I am not a cat person, I don’t hate them but I don’t find them entirely lovable, amusing or even interesting. They seem self-absorbed and wear this smug expression all the time. So I was quite taken aback on how amused I was by a small kitten that I encountered on a blazing hot afternoon in a cool corner of the yard. I was not having a particularly swell week myself and was preoccupied with a number of thoughts and concerns about “life”. It had been 45C outside for the entire week frying my body and evaporating my brain. I was not thinking cheerful thoughts and was besides myself. In such a state I found myself strolling in the yard, when suddenly, from nowhere this little kitten made itself appear.
It looked cheerful and engrossed in something that kittens engross themselves with. Its ears were all perky and its eyes eager. At one point it made a fleeting eye contact with me and I am positive it thought of me as a morose being. I could hear it’s thoughts as it set its steely gaze at me for all of three seconds “Wow, your eyes look like glass! Look alive man! ” Now, coming from a cat, this little remark about ‘glassy’ eyes was quite ironic I must say. I stood there and before I could relay my repartee back at that judgmental little feline , it went about its business as callously as only a cat can (which, in measures of callousness is by far as callous as any living thing can get). I was astonished at the volition of that little creature and was reminded in that moment that I am a man of my own will too. I can choose to be whatever I want to be, to feel(or not allow myself to feel) whatever I choose to. Right then, I could picture my evaporated brain cells fusing together and forming a brain like organ over my head. The kitten had by now disappeared in the bushes and I stood there with a feeble smile waiting for my brain to set itself back in the hollow of my skull.