Cats and Rats

(my journal entry dated September 21, 2012, a Friday)

For some time now, the cats and rats in our backyard have been “playing” cat and mouse with one another—what else would they be playing? Recently, they’ve been doing it up in our ceiling, and so, from time to time, you hear their scratching and running noises up there, sometimes at night, sometimes at early dawn.

Come to think of it, those cats aren’t really our cats. They’re the offspring and grand offspring of what were formerly our cats (or were they really our cats to begin with?). Anyway, we don’t take care of them as we do our other pets; they take care of themselves.

We throw food scraps in the backyard and they eat from it. Sometimes, methinks, they go to other people’s backyards and feed there—I don’t know. Sometimes, they chase after the rats that also feed on the food scraps we throw away, which is a good thing, really, since those rats are such pests they get in our house sometimes and “promenade” here. I think they have a nest in one of the rooms, probably the library.

I once learned that these sewer rats are not native to the Philippines. They’re actually from Europe, brought here to our shores by the ships that came with the Spanish conquistadores, if I remember it right.

The real Filipino rat is actually the very cute, very furry, and very clean Cloud Rat that lives up in trees in remote forests in the country. They were thought to be extinct, but then there have been sightings of them recently, a Norwegian couple even got a picture. Great!

Southern Luzon Giant Cloud Rat
(image taken from http://rodents-marsupials.knoji.com/facts-about-cloud-rats/)

I was watching a cat in the backyard from our kitchen this morning. I don’t like that cat much because it has this habit of rubbing against your leg (begging for food scraps, I suppose), and then when it doesn’t get what it wants from you, he claws at your legs or even bites your heel.

The first time it happened, I thought it was just an isolated incident. But when it happened the second time, from then on, I make sure that whenever our paths cross, it better scamper away, or else I douse it with water. Nanay’s diabetic wound was actually caused by a cat that scratched at her leg, and I don’t want a repeat of that to anyone around here.

But cats remain fascinating for me. Their quiet, I-don’t-care-about-you “royalty” and quick and nimble ways are traits I really admire. I wonder if it’s got something to do with walking on all fours?

Yeah, right! Like, walking on all fours would definitely make Queen Elizabeth more royal. Lol. What I meant was, I wonder if their being quick and nimble have something to do with walking on all fours.

I saw this cat leap up to the roof, and I thought, “Hey, I can do that, too.” I think the reason why it looked easy for them to do that is because they’re on all fours—they launch their leap from the ground crouched tightly, with their hind legs bent with enough buwelo—whereas we humans leap with our bodies still upright and our knees just slightly bent, avoiding the embarrassment or humiliation of looking like a “lowly” animal.

And they’re also very difficult to kill—what with their nine lives. Cockroaches are also difficult to kill. I guess that goes to show that the closer you are to the earth, the farther you are from the grave.

Whatever that means.