The Unexpected Guest
One morning my mother found A-fu in a park while exercising. A-fu was not like any other stray cats living in the park. He came to my mother and rubbed his body on my mother’s feet. My mother was down on her knees and petted him like her own baby. ’What an adorable cat.’ said my mother. Then she rushed back home and told me the whole story. After a couple of hours, my mother and I brought some food to the park but found no cat at all. We kept yelling his name like crazy but got no reply. When we were about to leave disappointedly, A-fu ran out from a bush and begged for food. We gave A-fu a can of fish and waited until he finished, and we decided to take him home. My family always wanted to have cats in our house. Since then we had a new member in my family.
The name ‘A-fu’ means fortune or luck in Chinese. My family hoped A-fu would bring us some luck, and we would give him a home in return. That’s the reason we gave him the name. Did he really bring us luck? Not so much. But one thing for sure is that A-fu did bring us a lot of hair, poop and broken bowls. Cleaning the hair on the floor and poop has become a daily job in the morning and evening. Not to mention how many dishes or bowls he broke. We didn’t expect life would get so much busier when raising a cat.
In addition, when A-fu was not well or got hurt by stray cats outside, that was the real problem. First, A-fu dislikes seeing a vet. It always took me tons of effort to bring him into a cage. The cage had a strong connection to a vet, who gave extremely bad experiences to A-fu, so A-fu ran away when he saw the cage. Also, cats have better noses than human beings, so I have to do many tricks to feed A-fu medicine. For example, I pressed a pill into smelly meatball so that A-fu couldn’t notice the medicine.
However, there were definitely many advantages regarding raising A-fu in my family. The most valuable one was A-fu offered unconditional company. He often sat by my side (actually slept) as I was working or reading, or he watched my mother cook and replied with meows when my mother talked to him. Every guest who came to my house definitely liked A-fu, and was unwilling to leave before petting it one more time.
Raising a cat is like bringing up a child — both cost money. It is difficult to judge if it is worth it or not. It’s not a pure math question. For me, if I had a second chance, I would definitely decide to have a cat again. Human beings need company, we need someone (or something) to talk with, and that has to be living creatures rather than robots or AIs. I am happy that I have A-fu in my life, and I feel fulfilled that I am able to give him a home.
