4/24/2006 - Tempting a Cat

When I was a teenage girl I liked to watch those tiny puffy bright yellow chicks that my grandmother kept in a handmade incubator on the top of the Russian oven. In spite of all her efforts, poor creatures were dying one after another. "Lida," - that was my family name - "do not touch the chicks. I have just three left out of forty - if one more dies they all die because this is how nature works - chicks should be surrounded by other warm bodies to survive."

I was puzzled and if not for grandma's words I would never touch the chicks. As soon as she left the house, I jumped up on the stairs to pick out one. I knew that I was smart and caring enough not to harm my grandmother's chicken. I was always tenderhearted - just to sense the softness and the warmth of a chick as soon as I placed it on my right palm brought out tears of awe.

Suddenly the cat got right next to my feet. "I need to make the cat to listen to my commands." I decided to tame my grandmother's cat - finally, someone should change his aggressive nature - and got on my knees with the yellow puffy breathing "ball" on my palm and placed it in front of the cat's nose.

The cat looked at me with suspicion, "Are you kidding?" I was not kidding at all - I knew that the cat would never do anything to the chick as long as I have it in my hand. I knew that I had power over my cat, I was a human being for God's sake and he was just a cat!

The cat's eyes narrowed and before I got scared, looking into those cold and cruel eyes, it was already too late: the chick's neck cracked under the cat's teeth. I yelled and tried to save the chick and even to kick the cat, but the cat looked down at me with frustration, "Girl, make up your mind!" and ran away.

At the end my grandmother was right - the chicken didn't survive. The secret was in the law of critical mass that my illiterate grandmother somehow knew about and gave me a lesson for life to protect all who entrusted into my care.