ABOUT THE MIDDLE of last year, a grey and black striped kitten wandered onto our doorstep.
It had all the cuteness in the world with its eyes pleading to be cuddled, the inviting purr and the soft silky fur that would make you (not me) want to keep and shelter it.
Cats! They are such arrogant brutes. Bah humbug!
I was hoping that someone would come along and claim the poor thing before I would have to give in to Ya Ya’s suggestion that we take it in. Where are all the animal lovers when you need them?
No one came and Ya Ya fed and played with little kitty along with giving her shelter for the night. The next day, now mistakenly christened Emily, the kitten headed into the yard. Then there was one ferocious racket in the yard.
The kitten and the six-year-old dog had crossed paths and that hate-hate relationship of folklore was ignited. It led to a battle of cartoon proportions from the fleeting bit that I witnessed and the horrible sounds I heard.
When the fur had settled, the kitten was missing and telltale signs of blood marked the spot where the duel had taken place. The dog was still agitated and barking.
Meantime, the kitten we assumed, based on the amount of blood and the sheer pound for pound size of the dog to the little fellow, had crawled off somewhere fatally injured.
With the speed of social media apps, Ya Ya composed a tribute to the feline we calculated had been with us for hours, barely a day. The dog was examined, patched up and went on his way sniffing around for the presumed dead cat.
Imagine our shock when a few hours later, who turned up on the doorstep again. It was the mistakenly christened Emily. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the cat – not a scratch was on it and not a missing patch of fur, nothing.
The tribute was recalled and there was rejoicing – measured on my part – that the kitten had returned. As it turned out, it was the dog which had been humiliatingly pummelled in the fight and left bleeding.
Another time there was a rematch and it ended with the same result. The mistakenly christened Emily had a 2-0 lead on the dog. Believe it or not, it happened a third time and this time Poopie thought he had the jump on the now maturing but still mistakenly christened Emily, by creeping up on the cat.
Pummelled again, he was.
Then there were some older stray cats which came around at night and once the kitten was outside, attacked it. By now we had come to realise that the kitten was female and not male, so for the sake of expediency we dubbed her MLE.
At first MLE would respond to our calls for her to get inside once the bigger cats came around. But as she grew older, her animal instincts kicked in and rather than fleeing her attackers, MLE stood her ground and fought them off.
Almost nightly she and the other cats would create such a terrific ruckus outside that it forced some adult to respond by chasing them off.
I cannot understand why with shelter just next door, MLE would not run to safety and forget the fighting. That cat can spend the whole day eating and lazing around.
Then at nightfall, it is as though she sits around waiting for a taste of danger.
I cannot understand why the dog Poopie would, after being soundly beaten, return time and time again to challenge the cat.
The cat has started disappearing once she picks up the scent of the dog approaching, but the one time he surprised her and it was non-stop blows.
I could only regard the behaviour of the two as basic animal instincts overpowering all other reasoning. There is something about an animal that no matter how hard you train it, sometimes its nature takes over.
The same could be said of human beings, but having being born at a higher level of understanding than animals, some training might remain forever.
I did not attempt to train these two in the way of how they should get along; I merely allowed nature to take its course.
That is one of the lessons we must learn about the difference in animals and difference in human beings. Sometimes instincts are too powerful to subdue, no matter the adapted environment.
• Antoinette Connell is a News Editor. Email antoinetteconnell@nationnews.com.