Cat Burglar

Last night we had a break in above our clinic where Bina, the midwife, and I live. I was a little shaken at the time, but fortunately no one was hurt and while the burglar got away I don't think he will try to break in again. My best guess on how the burglar got in was that he climbed the tree outside the clinic and came in through the 3 foot opening between the wall and the roof. From there he managed to perform a high wire walk across the 1/4 inch thick plywood wall between Bina's and my room and then scampered down into our kitchen. I was awoken to see the burglar balanced literally 5 feet directly above my head. His clawed feet precariously gripping the edge of the plywood before he leapt into the kitchen. At this point, Bina had awoken and went into the kitchen (her room opens into the kitchen, mine does not) at which point the cat burglar leapt back up onto the plywood wall above my head before scampering across the wall and then escaped outside. Both times I literally thought that this stray cat was going to jump right onto my head, which given his claws, probably would not have been very pleasant.

To make things a little more interesting, two nights earlier I had spotted what I thought was a small stray cat outside next to the rice paddies about 50 feet from my window. I had my flashlight and at first, all I could see were his emerald green eyes glowing in the dark. I kept my flashlight on the cat as he started to move in my direction alongside a path that leads back behind my room. It was when he got closer that I realized that it was a larger cat or animal of some sort as I could see he was about 2 1/2 feet tall. My best guess was it was like a bobcat or something similar. Unfortunately I had my flashlight on low (I generally always keep it on low to preserve the battery) and didn't think to switch it to high, otherwise I might have been able to better identify what kind of animal it was. Better yet, I wish I'd had time to take a picture of it. Whatever it was, it did not appear afraid of me. One local person I spoke to suspected it was a more likely a fox, but I still think that the head and tail were more cat like in size and shape although it was too dark to tell for certain. The local person also told me that a few years ago a tiger found its way up into this area and ate some farmers livestock.

At any rate, having another cat of some sort dangling over my head in the dark of night two nights later definitely had me alarmed. I was pretty sure at the time that this was not the larger cat I'd seen before but I definitely didn't want this cat on top of me. Fortunately that didn't happen. Below is a picture looking up from my bed. The cat's legs were straddling the two pieces of plywood you see that form the corner of my room.



So if you are sitting at home bored and wanting to add some excitement to your life, feel free to come to Nepal.


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