Gross Experience

Got to witness something pretty gross this morning. An actual live cat and mouse game. 

It's not metaphor for nothing. Our cat, Cat 2 ( pronounced cattu ) caught this squirrel early this morning, and I watched the whole episode in fascinated horror for over forty minutes. At first I thought it was a rat, and I guess (mean me) was a little less concerned, but when I realized it was a cute little squirrel, I was horrified. 

I could do nothing but watch. Actually I chose to do nothing, because what was playing out there was nature in its intrinsic form, and I saw no point in interfering, especially to save an already hurt squirrel.

Anyways, what fascinated me was how cattu played this prolonged game with it. He brings it from the garden into the balcony, where he knows even if it escapes he has an upper hand. Then, he's actually letting it run, and then attacking it, at times he throws it in the air and seems to get a thrill of watching it swirl and fall back in fright and run, again he gets it. He prods, he pushes, he nudges, all kinds of things, which seem to put that squirrel into as frenzied and crazed a mode as possible. Downright sadistic.

I was like, why can't he just kill and eat. What's this game all about?  What's the purpose?

That's her after the kill,.......all contended and all

An Aha moment! ......this story came to mind: 

The Japanese love fresh fish. However, the waters close to Japan have not held much fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever.

The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh and the Japanese did not like the taste.

To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish. 

So fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and put them in the tanks. Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. The fish were dull and sluggish. Complacent I guess. :)

So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan? 

They added a small shark to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very 'alive' state. And the Japanese loved their fish again.

And I'm left thinking that the cat is doing something similar to what the fishing companies did.....get its prey into a mode of full awareness.... fearful, blood gushing, heart beating...the makes.

Moral of the story? 

Wondering if that holds true for a lot of things, including us, at a metaphorical level................ high awareness, in the moment, focused, alert......optimum zone kinds?

Put a shark in your tank and see how far you can really go! Move out of that comfort zone every once in a while if you really want that growth, that change, that zing :)