Mao-mao’s game貓貓的獵物

Mao-mao has become our alarm clock since we changed the feeding routine.

It was early in the morning; the sky was still dark but Mao-mao was active. She kept walking back and forth across our pillows and once a while she licked Jeremy’s head and played with my hair. “Stop pulling my hair,” I yelled, but Mao-mao was a stubborn little brat, or I had spoiled her so bad that she didn’t bother to care for my complaint. I pushed my eyelids separated, “Damn it, it is not even 5 yet.” Jeremy knew that it was time to use something extreme so he threw Mao-mao out of the bed, violently. Oh it would not do any harm; everybody knows a cat has nine lives. She therefore disappeared in the dark, quieter than a ghost.

It was still early; the sky was still dark and now Mao-mao was playing around our feet. I peaked and the clock showed something like six-thirty. “Since when did Mao-mao fail to deliver her wake-up call on the RIGHT time,” I mumbled. She jumped around, skillfully avoiding to land on our body parts. “Okay, it is still tolerable,” I told myself. My eyes manage to shut tightly, and in my mind I could see Mao-mao practice her hunting moves, such as eagle landing, tiger jumping, or bear attack. Oh, cats are born hunters even though they are domesticated and they never give up their talents.

“Drop it! Mao-mao, drop it.”
“What is going on? Jeremy, just leave her alone.”
“Mao-mao caught a mouse.”

My eyes became wide open, “Say that again.”

“Mao-mao was too excited so I thought there must be something wrong.”
“Ahhh~ Is the mouse dead?”
“Yes, Mao-mao has killed it, and she was simply playing with it on the bed.”

Jeremy took care of the corpse and we changed the bed sheet instantly. We patted Mao-mao’s head because we didn’t want her to think that she did something wrong, but both Jeremy and I felt that some weird feeling stuck in our minds.

One of our friends told us that the highest form of affection a cat can ever show to her masters is to give them her game, which would probably always be a mouse. How should I let Mao-mao understand that whether she gives us mice as gifts or not, we would always love her?

自從改變貓貓的餵食時段之後，貓貓就成為我和節米最忠實可靠的鬧鐘。

那天早上，天色未亮，但是貓貓有些野。在枕頭之間走來走去的，一下舔舔節米的頭，一下玩玩我的頭髮。直到我終於受不了了，大喊道「貓貓，別拉我的頭髮」。貓貓卻恍如未聞，平常真的把她寵壞了，她真以為她是這屋子的女王哩。嘖，現在也不過五點而已，逼得節米祭出秘技，大手一揮，將貓貓摔出老遠。愛貓人士可別說我們殘忍，貓可是很厲害的，這對她來說可算不了什麼。貓貓有些賭氣地走了，身影悄悄地隱沒在黑暗深處。

天色仍然黑濛濛的，貓貓又回到床上來玩耍了，這會兒，她倒是乖乖地只在我們腳邊跳來跳去，小心翼翼地沒踩到我們。雖然心裡頭還是嘀咕著，貓貓怎麼沒有善盡鬧鐘的任務呢？半睡半醒間的我，腦海中卻已經上演著貓貓的全武行：「哈哈哈，看我貓貓的鷹之盤旋、虎之縱躍、熊的攻擊。」貓貓最喜歡練習狩獵動作了，就算如今天天吃香的喝辣的，這手功夫還是一點都沒有放下。

「放下，貓貓，放下」
「放下什麼，節米，別管她了，我還要睡呢」
「貓貓抓了一隻老鼠」

「什麼，你再說一遍」這下，我可全醒了。

「貓貓太興奮了，我覺得有些不對，才起來看看的」
「呃呃呃，那、那老鼠還活著嗎？」
「死了，不過貓貓還在玩就是了」

節米俐落地處理掉那隻老鼠的遺體，我們也手腳勤快地把被單毯子全換了。心有餘悸地拍拍貓貓的頭，不想讓貓貓誤會她做了什麼十惡不赦的事情，心裡卻還是橫哽著種異樣的毛毛感覺。

一個朋友跟我們說，貓對主人最親熱的表示，就是獻上她好不容易抓到的獵物。而這獵物十有九十大概會是隻老鼠。我真想跟貓貓說，我知道你很愛我們，不過老鼠就不用送給我們了。

相關連結：
我的貓貓「貓貓」