How I Got My Best Life Lessons From A Wild Cat
Nature is truly the best teacher of life
A Wild Cat Named “Zuzu”
So I used to have a wild cat who played and stayed around my home. This wild cat regularly visited my home. The exact time he came to my home was random, but for the most part, me and my sister found him at noon. We usually saw him sitting at our home bench located on the front door of the guest room.
I would say that he was gorgeous-looking. Never in my entire life have I met any cat on the streets as handsome as he is. His fur color is orange mixed with white, but orange dominates most of his skin color. Parts of his body that were very memorable for us are his cheeks. He has chubby cheeks that add extra cuteness when he goes into meowing mode.
As the time went by, me and my sister built a deeper emotional connection with this wild cat and decided to give him a name, that is Zuzu. Not long after that, he loved to play with us in front of our home and even got inside of our home sometimes.
My sister’s extraordinary compassion for Zuzu and cats in general, made her buy expensive cat food solely for him. She really wanted to provide the joy for this cat. And of course the cat was happy to eat the cat food that otherwise he would never get on the street (maybe he will get it, but the chance is very low).
She was willing to share and spare some of her money and salary for this unknown wild cat. He may have known that the food is delicious here so he constantly came to our home for breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner. We also made ourselves open to Zuzu, so we welcomed him with hospitality everytime he was there.
Seeing him stopping by and taking the cat food from my home is almost like a ritual. He could come anytime he wanted. It can be in the morning, afternoon, and/or evening. Whatever time he came for, as long as he showed up that day, it meant he looked for food and wanted to play a little with us.
Right now, Zuzu is just a memory. My neighbor doesn’t like how this wild cat acts in its surrounding environment. I’m not defending Zuzu, but his actions as a wild cat clearly represents his name.
Although he is kind to us, yet I can’t give right justifications of what Zuzu has done to my neighbor. Some of my neighbors complain that Zuzu wreaks havoc in the front garden of their home, such as destroying plants and leaving a poop trace (I don’t know and keep asking why Zuzu never did that to us).
They have tolerated a couple of his behaviours, but reach a conclusion that they can’t tolerate anymore. Finally, Zuzu is being exiled. He was completely dumped without us knowing it. Many speculations come to my mind of Zuzu’s whereabouts. The most rational way is that he was taken and released in a traditional market (in my country, a traditional market is the place for dumping wild animals, like wild dogs and wild cats).
I can’t see him asking for food anymore. My sister too. She’s the one who had the biggest heart-break with the loss of him. We missed him so badly and can’t forget how cheerful our memory was when we were together.
We never look at other wild cats the same again. Zuzu is just too good to be true as a wild cat. He was like an abandoned charming cat prince from a famous cat kingdom. From the loss of him, we never play and give cat food to any cat again. We can’t afford to lose a wild cat anymore since we can’t control what the cat does in their surroundings.
Lessons About Life From Zuzu
I know that extracting life lessons from a cat seems unusual, especially when it is a wild cat. Most of you will think that an animal has a very distinct life from us humans. I agree, but I feel I have a special perspective on this one.
I believe that life lessons have no standard, size, measures, right and wrong, or subjects. It is just a perception of what others have gone through that we deeply try to understand and apply to our own life. If we sense that the lesson isn’t the one, then we just have to find another lesson that suits our life condition. No need to say it’s not working or not helpful.
It’s just that. And to be honest, most of the great philosophers or thinkers who have shared their life lessons, had their understanding of life mostly from nature or when they attempt to back or merge with nature, such as Carl G. Jung discovered his best work when in solitude, encircled with nature.
So as I am. I attempt to find the positive in everything, including from a wild cat. As of now, Zuzu’s life stories have become one with me. I keep on memorizing how immersive my life was when he was around. A wild cat from the streets that has nothing to offer aside from “meows”, succeeded in gaining tasty food, nice shelter to visit and survive, and human friends to play along.
His act of showing up everyday has enlightened me or maybe you, that we all should do the same when we want to achieve everything we desire in life. It opened my eyes that everyone is destined for some fortune sometime in their life. We all deserve a fortune. As Bob Proctor famously said, “you were born rich”. We all were already born rich from the beginning, despite not having any special skills or knowledge to begin with.
If you don’t feel like never getting it, you just have to wait and be patient. The time will come for itself. Just like Zuzu who wouldn’t expect to get high-quality cat food from us when he hasn’t done or offered anything (remember he has nothing to offer for us, except meowing). Even I learn that the law of attraction is somehow true and real (whereas I see it as a bluffing speech template of some wannabe motivational gurus before) because of this cat.
We never knew Zuzu before. But look now. We truly adore him so much. We’re strangers before, but now it feels like bestfriend who has lost contact. What Zuzu and I and my sister had gone through together before is the same as what you could get in life.
You’ll meet hundreds or even thousands of people in your journey. And one of those journeys could take you with someone you love for the rest of your life. Or maybe a friend that you wouldn’t consider as a good friend before, eventually become a best friend in life. You create a moment together and it will turn into a long-last memory in your life forever.
I wonder how life actually works, but a cat has shown me enough of what a simple act of surviving can lead to incredible and relentless amazing stories and memories. Usually, I wouldn’t write about this absurd topic out of nowhere. Just now I am brave enough to tell the stories I usually wouldn’t dare to share.
The story of Zuzu helped me to overcome my fear of writing a story. It made me realize, no matter how bad you or we are when writing a story, as long as there is a lesson about everything that could be useful or impactful to others, it is still worth reading.
Forget your grammar lesson or rules you had learnt before. There are plenty of grammar-checker software on the internet out there to help you be more focused on the story and the lessons. Forget about how limited your vocabulary is. Limited vocabulary is enough if you can convey the message right and it makes your story more easy to read, thus, more people don’t have a hard time to understand it.
You have no idea the amount of bravery I had accumulated to share this story. Overthinking my story would get criticized and look silly to others won’t help me go forward. Seeing Zuzu live his life as a wild cat has taught me to keep on writing although the only vocabulary I can harness is limited or the fact that I’m nobody trying and pretending to be a prolific writer whose work everybody should have listened to or read.
Final Thoughts
I hope the stories about Zuzu and me could resonate well with your life too. I don’t know anything much about life, but writing has brought me the power to see a particular perspective in every aspect of this universe.
We never know that you may learn a lesson about life from a band of ants. You never know that someday that one crazy old man you meet on the sidewalk of the street will actually wake you up from the miserable life you’ve been living for years.
There is always something we can learn even if those things are not connected to each other. A wild cat gave me a new perspective of how I should act about what I do. Zuzu emits a powerful strength to me that keeps telling me to keep going despite the fact of not having the power to do so.
Once again, nature has shown me the best advice to survive in life. Nature is truly the best teacher of life.
