The life of a cat

By: Trevor Shum

Hello! My name is Ollie, and I’m the new cat in town. What’s that? You don’t know how our societies work? Well, you’re in for a lesson! See, like wild cats, us domesticates have our leaders and hierarchy. In this neighbourhood, there aren’t many “bad” groups, just different cats with varying ideals and lines of thinking (Thank goodness for that). Cool, right? Let’s go!

I woke up today at 8 am, in time to see my owner, Angelina, get ready for school. She turned to see me and kissed me on the head before leaving. She lives here in this house with her parents and baby sister. I headed out into the kitchen, where the baby, who’s now learning to speak, yells “Kitty”! I jumped back a bit; you’re being noisy, baby, and I have a name! I bet this will get better when the baby learns to read my collar. Mom, who stays at home nowadays to take care of the baby, gave a little rub, which I cherished; I’m very sociable. I found my food bowl where some beef cat food awaited me. I gobbled it all up and stared up at Mom in hopes for more. She just patted me again. Aw, I’m still hungry! I decided to sleep it off.

But before that could happen, a mouse appeared in the corner of the room. My nose picked up the scent, and soon I was chasing after it. Its footsteps, however light, were no match for my ears; I could always pick it up. I chased in circles around the kitchen. When I got within range, I jumped on top of it and pinned the mouse; that’s called a pounce. I got it good and stashed it under my bed for safety. Then I quickly fell asleep.

When I woke up, it was early afternoon. I sunbathed in the rays of light coming through the windows and caught a few more mice before Angelina opened the door, back from school. I greeted her with a gentle nuzzle, and she picked me up and said: “Hello, Ollie! Did you miss me?” Doesn’t she already know the answer to that? Yes, yes, and yes! I licked her face with my rough sandpaper tongue until she put me down. She greets her mom and gave me some more food, which was devoured a few seconds after she gave it to me. She then went to her room after letting me out into the backyard. I chased more mice there; this place is infested with them! I have arrangements for tonight, but I’m going to take another nap beforehand.

At nightfall, after I’ve had dinner and everyone else is asleep, I headed out to the alley, where there’s a meeting every week. I met up with Leo, a cat who’s been here for a couple of months and is my guide. He reminded me of my taxes. Wait, taxes? How in the world do I pay? Turns out that for regular people with no special title (like me), there are two forms of payments: with our game (mice, birds and the like) or with work. I scurried back home and returned with two mice. When Leo and I finally arrived at the alley, there was already a large meeting of cats. As I was sitting down, Leo nudged me towards a hollow marked “Taxes”. I found the compartment with my name on it and pushed the mice in with my nose.

Two cats were already in a heated debate about whether to raise or lower taxes. One said that we shouldn’t pay so much to conserve resources; the other said that us cats paying more would benefit society. Then, the elderly leader silenced them and announced a vote. Nothing was changed, though, due to too many abstain votes. There are often too many changes, and I don’t like getting to used them all. We were then dismissed, as there were no other announcements, and I got back on the trail of some mice I had sniffed out on the way here, Leo trailing me.

The scent trail led past the street that my house is on and rounded over the town centre. Leo and I were a great team, and we eventually found a couple of mice and a bird. We split the mice evenly, and Leo let me keep the bird. I then headed back home, deposited today’s findings under my bed, and fell asleep.

That’s an approximate day in my life as a cat. I hope you enjoyed it and found it entertaining!