Clever cat

I have always been a dog lover. There have been cats in my life but they have always occupied a secondary position when compared to dogs. Whenever I see a dog looking at me with large melting eyes I develop an urge to bend down and pat it on the head. Cats do not invoke such feelings in me - in fact, I have yet to come across a cat with large melting eyes.

Dogs are loyal and faithful friends; cats, on the other hand, come and go and seem to have a detached attitude. At least, that has been my observation.

As regards intelligence, I would have given a score of nine over ten to a dog any day. No cat would have obtained such a high score from me. But, an incident that occurred a few days ago has caused me to change my opinion.

There's this huge Tom who has started visiting me in the hope of getting some tid-bits. To be honest, I feel rather scared of this Tom. Initially, I tried to shoo it away whenever it visited my house. But the Tom was persistent; he did not seem to mind my shooing, and kept coming. He even came and rubbed its body against my legs. Whenever he discovered an open window, he was quick to leap inside. Well, I could not be vigilant enough to ensure that the doors and windows were closed at all times. There would be lapses and the cat would be inside in an instant meowing in delight!

Well, to cut the story short I thought it would be wise to befriend the cat; at least that would help me overcome my fright. So, there I was offering it tidbits, and even kept a separate feeding bowl for it; of course, I kept the bowl outside. The indoors were out of bounds for the Tom, and he quickly digested this fact.

It has discovered at what time I wake up in the morning and comes along at that particular hour demanding its food. It has become a sort of ritual.

One morning I woke up to find the cat missing. Must have gone on one of its cat errands, I thought to myself and dutifully replenished his bowl so that it would find its table set when it came along.

The bowl was placed near the car. After filling up the bowl when I was about to go indoors I heard the horn of the car. That was ghostly! The car was parked and no one was inside. How, then, could the horn have sounded? Anyway, I lifted my eyes with some tripidation expecting to see a spirit (if spirits allow themselves to be seen). Instead of a spirit I saw the cat!

It was meowing helplessly begging to be let out. Of course, I could not hear the meows because the windows and the doors of the car were closed. I could make out it was meowing owing to its open mouth.

How did it get inside? The cat must have found the door of the car open and leaped inside for a nap. In the meanwhile, someone, unaware of the cat inside, must have closed it shut. That explained everything. But don't you think it must indeed have been a clever cat to press the horn button to draw attention to itself. Of course, the cat was clambering all around in a bid to find an exit and its paws must have hit the horn accidentally. But had the horn not sounded, no one would have known there was a cat inside and it would have had to remain inside for quite a while before someone came and took the car out!

I opened the door and let the cat out; it was quite pleased at being released and rubbed its body against my legs some more. I must tell you that I look upon the cat with some respect nowadays!