by Htet Htet Wunn (1996)

When I was in vacation from my school in May 1989, one cat tried to visit our house. Because my family loves pets, we adopted her. We named her Daw Kalama. This is one brave lady's name in my country. She was very clever and always listened to our words. She never dirtied the house and went to toilet just like the people. Whenever we left the food on the table she never stole it. She had very good mind.

After three months she found one cat and was married to him. Then she delivered three kittens. All were very beautiful. One was female and had black spots on white fur and the other one had mottled gray and white fur. They stayed with closed eyes inside one big paper box for three weeks. Twenty two days after they were born, we saw them open their eyes. They tried to climb out of the box.

We named the female Swasi, one with very big head as Thargyi and the last one as Tharnge. Swasi always wanted to win over others. One veterinary doctor said Swasi had the most beautiful eyes in the world. Thargyi had significantly big body and head. Tharnge was a very peaceful one.

Oneday, they followed their mother and climbed onto the attic. Then they did not know how to climb down. They shouted very loudly. So my brother climbed up and brought them down but Thargyi was not there. He was eating the eggs of the pigeons near the corner of the attic. How playful they were!

After six months, their mother gave birth to three kittens again. Among the new arrivals, there were two black females and one brown male. Then a very peculiar thing happened. Swasi, Thargyi and Tharnge were normally very playful and always ate a lot of food. But on that day, all of them were very quiet and did not eat any food. We tried to coax them to eat but they refused. They were sulky because their mother was giving milk for the new kittens. And they thought their mother would love the new ones more than them. Daw Kalama knew this, so she came to them to persuade but they snarled at her and did not allow her to come near. But Daw Kalama tried to stay near them. All new babies were crying at that time. We scolded her to go and feed the new babies; so she went to feed the new ones.

Three days later, Thargyi tried to meet the new babies and he loved all of them very much. Therefore, from that day on, he slept only near them. Then Tharnge also came near. He neither loved nor hated them. But Swasi hated them very much till she died.

So if you think cats do not have feelings_ think again.