A Feline Example On Courage
by Sheryl Joy P. Olaño
Fangs. Killer claws. Hisses, grrrs…and later, yelps. Who is not familiar with cat-dog combats? It’s a “hair-raising” party of limbs and tails and yes, the loser sheds most of the fur- mostly, the cat.
It was night time and I was in the living room reading a tear-jerker when I heard a throaty, prolonged and wavering wail. Instantly I dropped the book and rushed to the door with one thought in mind – my cat was under attack. The thought brought an ugly picture to my head. I feared an on-the-prowl Sparky or a hyperactive Caesar or worse, the Big Dogs on the Block (BDOB a.k.a. askal) was circling my Khufu in anticipation of tearing her apart.
So you could just imagine the shock on my face when I caught Khufu chasing Sparky, a dog two times her size. A dog. My cat just chased a dog. I thought it only happens on TV.
“You were supposed to be helpless,” I scolded Khufu but actually I was torn between being proud of the cat and being afraid of it as it sat on its hind, licking its paws…Sparky completely forgotten.
But then my memory bank had retrieved from its archives a plausible explanation about what had transpired in the scene of crime. Said dog seemed to have a phobia with cats for once upon a time it received a blow from a cat’s paw on the head. So I thought my cat was just plain lucky. Sparky would avert from anything that meows.
But then another weird night came and dogs were running for their tails. The militant cat had struck again.
Dogs. Not one, but two. Dogs- definitely not puppies. One was Caesar and the other was a BDOB- both bigger than Sparky. I was impressed.
Perhaps it would happen again, perhaps not. But I wouldn’t want my feline friend to make it a hobby or she’ll drive all the dogs away.
Here’s the norm: cats are to be chased by dogs. The poor cat must have gotten tired of running for her life that she decided to make a brave yet an unthinkable move to alter cat life in our dog-infested neighborhood.
It seems she has gathered up her tattered pride and charge, come what may, to make a statement in the name of the feline race. The statement would be: We cats may be soft, but we are not fragile.
How easy it is for us to run away from our fears or to give in to the unfairness of the bullies to avert the hassles and side effects of battle, having known not the possible victories we could achieve…dreams stay as mere dreams.
But fear is fear. If only we could just throw it out of the window and have it locked out from our minds. But fear is a part of our existence. It is a psychological battle, a tug-of-war between yes and no. For me, it is not something we bulldoze in a day. I remember how my cat used to sacrifice her food to the dogs and be rooted indoors. It took her time to gain the courage to go against the norm we thought could never be changed.
Have you ever experienced one of those rare moments when a thing or two just happen way beyond normal? You learn things from cats….
Perhaps the passport to courage is to be sure of who we are, to believe, to act big no matter how small, like the cat that fought for its claim of territory and demand for respect with a personlity bigger than a dog.
We all have our own dogs to chase to turn our “impossible” into a badge we can proudly wear. As for me, I’m not done with mine yet.
About the Author
Sheryl is a junior editor of publishing company CannonCreek Asia Inc., currently dealing with business news, and is a contributor to the Sun Star Daily Cebu. A journalism graduate, she writes short stories, poetry, essays and few novels.
Eric Roberts
I remember, many years ago, my late cat, Bast, standing up to a rottie. I was in Louisiana at the time and the cats were allowed to go in and out during the day. Bast was a very unique and strong willed cat. She pretty much only loved me and tolerated the rest of my family…it took a long time for her to accept my ex wife and current wife into the clan. One day I hear a deep growls and barks and her very distinctive growl and hiss and I come running out expect to have to save her from the jaws of some big dog. Instead, I come out and she is swatting away at this dog…who by know is whimpering instead barking a growling. I was thinking I need to save this full grown rottie from my little 2 lbs gray ball of terror. Within minutes…she had him scampering away in defeat…and probably quite a bit of pain from the tender mercies of her claws. She was an awesome cat and was like a child to me. She died a few years from breast cancer. She was an awesome cat and i miss her very much. I do think that she was reincarnated in a cat we acquired since her death. Jasmine is a blonde lioness. She was slender (until she was fixed hehehe) and very muscular (while still a fairly small cat). You could see her muscles ripple through her fur. I am a total cat person, but my wife and daughter wanted to get a dog…so I finally relented and we got a rescue pup who was a 6 month old Rotterman (rottwieler/doberman mix). Sweetest dog on the planet. Days after we got him, he came into the bedroom (aka the cats room) and Jasmine jumps on his back like a lioness on the back of a wildebeest…her claws fixed into his coat (luckily they have and undercoat, so I doubt he even felt that) and her mouth was wide open going for the back of his neck. This was like something out of wild kingdom. Of course poor Thor ran out of the door and we pulled Jasmine off of him. it was actually kind of funny. Our big bad rotterman is afraid of our 2 lb cats. He has been barking at her lately…but he just wants to play…she wants nothing to do with him. I feel sorry for Thor when she decides that she has had enough and decides to jump on him again.