We have a cat

We have a cat at Tumaini House. We have a rooster. Each has a brief but specific job description.

            Cat: Catch rats and mice. Keep rodents out of the house.

            Rooster: Submit to the knife. You are dinner.

Dinner dares to enter the house

The rooster has been with us for about 5 days. He was a gift to Susan and Tim, current members of the household who served as missionaries here in Beni in 1980s. The rooster has managed to settle into life at Tumaini House. He circles the compound and checks out the bugs. He prefers roosting on the porch furniture at night to being shut into the outside storage shed—a 4’ square concrete closet that clangs shut with an iron door. I don’t blame him. He asserts his independence by marching into the house, but is quickly swooshed away when any of us discovers him. He’ll be welcome in the house tonight, though. In a pot. 

Hope she's up to the job!

The cat was a $5 purchase at the market on Friday. Yes, cats come for a price—about the same cost as a 1-lb wheel of cheese or 2 litres of gasoline. She’s really a kitten, probably weighs ¼ lb, and about as long as a pencil. We’ve named her Frieda—a strong-sounding, northern European name that we hope will inspire her to feistiness and fight.

I admit, I had been holding off getting a cat. Veterinary care here is limited. Only the fittest that can survive without human intervention make it in this part of the world. Unfortunately, rats are among the fittest. The current renting rodents have survived our attempts to trap them. So, after a hilarious skirmish between 4 adult humans and one 6” rat in my bedroom the other evening, I was glad to welcome a cat into the house.