Caturday: feeding stray cats and more drama at the temple.

The last few days, I felt overwhelmed by very negative vibes and a lot of sadness. I wondered why these heavy flows of energy suddenly dragged me around without much explanation. Later in the day, I heard the news about the unexpected attack on people waiting for foods and aids, many people were perished plus heavy casualties. I had to start reciting prayers as frequently as possible. So, I decided to go to the temple earlier to feed stray cats, hoping that doing good karma could improve the vibes and my heavy mood.

I didn’t know what to expect, whether more cats would be abducted and killed by the crazy woman. As soon as I parked my car under the hot afternoon sun, two hungry cats gingerly came up to greet me. I was used to being swamped by ten cats at once, each meowing for food. This time the cats were dead quiet as if they were trying to hide from an enemy. I looked at their eyes, they told me that they were starving and very hungry. One cat became very thin, his face was shrinking. Another young mother cat was meowing without any sound.

So, I had to hurry with all the dishes and taking out the dry and wet food. They ate very fast but quietly. Then another old cat gave a light meow across the path. I was so glad he appeared as I missed him last time and thought he was abducted. He used to be aggressive and wouldn’t allow anyone to touch him. Since I have been feeding him for several months, he turned into a gentle and sweet old cat. The skinny monk was surprised that I could touch this old cat. He has been through lots of bad times, so he had to pretended to be aggressive so that younger cats wouldn’t gang up on him. He dared not cross the path so I had to bring food to him. He’s a very humble cat with dirty face from hiding in small spaces. I called him ‘Big Orange’. He always waited patiently for his food, and he accepted that he often waited for the smaller cats to eat first. (I didn’t have enough dishes for all the cats, so they had to wait their turns).

I quickly went to check out the gang of black cats near the pier. I was so glad the young kitten was still alive, his brother had been perished two weeks ago when the crazy woman went on the second killing spree (a few cats died of food poisoning) and some just disappeared without any traces. Poisoned cats would be discovered a few days later as the smell spread around and people noticed something hidden in the bushes. The skinny monk had buried more than ten cats during the last three months.

I fed these black cats at the usual spot by the riverside. A new orange cat came to join the circle. We already had the male orange cat who used to stay with the skinny monk. Being a young male, he had to find his own circle of admirers. There used to be another big orange cat that was good at hunting pigeons. He didn’t come to join us this time, I hoped he was safe and well. The new smaller orange cat was very thin and she ate very fast. The five black cats were related as they had the same mother. The three missing cats were presumed dead; these were my favourite cats. So, it had been very painful that these friendly and gentle cats just disappeared after the arrival of the crazy woman.

The third spot to feed stray cat was in front of the Buddhist school for novices. My favourite cat, Samsi spotted me from ten meters away so she came running towards me. Three black cats came from the rubbish collection area to ask for some food. A black and white cat with loud voices (Thomas) emerged from under the stairs. He’s a tricky cat who liked to steal food from Samsi. The novices were used to seeing me feeding these cats in front of the entrance to the school. I hoped the abbott wouldn’t forbid novices from feeding cats. I had asked some novices to keep an eye on Samsi so they sometimes gave her fried fish and fresh water in a bowl.

The fourth place to feed stray cats was further down the stairs where a pregnant orange cat would be hiding. Her small kitten was also perished by the crazy woman, two of my favourite kittens were probably drown in the river like other eight kittens stolen from the skinny monk’s lodging. This time, the orange cat (Som Cheng) was sleeping on the landing of the building where novices had their sleeping quarters. I hoped she would be finding a safe place to have her kittens.

Then I would go to the yard in front of the skinny monk’s lodging. Those stray cats would run towards me expecting some wet food as usual. The monk would be sleeping in the afternoon as he had to patrol the area by night with a torch. He tried to make sure the crazy woman wouldn’t have the chance to commit her crime at night. Cats would become active at night so they could be easily poisoned and abducted without a trace.
There were less than ten cats left on the yard.

