Chapter Five – January 2020 Pandemic
I’m growing fast and getting more mature. During the day, I am alone at home, run up and down and roll on the ground to enjoy myself. Sometimes I poop under the dining table or on the sofa upstairs, Oops.
Since this year, Long has just gone to UT Austin, and Long’s Mom has started to work from home. I heard that Covid virus is spreading. Our cats can also be infected and spread virus. But I don’t think that is the case. Our cats have a strong ability to resist infection, and we are not frightened by ordinary bacteria. It’s unfair that humans can’t defend themselves against virus and blame the source of infection on cats. This is the weakness of human beings. When things go wrong, they don’t find the reason from themselves, but they always blame others.
I was banned from going out and felt a little depressed. Our cats were originally wild and free in nature. Our family, including tigers and leopards, were the best in the animal world. Humans keep our cats as pets at home, and some cats has lost their native character and just enjoy the care of human, which degenerates from generation to generation to the point where they can’t get out of the door. I can’t live like this, what are we – a cat with nine lives, who can jump from a 10-meter high to the floor unscathed, dare to dance with wolves, deal with lions, climb trees to catch birds, and catch fish by the river. Who are we afraid of? I decided to talk to Long’s Dad, he is relatively more flexible, I decided to start with him. After dinner, I lay down on the table and put my paw on his arm, meowing, wanted to brush his hair, and then stood at the back door and kept meowing. He quietly opened the door and let me out.
It was surprisingly quiet outside. It turned out that the traffic on the university street was gone. In a world without noise, I could hear the sounds of various underground animals digging with extraordinary hearing. The sound of rain, the world of cicadas, the sky is blue and the clouds are white. I ran and jumped all the way on the grass, not afraid that someone would see my madness and fun. My loud meow doesn’t scare people walking. When I saw the quiet stream flowing slowly by the stream I was running, I was a little fascinated. The world is supposed to be like this, isn’t it?
Winters in Houston are short. The weather is slowly heating up, everything is rejuvenating, and a lively scene. Long’s Mom no longer restricts my going out. She also spends more time with me when she works at home. When she is busy in front of the computer, I lie quietly beside the computer. I love to see her engrossed in her work. I fell asleep watching it. She was in a meeting when I opened my eyes. On the computer screen, there are more than 10 people talking about something. I couldn’t help but let out a loud meow, and she hurriedly turned off the microphone. Pat on my head “Come on, let’s go out and play”. I jumped onto her keyboard, typed a line of letters, jumped off the table and went out.
