Cherish every encounter

I always listen to books or music with my headphones on the road.

I don't know when, but in the last six months, I've taken the habit of taking my headphones off and putting them in my pocket when I'm about to walk to the building where my house is.

Because I was afraid of missing the sound of a cat calling me.

It's just that I haven't heard it call me in a while.

For a long time, I belonged to the "canine school" and loved dogs every time I saw them. For cats, I can only say that I like kittens, I always think that cats are not good when they grow up.

But I don't know when I started, I gradually became a "cat school", from time to time will go to the cat cafe to sit for an afternoon. At that time I especially liked to look at the pet cats, and I would linger in the window door of the pet store for a long time, looking at this one and that one, and I especially liked the American short cheese cat.

I do not doubt that if I were to get a cat, the first one I would buy from a pet store would be a shone.

However, the fact is that my first cat is a found kitten (although the coat color is a bit like a civet cat, but not a civet cat when brought to the hospital, the doctor said it may be a small hybrid), named Yo Yo, adopted home more than a year ago.

Because of Yoko's arrival, I became more and more fond of cats, and more and more heartbroken about those stray cats. Because of some opportunities, I started to feed stray cats.

I feed stray cats is only limited to my downstairs. Because I know my current situation, I have not yet reached the point of financial freedom to start my own business, raising a cat has been the limit, so I can only try to help those stray cats with my own eyes, want to help more small stray, but also can only be a later thing.

The cat I wrote about at the beginning is one of the cats I feed, an orange cat, I call him Big Orange.

Big Orange

Big Orange is not the first stray cat I fed, but it is about the closest one to me.

The first time I met him was on June 28, 2020.

It was walking through the grass, about to go to the garbage can to look for food. When I saw it, it wasn't afraid at all and ran towards me. It just so happened that I had cat food with me, so I poured some on the ground for it to eat.

Yesterday, I found the video taken at the time, the big orange was skinny and skinny, lying on the ground eating cat food, and the outline of the spine on the back is particularly clear, especially heartbreaking.

I still remember clearly, I watched it eat cat food for a while, took a video, and then went upstairs to prepare the cat food placed downstairs that night.

Maybe before that, she would come to eat the cat food I put downstairs, but we never met, and that day was the first time I got close to the big orange, she was very friendly and let me touch her head for the first time.

For some time after that, he and another kitten often appeared in the place where I put cat food, and Big Orange always waited quietly to the side, waiting for the kitten to finish eating before eating the rest of the cat food.

After a while, the kitten stopped appearing, and I could often see the big orange and several other cats that were not too close to me.

I don't want to be too close to stray cats, I am afraid that they are less alert to people who will be harmed by some unsuspecting people, so I would rather keep a distance from them.

But the big orange is different, perhaps too much hope that someone can take it home, it is always very close to those who show kindness to it, including me.

Because I would put cat food downstairs every day, gradually the big orange would wait for me downstairs every day.

When I came home at night, it would hide in some inconspicuous place, I passed by, it would call me out. Then I would play with it for a while, and it would lie on the floor and roll around, turning its belly for me to touch its belly.

I remember once when I was rubbing its belly, it tried to hug my hand with its paws, but its nails were too long and too sharp, and even when it touched me with its fleshy pad, it was touched by the sharp nails, and although it was not cut, I immediately withdrew my hand, looked at it for a while, and went upstairs. I don't know if it was because of this experience, but after that, when I played with him and rubbed his belly, he never stretched his claws again.

There was another time when it was raining heavily and there was no place to put cat food downstairs in my house to block the rain, so I had to prepare a separate cat food for the big orange with a try, thinking that if it was there, I would let it finish the cat food at the door of my house, so it could at least survive the night, but if not, I could only take the cat food upstairs.

The result just turned the unit door, I heard the big orange barking, and then watched it run from under the car to avoid the heavy rain to my front, at that time my heart was shocked: what kind of trust, so that it braved the heavy rain to run to me?

That time I squatted beside it and watched it finish its cat food. Although I was helpless, there was only so much I could do.

I would put cat food downstairs twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon when I got home.

I would get up at 5:30 and sometimes I would hear Big Orange barking at the bottom of the building while I was reading a book. Big Orange has distinctive bark, with a high pitch and a loud voice. Although I usually go downstairs around 7:30 to put out cat food, every time I hear Big Orange barking downstairs, I will also immediately take the cat food downstairs.

Over time, the big orange in my home downstairs "settled".

I also tried to put a cardboard box as a cat nest, but it was always taken away, and I gave up.

Originally there was a bush under my house, I'm not quite sure what species of grass, growing more than half a person high. The big orange almost took the grass as its own nest. Every morning downstairs to put the cat food, it will stretch out from the grass to my feet, and when I put down the cat food, it will rub its head over to let me touch, think I touch enough it to eat cat food.

