I love cats.  My sisters and I grew up with cats around the house. I guess, we took after our father who would have his pet cat sleep on him (as in literally on his tummy) when he was a kid.  We played with them, cared for them, groomed them, fed them….the works.

I still love them but since I got married and had kids, the over-protective mother in me has the “no pets allowed”  policy inside the house.

Dogs? I don’t hate them but I stay away from them.  For unknown reasons, I’ve always had this fear of dogs since I was a kid.  Whenever it’s my first time to visit somebody’s house, I would always ask if they have dogs.

There is a cat that regularly comes to the house with her little yellow daughter kitty cat, to stake out our garbage or to be fed with left-overs by our helper.  But they remain outside, just within the premises.  At night, my two boys would force themselves to sleep when thy hear the twocats howling just right outside the window.  Giving them a little scare by telling them that the cats are howling for them to sleep is our last option to keep them still on the bed.  I know it’s bad to scare kids to sleep, but you know desperate times call for some desperate measure. =)

So,  imagine how my four kids would react when the kitty cat makes a surprise visit INSIDE the house.  Somebody left the kitchen screen door open last night and the kitten found her way inside the house, and  inside the helpers’ room.  She might have stayed there for more than an hour.  We knew of her presence when I suddenly heard a commotion with my kids shrieking and running around in the kitchen.

My 1-year old daughter Deanna saw it first in the kitchen and everything went crazy from that point.  While the boys were shouting and running around in all directions AWAY from the kitten, the girls    (including Deanna) were chasing AFTER it, wanting to get a hold of it!  The poor kitten was scurrying here and there, scared and howling for her mommy cat.  While I was scared she might get clawed by the kitten who was literally throwing a hissy fit, it was really funny watching Deanna with her two outstretched hands, eyes wide open with excitement, innocently chasing after her just like she does when she chases her ball.

I grabbed my camera and just before she was let out of the kitchen door, I took shots of the kitty cat.  The light of the camera flash reflecting in her eyes wide open all the more emphasized the fear she must have felt at that time.

And so, after the kitten was let out, I seized the opportunity to “teach” my kids a little lesson.  I made up a little story, telling  them that while they were chasing the kitten, I could hear the mother cat wailing for her small one and yelling for my kids to sleep or else she would be out to get

them.   I was about to turn the fear factor up a little bit when I sensed that my boys fell silent, but then I heard 6-year old Denise snicker.  I turned to her and saw her suppressing her laugh and then went on to say ”Cats don’t talk” with that are-you-kidding-me look on her face.  Aside from the fact that she said it in straight English, I was floored by the fact that she wasn’t buying my story.

I guess, kids are different nowadays.