He was sitting and it looked like he was waiting for me to come out.
Hi Willy!! Long time!!
For those who don't know who Willy is, he's a little all-ginger cat who came to the playground many, many months ago. He was thin at the time, so I started feeding him and slowly lured him nearer to our house. Then, I discovered he was having diarrhoea, so I managed to catch him and take him to the vet to be treated. Later, I got him neutered (ear-notched too) and vaccinated as well. He came back to eat twice a day without fail.
Then, one fine day, Willy totally disappeared. We went all over looking for him, but could not find him anywhere at all. After about 10 days, Willy reappeared, looking absolutely fine.
That's when it dawned on me that perhaps Willy has a home and during this disappearance (which coincided with Hari Raya in 2013), perhaps his owner had taken him home to the kampung or sent him for boarding. The funny thing is that during his recuperation from diarrhoea and neutering, I caged him for many, many days, but no one looked for him.
During the months that he came for food, I tried to socialise him into the patio, but it failed because Willy is a scaredy cat. He is so afraid of Mr Zurik and Vincent and practically of everyone else. BUT...he bullies Heidi!
So, that's Willy's pattern. Sometimes he would come for a few days, and sometimes he would disappear for weeks. But whenever he appears, he looks absolutely fine, so I think he really has a home. Maybe his home is quite far away and he only gets to come here once in a while to pay us a visit.
In any case, Willy came to visit me today.
I was leaving the house, but how could we leave a guest who had just arrived without a courtesy offering of food. After all, isn't this Malaysia and we always offer food, especially to the homeless (oops, sorry, Willy may not be homeless, after all).
Willy came towards me when I called him, and I quickly went to the patio to get some food. Ginger, Vincent and the rest were all lounging inside the house, and all of them came out to see who would be getting the food.
We think the human homeless people have it bad, well, street animals have it worse, I tell you. And this goes for their feeders too. I have been criticised directly by a neighbour for feeding community cats. I receive unfriendly stares by passers-by when I used to feed the community cats right outside my gate.
I don't think it's a crime to feed the homeless. Oops, sorry, I mean the street animals. Forgive me for muddling up, I'm taking antibiotics for a bacterial infection and it has obviously affected my mental clarity this evening.
So, as I was saying, I don't think it's a crime to feed community animals. I feed them with a bowl and I clean up after that. But some humans don't like it, so what should we do? Continue feeding and ignore the unfriendly stares and the complaints? I for one, do not wish to antagonise anyone not because I fear them, but because I fear for the animals' safety as I am not always around to protect them.
So, I tried to get all the cats into my own patio for meals, and I've done that now, with everyone except Willy.
I feed at my patio, but Willy is just too scared to come in. The closest I've got was the porch and near the patio, but he hasn't been visiting for sometime now, and he's forgotten that he once had the courage to come close to the patio.
It looks like we have to start from scratch again....
This evening, I had to put the bowl nearer to Willy as by then, Vincent and Ginger had come to the gate.
Willy senses their presence and dare not even approach the food in front of my gate.
The antagonists!!
Anyway, all's well with the feeding. I removed the bowl after Willy was done and he said goodbye and went on his way...back to his house. His mysterious house....we've tried following him but he just eludes us and disappears! I suspect he lives on a certain street and I've walked past that street SO many times, but I have never seen Willy!
Maybe that's what has happened with Timmy and hopefully one day, Timmy will pay me a visit too...
Last night, there was a crashing sound on our bedroom window. I thought it was Timmy, but no, it was Ginger trying to come into our bedroom from the roof. In any case, Timmy never goes onto any roof. He's too big for that.
Maybe, one day....
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