat in my neighbourhood. I can see that he has a stocky and healthy figure for his age.

He always play around people’s leg for fun. And he did that to everybody, all the time, as though he never played before. He bite my leg or scratch my flip-flop when I went to Mr. Albert’s house, every time he ‘relesed’ from the backyard. And that’s hurt. Plus, he ruined the upper part of my flip-flop; made it look more ugly and unpleasant. But he amazed me by his playful spirit and friendly behavior. I guess he see my flip-flop as a white-ugly-moving creature, teasingly enough to be attacked.

When I discussed about how Jacky could be stocky and feisty with Teh Rina, Mr. Albert’s daughter, she said, “That’s because we gave him fish two-three times a day.” Well, Mr. Albert also sell ‘nasi rames’ besides daily needs, so it’s not hard to fed Jacky with fish or even chicken. “Even us, his master, don’t eat fish that much everyday. Normally, we only eat fish or chicken or meat once a day,” she added.

“Even us, his master, don’t eat fish that much everyday..."

So that’s where all the feisty behaviour and intelligence come: two-three times daily fish++. It become my personal note that to have an intelligent and healthy cat, I have to make sure that they fed well. Just like we want the children intelligent and healthy. Food determine one’s intelligence, wether it’s human or cat.

It’s a pleasure for me, a cat lover, to find two intelligent cats near me, for I never found such cats before. So, when I found one, I’m sure that cat is either non-domestic breed and/or a domestic cat that fed well since the cat still a little kitten. Anyway, it’s hard to find a smart and healthy cat in most Indonesian area. There are so many of them, over populated (there still no cat birth control here), under-nourished. There are more cats in the street than people who cares about them. Just can’t blame anyone, huh?