FREAKER

I’m definitely NOT a cat person. Freaker is the first cat that I have ever had. I don’t know if his being my first makes him unique to me… or if the funkiness of being a cat living in Africa makes him a little freaky (thus the name)… or if it is just HIM. But he is a little psycho.... We got him just over a year ago. Sara and I spontaneously brought him home, just a little kitten without a tail, not knowing the adventures that would be in store with the little guy.

For one, for such a tiny one, he’s a noisy cat. He meows constantly and loudly. So much so, that family and friends who call us can hear him over the phone and recognize his voice. After researching a bit online, I’ve learned that his vocal aptitude is likely compensation for his lack of a tail (he has only a stub, supposedly born that way). Apparently, cats communicate a great deal with the flick of a tail, and without that capacity, the poor thing lacks the means to communicate. So he talks. Especially every morning, when he’s hungry. I get up early to go for a run, and there he is on the front porch. Looking up at me with his big, Puss-In-Boots like eyes, saying, “FEED ME NOW.” It’s actually more of a yell, really. He’s quite demanding. And those morning meows are long ones. I look down at him. He stares up at me, his little mouth hanging open in a five-second bellow.

And then there’s the meow when he’s bothered. Freaker is such a social cat that he is always in someone’s lap. If I’m home, typically it’s mine. But when that lucky person whose lap he chose to warm (In this African heat!!) decides to move, he inevitably gives a groan of a meow in protest. And of course, as his little padded feet hit the tiled floor, a second PUFF! of a meow escapes.

And he has his other little quirks. He and Seth are good buddies now, as they hang out at the house every day. When Seth emerges from his office for a break from editing, it is always to find Freaker and to “give him some love.” He also is known to give Freaker “mirror time” every day, and the little freak just loves it. Lower legs extended upward, Seth’s chin resting and caressing Freaker’s head, Freaker staring upward in a blissful state of relaxation. Weird.

And then there are a few things that are just cute… how we puts his little paw over his eyes to cover it from the light when he sleeps, how he tucks his head into any crevice he can find when he sleeps, how he comes to greet me at the door (with a meow, of course) every day when I return home from the World Relief office, how he follows us around whenever we are together at home, how he loves curling up in his basket on the shelf next to the front door, and how when he is angry at being ignored, he sits a few feet away with his back to us, acting all nonchalant. What a funny little creature.

He’s already down two of his nine lives. The first was when Sara and I put tick medicine down his back, forgetting that cats have great flexibility and like to be clean. That night , Freaker cleaned himself, licking up the tick medicine. He showed up the next morning on the front porch, barely able to walk and shaking. I grabbed him and rushed him to our shower, without even a meow from him in protest! After, I wrapped the pathetic little bugger in a towel, and he took the day to fully recover.

The next life lost was during the heat of dry season this last July. I think the humidity and high temperature drove him a bit mad. He would sprawl out over the tiles, actually avoiding all laps, in an effort to get cool. One time, he didn’t come home for 3 days, and when he finally did, he was severely beat-up from a fight. I think he just had to get that angst out. He was sporting several huge gashes, a tear in his little ear, a bloody upper lip, and was missing some eyebrows. We quickly learned that there IS a vet here and one available to make house calls! Dr. Immaculee visited and gave him an antibiotics shot to help his wounds heal, and I (maybe a bit paranoid) watched him closely and, at the same time, kept my distance for fear of rabies.

But, he has survived… the tick poison, the fight, our two dogs, and the heat of Africa. Seth thinks that cats just aren’t made for this climate… but then... lions? We don’t have it figured out yet.

So, maybe a bit trivial and light. I often write about the significant happenings in our lives here… our work, political happenings, adventures, and all that we are learning. I do generally feel it is pretty relevant stuff. And even now, I could focus on the current crisis just across the border in Congo (for more info, see Seth’s blog http://fadical.blogspot.com) or the human rights violations currently happening in Burundi (http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/11/04/burund20130_txt.htm). We encourage you to read and learn about what’s going on in our world… in your world, really, as this globe is radically diminishing in size!

But sometimes…. Maybe just to stay sane in the midst of things out of our control like the politics here or the war there. Or maybe because we crave the comedy and normality of the everyday. Or because I have enjoyed Freaker’s little personality a bit more when Seth was gone, I thought I could write a bit about one aspect of the everyday of our lives here in Bujumbura. Little Freaker.