The Joys of Keeping a Cat

My son came back from studying abroad, carrying a fluffy ragdoll cat and naming it "Pangding". My son said, "It's the pink, ball-shaped Pokémon Pangding from 'Detective Pikachu'." Well, I hadn't watched "Detective Pikachu" and didn't know what that Pokémon looked like, but I just followed my son's way of calling it anyway.

Actually, I'm quite timid and belong to the type of people who would scream at the sight of a cat. So I had never thought that I would have any interaction with cats before. After being forced to "cohabit" with Pangding, I was both helpless and nervous, fearing that it would scratch or bite me or suddenly rush over and jump onto my bed out of the blue. However, a month later, my ailurophobia surprisingly healed on its own. I found that even when it bit me, it was always gentle and would stop as soon as it touched me. If I didn't deliberately provoke it, I wouldn't be scratched either. Even if it suddenly rushed over and jumped onto the bed, it would slip down after I patted its butt. There was nothing to be afraid of. After not being afraid of it at all, I quickly became a devoted "cat slave". I used my fingers to give it a SPA, willingly became its poop scooper, and couldn't help buying cute cat products whenever I saw them. I even went to a barbecue restaurant full of cat elements on purpose, feeling that it would be a pity not to have a meal there considering my title as a "poop scooper".

Later, when I talked with my best friend about my transformation in my attitude towards cats, she said that my ailurophobia was cured by "exposure therapy". Simply put, if you're afraid of cats, then keep a cat; if you're afraid of dogs, then keep a dog. Put yourself in the fearful situation until you overcome the fear through getting used to it, that is, "let us get used to being uncomfortable". Only after my best friend, who majored in psychology, said so did I know there was such a therapy.

I had long heard that cats are extremely curious, and I really experienced it after raising Pangding. For example, it's very nosy. One time when the young couple next door quarreled, Pangding rushed to the balcony immediately, stood up on its hind legs, and pressed itself against the edge of the balcony in a standing position to eavesdrop. What's more interesting is that whenever my family bought something new, Pangding was always the first one to come and inspect it. Once we bought a new cabinet. I pulled out all the drawers to let the smell dissipate, and Pangding immediately jumped into the gap between the drawers and the cabinet and hid itself there. After we changed to a new sofa and before we had time to spread the sofa cover, it had already left marks of inspection on it - not only stepping on it but also scratching several small holes in the sofa leather. When we bought a pot of bamboo palm and put it in the living room, I just turned around to get a watering can, and then I found that it was eating the bamboo leaves with great relish, as if it regarded itself as a giant panda. Another time we bought a small round table and put it on the balcony, setting up a small space for reading and having tea. Unexpectedly, it jumped onto the table and started practicing yoga - with its two front paws flat on the low stool and its hind paws standing on the high table, its body stretched out and its butt raised high... That was the most standard yoga pose I had ever seen.

At the beginning of the year, I bought a pot of succulent plant named "String of Coins". Its leaves looked like strings of copper coins, the top was pinkish, and there was a red "Fu" character pasted on the white flowerpot, which was really cute. It was drought-tolerant and not fussy, quite suitable for a lazy person like me to take care of. This was my first time raising a succulent plant. After learning that it liked sufficient sunlight, I took it to the balcony to bask in the sun on sunny days. The String of Coins grew very slowly. Three months had passed, and it hadn't grown much taller. The pink color on the top gradually faded, and it wasn't as good-looking as it was at the beginning. To my relief, it was still alive tenaciously, with all 12 "strings of coins" intact. On a sunny day, I, as usual, moved the String of Coins to the balcony again. Unexpectedly, Pangding took advantage of my inattention and bit off one string of "coins" and also made several other strings swaying, really a "destroyer of beauty". But I still couldn't get angry with it. Instead, I laughed at its naughtiness in my heart.

With Pangding around, I've been so busy that I can hardly straighten my back. But I have to admit that it has indeed added vitality and fun to my life. Most importantly, it has opened an unknown door for me, allowing me to step into the wonderful world of cats. When playing with the cat teaser, it would lie on its back on the ground and grab the feathers on the stick, just like a fluffy white chubby thing. In the morning, as soon as I opened the bedroom door, it would slip onto the bed, purring and stepping on me, treating me as its mother. Every time it climbed to the top layer of the cat tree, it would make a special sound to attract my attention, showing off its "wall-climbing" skills, like a proud little queen, which made me think of a sentence written by Jane Austen in "Emma": "One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other."