You all have met the stray that adopted our family, De La Ming Ming. I have shared here how he slowly crept into our hearts. He and I have gotten an understanding that those tiny little bites he gave me were just love bites. Right now, he is already allowing me to carry him. It was a huge leap because before, he wouldn't even allow me to pet him.
Now that the relationship between me and De La Ming Ming is going strong, there is another cat that is also slowly introducing himself to us. He's always been around here. I have seen him walking around downstairs but he rarely stays and hangs out at our front porch. I actually thought before that he was only there to make De La Ming Ming's life a living hell. They would always chase each other all over the place. I saw them one time at the top of the Duhat tree in front of our house.
This orange cat, whom I can't decide if I'll call Oweng or Owenz, is much bigger than De La Ming Ming. So most of the time, poor De La Ming Ming is driven away from his favorite sleeping spot. Oweng/Owenz is like the alpha male in this group.
I was getting tired of all their fighting and bickering, I know I need to do something. One day, I had that rare chance of seeing them just sitting down, a little far away from each other, throwing those killer glances at each other. Maybe it was because of the heat that they don't have the energy to run around and chase each other till they've disturbed the entire neighborhood.
Oweng/Owenz glanced at me and so I took that chance to talk to him. I went straight to the point and told him that I did not like it when they're fighting. To my surprise, he meowed back at me as if answering my request. I'm not sure if he understood my request of if I understood what he meant by that soft meow. We continued to talk in this manner and I ended our talk with a stern reminder that they really should try their best to get along well.
I have no idea if that worked, but there was one thing I noticed the next few days. Whenever I put food on the stray's bowl, Owenz would sit quietly, waiting for de la MingMing to finish before he takes his share of the kibbles. Before, he would terrorize the poor cat until he leaves then he would take in all of those food for himself. I really need to get them a separate bowl but it gets harder to put the food where the neighbor's dog won't reach it.
The next few days, he would look at me, then look at the food, then at De La MingMing. I think Owenz is not a big fan of the no fighting rule because I can hear some soft, slightly muffled growls, and some deadly stares all throughout the waiting he's done. Once De La MingMing was done, he lapped up the food right away until there was none left. I'm happy that they're sharing now.
But then just today, when I went out to buy something at the market after putting their food, I found Owenz once again terrorizing De La MingMing. It turns out that he was only behaving nicely when I was looking. Oh well, cats will be cats. But at least, I can see that they listen to me.
The fact that Owenz just let me pet him was so fulfilling. I love that he is also opening up to me. Male cats may be territorial, but they sure are sweet to humans. I still do hope that they continue getting along so we could all just hang out and play at the front porch without worrying that it's going to be a warzone any minute. I guess I'll just need to give him more of those talks because I am starting to believe that they really are listening and paying attention.
