The Evolution of the Cat

I woke up this morning and wandered off to the bathroom, leaving the air conditioner on with the idea of going back to bed to read for a while.

I pulled the bedroom door shut to keep the cool air in, but since Mister Tanaka had been outside and away from his food dish for a while, I left the door unlatched in case he felt like having breakfast.

In fact, while I was in the bathroom, I heard the bell around his collar jingle as he ran up the stairs. "Yes, I really am such a nice, kind pet owner," I told myself.

Returning to the bedroom armed with a new book to read, I saw that the door was open a perfect amount for a cat to slip through. Again, I congratulated myself for being so kind to Mister Tanaka.

And that's when I turned the corner and saw the bird-shaped mass lying on the bed, right on my side, exactly on the spot where I was planning to lie down and read.

It couldn't be a bird, I thought. It must be one of Tanaka's toys. But, if it was just one of his toys, why were all these feathers on the bed, and in the blankets, and on the floor, and on the night stands?

Standing proudly over the freshly-killed bird was Mister Tanaka, who purred loudly when I walked into the room. He jumped to the floor and wound expectantly between my legs, waiting for the praise that was no doubt due him for his fearless extermination of the tiny, yellow-bellied bird.

I stood there dumbly. Our sweet house cat had turned into a killer.

Just standing there not praising him was not scoring me any points with Mister Tanaka. He jumped back onto the bed, picked up the bird in his mouth and brought it to me. Wonderful.

I petted him on the head, removed the feathers from his whiskers and took his offering in my other hand. I dropped it in a plastic bag, but not before noticing that Tanaka had, very efficiently, broken the bird's neck.

(Shelly read an article a week or so ago about cats and why they sleep so much. Cats, the article said, aren't lazy. They're able to sleep so much because they're such efficient hunters.)

Mister Tanaka has always been an indoor cat. After much discussion, we had him declawed when he was young, so we've always kept him inside since he would be largely unable to defend himself. Here, though, we have a tall wall around the back yard, making it a good, protected place for him to roam outside.

He spends most of his outside time hiding in the bushes, lying in wait, ready to ambush any flock of birds that happens to land in the back yard. He's been chasing birds since October, but recently, he's been unable to actually catch any of them. There's a bell on his collar, which gives most birds plenty of time to escape. And, as an indoor cat, he was fat and slow before coming to the Philippines. Now that he's outside so much, he runs much more than before, and he's gotten much faster.

And, apparently, much more efficient.

The efficient hunter,
in one of his less-lethal moments

***

Today is round two for the paella, and round two for the squid. Shelly's boss is in town and is coming over for dinner. I am being the perfect little housewife and making dinner. Wish me luck!