We just found out that one of the white cats suffered from acid being poured on his neck. All the fur came off like fuzzy threads and the skin became bare with brown colour. This cat belonged to a gang of five siblings; two were poisoned two weeks ago, this cat probably escaped from being captured. So, the crazy woman threw a bottle of acid at him. Luckily he didn’t get it in his face and eyes! He became very wary of people and wouldn’t let me get close to him. Fortunately, my favourite cat (Black Nose) didn’t get hurt. I was worried about him as no one saw him for three weeks. We thought he was probably poisoned.

The skinny monk was so relieved to see me last week, he was on the verge of tears. He had to witness so many dead cats and bury them all. The worst moments occurred while I was away to the countryside. At least I was pleased that the crazy woman had decided to leave some other favourite cats of mine alone during my absence. She then went for kittens and smaller cats with food poisoning instead. The skinny monks was so glad that I could call those surving white cats to emerge from their hiding.

They could recognise my voice so they slowly appeared in the open. The skinny monk was so relieved to see the three remaining three sibling cats. He buried two of their brothers, and these cats didn’t come out to eat any food for over two weeks. They were all very thin and looked very scared. I tried to comfort them with my prayers and gave them extra food. They needed to be fattened up and made feeling secured again. I had been feeding them more regularly so that they could become healthier and stronger soon.

The skinny monk told me that a group of young men came to the temple yesterday to find the crazy woman. These men worked at the fire brigade station nearby. They saw the crazy woman stealing their bike from the cctv so they followed her trail to the temple. The abbot had to call in the police as this involved a theft. The police arrived just in time to prevent the young man from beating up the crazy woman for stealing his bike. The police couldn’t book her as the plaintiff didn’t want to bring in a charge, he preferred to punish her himself. So, the crazy woman escaped jail that evening.

However, the high ranking police who supervised this case pulled up her criminal records. They were dumbfounded as she had a long list of offenses in the south of the country. The police concluded she wasn’t crazy at all, she’s an experienced criminal. She’s from the southern province in which there were lots of conflicts among the separatists who wanted to take four provinces in the south to become an independent territory. The south was always the dens of illegal trafficking routes of all things, including drugs and human trafficking. The crazy woman had been involved in drug smuggling, pipe bombings of soldiers and markets; she had worked with the insurgent groups. No wonder she seemed so smart and sharp to me; she had very good memory and good techniques to manipulate others psychologically.

Luckily I had some relevant experiences and I was able to deflect her attempts gently. I had to be nice to her to protect these cats; I even asked her to look after these cats for me. But she was being nice so she could get closer to me, she even wanted to borrow my mobile and some money! Her psychological plots were very good and entertaining. I always looked into her eyes while talking to her, I held no grudges in my mind so I could be calm. But I could switch to my defensive mode whenever danger emerged in the situation. My past life training became very useful to me in times of crisis.

This crazy woman used to me a news reporter in the south for five years. So she would have known all kinds of people: drug traffickers, local mafia, insurgents along the border, informants and infiltrators, smugglers, policemen and local officials. Since she was involved in placing bombs at public places she ought to be trained in explosives and bomb making too. I wouldn’t be surprised that she was quite an active member of a cell in the south for years. Her brain had gone wonky as political dealings had changed a lot among big stakeholders in the south; she’s a pawn in their games. Many youngsters have become pitiful pawns in political struggles in Bangkok and were left in prisons as they became useless.

She fled to Bangkok to avoid being arrested for several years; all the arrest warrants had expired by this time. But the local police, the abbott and all the monks knew about her long criminal offenses. The abbott would have to shoulder all the consequences of this psychopath’s harmful actions towards the novices and monks in the temple. He still didn’t ban this person from the temple. We would have to pray harder for protection of the cats and wait for karmic law to ripen soon. I used to hope that the crazy woman could change but knowing her background and the look in her eyes, I knew she had lots of anger and frustration of a broken life and ambition. Karmic law would work slowly and steadily giving a chance for a complete change. But not many people would have the courage and compassion to revolutionary change oneself totally.

Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.

Stay strong and healthy.