Many elderly people in my neighborhood will walk around the community, and whenever they see me I put down cat food, and there will also be greetings to me. Once I heard the story of the big orange from the mouth of an old lady who was walking.

It is said that the big orange is the old lady downstairs of a family, the family has several cats, and then when they moved, they left the big orange in the community and did not take it away.

I think this is probably the reason why the big orange is so clingy, hoping that someone can give it a home.

Every time I play with the big orange, I always have the urge to bring it home, but I know I can not afford to do so, the adoption of Yoko is already my grandmother's limit, and then bring the big orange home ...... I do not know what the consequences are, although also want to find adoption for the big orange, but I do not have any channels and do not dare to do so, in case they encounter I don't know what to do case I meet an adopter who is not the same, but send the big orange into the fire. ...... Under such a tangle, I have been feeding the big orange for almost half a year.

Some time ago, a cold spell hit, and the temperature in Suzhou rarely dropped to minus seven or eight degrees.

The fact is that you can find a lot of people who are not able to get a good deal on this. Some kind-earthed people also took a foam box and put it near the bush where Big Orange often stays, to give Big Orange a cat nest, and used old clothes to pad it. But since the box was placed there, the big orange seems to have stopped going to the bush.

I know that Big Orange often hides in an old tricycle downstairs, that tricycle covered with nylon cloth, is the place where Big Orange often hides from the rain, I also tried before the cold wave in the tricycle padded several layers of urine pads plus a towel ca lot, but since I padded these layers of things, Big Orange rarely seems to hide in the tricycle again.

I don't know where he found a place to hide because it was so cold, and I didn't expect to see him when I came downstairs in the morning. So the number of times I encountered him dwindled.

During those cold days, I put out more cat food and prepared a separate portion for Big Orange to put in the tricycle. The cat food was almost always eaten every day, so even if I couldn't see Big Orange, I knew he was still there. Occasionally, after the weather has warmed up, it will appear under my house, waiting for me to play with it and wait for me to put out the cat food.

I haven't seen the big orange for almost two weeks, maybe longer.

When I don't see Big Orange, I can only judge whether Big Orange has come or not by whether the cat food placed in the tricycle has moved. It was not until the other night, when I was chatting with a few good people in the community who are often for cats, that I saw another cat get into the tricycle and eat cat food, that I realized that the cat food in the tricycle had become less, and probably not eaten by Big Orange.

It was then that I realized, with the benefit of hindsight, that I hadn't seen Big Orange for a long time, and the kind people I was talking to also said they hadn't seen Big Orange for a long time.

Every day when I came home, I had to say "I didn't see Big Orange again today". Every time I came back from putting out cat food, my grandmother would ask me, "Is Big Orange here?"

I didn't know where it had gone or if it was still alive.

I just wait with a little hope in my heart for it to come back to me.

Last night when I came home, I took off my headphones when I was about to walk downstairs, expecting a cat call that might not ring again.

When I got downstairs, I looked at the place where the grass had withered and been shoveled out, and then at the place where I used to put cat food, and suddenly a feeling of desolation spread through my heart. For the first time, the place where I had lived since birth felt so depressing to me.

I remembered a passage in Antoine's book "The Little Prince" that I read some time ago, where the fox said to the little prince.

"To me, you are nothing but a child, no different from thousands of other children. I don't need you. You don't need me either. To you, I am nothing but a fox, no different from thousands of other foxes. But if you domesticate me, then we will need each other. You are unique to me, and I am unique to you ......"

For my yo-yo, I domesticated him and he domesticated me.

But for the big orange, it was it that tamed me. It made me take off my headphones as soon as I walked under my house, it made me go to the automatic search for it as soon as I opened the door of my unit; it made me go downstairs to put cat food for it as soon as I heard it purring ...... Maybe for the big orange, I am kind of a dependency that is not a dependency.

I hope very much that its departure is only temporary, and I hope very much that its departure is because it met a kind person ...... but for me, it is also a sad thing after all.

Last night was inexplicably sad, and I even felt like I couldn't remember the big orange a bit.

In the phone's backup flash drive, I found the initial met big orange that one video, June 28, 2020, to yesterday just seven months.

When I was writing my diary at night, I couldn't help but shed tears when I wrote down the story of Oranges, maybe, my fate with Oranges is so over.

Recently, I was reading "The Power of Myth", which talks about the issue of life and death.

I think that life and death, separation and farewell, perhaps just a different way of existence. Once it existed in front of the eyes, but now, it exists in the heart.

Cherish every encounter, treasure every memory.