Confrontation

For quite a long time already, I've owned this small pot of cactus. Then about eight years ago, I decided to perch it on a wall ledge. It was growing quite well, no need for any maintenance, not even to water it. If it rained, it'd be soaked wet. If it was sunny, well, a cactus plant can survive all right. Occasionally, it would sprout short-lasting white blooms. I was quite satisfied with the plant.

Then yesterday morning, I saw a mess at the bottom of the wall. The pot had fallen and cracked open, spilling the soil and the cactus stems everywhere. Only the night before as I was watering the other plants at the front of the house, the pot was still at its place. So it must be that something can caused the pot to fall between 10pm and 8am. Couldn't have been the wind; it wouldn't have blown strong enough to dislodge the somewhat heavy pot. Only explanation was that an animal would have caused the damage. But which animal?

It didn't take me long to discover the culprit. In the evening, I found a cat lying down at the precise spot that the pot was. It saw me and sat up. As I stared at it, it stared back at me as if to taunt, "So what can you do about it?" A few minutes of impasse. Then it decided enough was enough, and it jumped off the ledge. I hope never to see it again but frankly, I'm not optimistic.

You see, several weeks back, the same cat was spotted in my compound as I opened the main door in the morning. Found it confronting a small monitor lizard. The cat saw me opening the door and it walked off. So it must have been frequent visitor to the house. Passing through, I suppose. So not so easy to chase it off permanently then. Ah well, will have to learn to co-exist with it. Just don't topple over more of my pots, okay?