Eat Cat or Rescue It?: Reprised

Recently returned from a cattery after a three week stay, Vanna was skittish. And so he got stuck on a roof. Again.

This time the neighbours didn't come out in force quite as much as before. But the rescue did bring back memories of the round, lip-smacking boy who was eyeing Vanna up as a snack last time this happened.

See below:


A crowd has gathered. The neighbours and their children have emptied from their houses. Even someone from the ‘big’ house has come for a look.

“Vanna, Vanna,” the adults whisper.

“Vanna, Vanna,” cry the kids pointing to the roof.

And there he is, our cat, Vanna, stuck and crying on the roof of a nearby house.

He’s been up there countless times before but tonight he can’t get down. And all the attention isn’t helping.

A lot of animated chatter begins; and not much of it is about the rescue of the cat.

One of the local youngsters, a rotund boy of ten reckons, licking his lips, that Vanna would make a tasty meal. He’s serious. His friend, a smiley girl of about eight considers this.

“Not eat cat,” she finally says. “But maybe dog.”

The adults, as always, find the whole pet cat thing weird- all this attention and money spent on a four-legged orange blob is just too much for some of them to understand. Fair enough; when finding enough money just to feed the family is a daily grind, I guess spending cash on a cat would seem odd.

Finally a ladder is summoned and Vanna is brought down.

“Cat crazy,” we say. This is amusing to our Cambodian neighbours. “Foreigners crazy, too,” you can almost hear them thinking.

Quickly we whisk Vanna inside. The fat boy, still licking his lips, looks vaguely disappointed.