Cat Sitting

Cat Sitting
Being in Peace Corps, we treat each other like family which means I have a lot of new brothers and sisters (besides my new Samoan families). Just like my family at home we help each other out whenever we need it. This week I helped with cat sitting.
The cat that we were watching was different than cats in the States. Albert and Sativa can be left for days and I know they would be okay. (Sativa might be quite a bit fatter as she eats when she is stressed, and not knowing when her human family will return is one big thing to stress about.) We were instructed to go over twice a day for feedings, which we did, despite out busy schedule.
On our first visit, we ran into several obstacles. The first being where exactly is the house. We made the mistake of going for the first time at night, so we weren’t quite sure if we were ever in the right place. To make matters worse we were searching and searching for a key, that we were not sure if existed outside in the dark.
We were told that the key would be under a rock. Not realizing that the outside part of the house is covered with rocks. We searching under cinderblocks with the tiny lights from our phones to guide us. It felt like we were moving rocks for about an hour. We were tired, hungry, and really had to go to the bathroom. Finally, we felt as if we won the huge jackpot (here I guess it would be bingo) and the key was found!
We put the key in the lock, turned the knob, and were greeted by a hissing, pawing cat (thankfully with nails that were trimmed very nicely.) Scout (Who we quickly renamed Kitty 82) was not happy that we were invading her space at all. We had not seen Kitty 82 since she was a tiny kitten, so she did not remember us and did not know what we did to her best friend.
We tried desperately to play with the cat, but she was on guard the entire time. I think the only time in the evening where she might have liked us was during feeding time where she did her little dance through our legs waiting for food. (We were so happy that she was being nice to us, that we decided she really deserved a second portion of food. A pattern that continued all week.)
After that adventure we headed back home to the hotel for sleep.
Every morning we had to wake up to leave while it was still dark outside to walk to Kitty 82 for feeding, to ensure we did not miss any of our awesome training sessions. We had to return after classes, and our other obligations (we needed to eat too) and that required us to also walk in the dark.
Being in Samoa, we learn to always be in guard in the dark. It is not because of bad people being out, but dogs. Dogs are not treated the best here, so they learn to be attack dogs to avoid people harming them. Dogs don’t know who is good and who is not, so some of them will go after biting anyone who is in their way. To combat this, Samoans have developed a difficult technique. The rock throwing. People pick up rocks and keep throwing them at the given dog until it retreats. I have only thrown a rock a few times, and each time I have a gigantic pit of guilt inside. But I do know, it is much better than suffering one of those nasty bites. So each time we went for the walk we searched the road for the perfect rock to bring with us. (This is also my practice before going biking, as dogs love to chase after/ bite cyclists.)
The rest of the week, cat sitting got easier since Kitty 82 was used to us. She also learned to answer us whenever we said Kitty 82, neglecting the original “Scout”. She was soon playing with us, and allowed us to enjoy a fun game of pili (lizard) hunting.