Two Homeless Cats

This morning, when pulling out my car from the garage, I saw a trail of little footprints on my windshield. I smiled and thought, perhaps my two cat-friends are doing OK.

Shortly after I moved into the apartment, I started to notice the existence of homeless cats. It was in early spring, still chilly in the morning, sometimes one could see frost on the windshield. It often went dark when I drove home. One day, while parking my car, I saw a pair of shining green eyes staring at me underneath my neighbor's car. It was a tabby cat with black and white patterns on the back. Seeing me got off the car and walked out of the garage, the cat quickly sneaked under my car... perhaps he wanted to get warmed by the engine. Thinking that life is not easy even for the little thing, I quickly walked away, pretending never noticed him, so that he could enjoy the "heater" at he liked.

As it's getting warmer, I didn't see the cat waiting for the "heater" any more. Then I almost forgot his existence.

Then my parents visited me. My mom still kept the habit of getting up early and practicing TaiChi. As a cat lover, she noticed the homeless cats in the neighborhood almost immediately.

According to her observation, there are two cats in the neighborhood, they often go together: one is the tabby cat I saw before, the other is a Siamese cat, with dirty brownish skin, much smaller in size. It seemed the Siamese cat has some skin problems, its fur looks dirty and ugly. They often jump into the garbage cans in early morning and searching for food. Since noticing their existence, my mom often saved some fish bones, meat soup in a small bowl, mixed with bread or rice, and brought to them when it's getting dark.

It's interesting to watch them eating. At the beginning we assumed that they would eat together, or first come first serve. But in fact, they always follow an interesting order. It's always the Siamese cat eats first, and the tabby cat waits and watches. After the Siamese cat finishes, the Tabby cat then moves towards the bowl and finishes the rest. What kind of relationship do they have? We never know. After a few days, we noticed that the Siamese cat has a limped leg, which limited her to move or jump swiftly. It doesn't matter what relationship they have, we were all touched by the kindness of the Tabby cat. So we always bring food enough for both them.

Later we found that we were not alone--some other neighbors also bring food for them. One can often see several containers in different shape and size were put against the garage wall, holding food and water...