For Craziness Sake

I like to chase the cats that hang around our apartment complex. Before I didn't know why. I just knew that I didn't much like those cats, and that I like to run around like a crazy man and make them scatter.

The other day, Trien and I were walking to the hawker stalls by the Lake Gardens. She had bundled up the garbage, and I was carrying two heavy bundles of newspapers to the dumpster where the cats like to lounge around. Of course, as soon as I saw them, I immediately went into attack mode. I became the Terminator for cats- site targets, evaluate situation, plan course of action, and YEEEEEHAH!!!

I didn't care what other people thought. I was having fun.

Of course my wife just kept on walking. When I caught up with her, she asked me:

"Honey, why do you always chase those cats around?"

I told her the truth:

"For craziness sake."

That made perfect sense to her, but when I said it, I didn't know what it meant. Then I thought about it.

Why do I chase the cats around? Because they are there. And because I like to do it.

If I tried to do anything like that when I was a kid, at best I would end up getting screamed at and berated for being a rotten kid, and told to behave myself. At worst, I would almost literally get the crap beaten out of me. That's why I do it now- because I can, and there's no one to tell me not to. No one except for my wife, who tolerates my behavior, and understands it, because she has her own craziness too. The only thing is, I am the only one who know it.

Everyone else looks at her and thinks she is this nice, normal, proper woman. Even her family and closest friends don't know how crazy she really is. I am the only one who knows any different. They wouldn't believe me if I told them the truth. You know what? It makes me very happy that she's that way with me. It means she is open and comfortable with me in a way that she isn't even with her closest friends and family. It means we are more intimate with each other than we ever have been with anyone else before. I can be my crazy self, and she tolerates it, loves and accepts me, and I do the same with her.

I know she can't run around like I can because she is pregnant with our daughter, but I can't wait for the day when the two of us will be running around the complex chasing those stupid cats around. We'll probably have to wait until the baby can walk so she can join in too!

In the mean time, the cat chasing duty falls squarely on my shoulders. Now when those cats see me, their eyes get big, they get into their readiness crouch, and they look at me with the fear of god in their eyes.

Then we are at it again.

I have become the scourge of all things feline.