The missing orange cat stayed with us for three days. On the second day, I persuaded them to explore the field on the other side of the dirt road. The smaller cat, Kwan was very excited with this adventure as she rarely went far away from the house. The bigger cat, Joan, was cool about the idea as he regularly hunted in this field at night. Kwan rolled her fat body on the dirt road with glee as if she was liberated from having to always keep herself cleaned and presentable. She sniffed around and dug soil just to get her paw dirty. Joan looked at her silly way of expressing her joy for an adventure.
As soon as I crossed over the dirt road, Joan was right behind me. Kwan tried to keep up with her brother. I started looking around at banana trees and fruit trees we had planted over a year ago. Banana trees did very well and we could leave them to natural forces. Other fruit trees weren’t growing too fast as we didn’t regularly look after them. If I had more spare time, I would have liked to improve the quality of the soil. The soil has become too hardened and needed some help to make fruit trees healthier.
It’s quite intersting seeing Joan leading Kwan in exploring new territory. Usually they wouldn’t come out this far on their own during daytime. They knew some stray dogs have been running through the banana grove everyday. They could smell the markings by stray dogs and their dry poop. These cats looked very happy and excited to investigate dry banana leaves and to dig holes in the soil.
I had to find two new spots to plant a small friut tree (a gift from an elderly villager) and a new banana shoot. This type of banana was supposed to be only two meters tall which would make life much easier for harvesting time. But we wouldn’t know how this new kind of banaba would respond to the local soil and weather. We should be able to see some progress in two months’ time.
After we had finished planting two plants, I couldn’t find my orange cats anywhere. I yelled at Joan not to take Kwan to the riverfront. These cats just couldn’t stop walking deeper and farther away into the dense banana grove. I shouted out to them that I expected them to come back to the house in an hour. I thought I could treat them like small children.
After an hour, I was a bit worried that they might get too curious and walk all the way towards the fishermen’s village by the river. Their grandmother came all the way from the fishermen’s village to sit under the mango tree in the field. She was crying so loud that I had to investigate the source of strange stressful sounds. That’s how I found the young orange kitten and took it home to be fed; she decided to stay in the garden and finally lived at tge house.
I had to search for orange cats for over thirty minutes. They heard me calling their names but they didn’t come running to me as usual. That made me a bit anxious as they could be by the river where they couldn’t hear my voice. The search went along the adjacent fields with no results. So, I backtracked to the banana groves.
To my surprise, they were sitting calmly together among banana trees looking very contented and like winners of some games. They were probably very pleased to make me walking around the fields looking for them. I was quite exhausted by my search as the weather was getting hot. I couldn’t believe that my cats looked so calm and happy in a different setting. They were very confident that they would be safe with me walking around in the area. I decided to carry Kwan back to the house.
But as soon as I put Kwan on the ground, she quickly ran back to see Joan. I followed her back to where Joan was hiding. I told him to bring Kwan back home in an hour. Somehow I thought Joan could understand my message and I trusted that he would follow my message.
Later on when I was in the front yard, I saw Joan and Kwan walking across the dirt road to return to the house. So, they had a nice adventure by themselves. They looked very pleased to have exciting dayout in the fields and banana groves. So, cats also needed a change of atmosphere! I hope they would be very alert and watchful during their private expeditions.
Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.
Stay strong and cheerful.