Cheezo, THE CAT.

This is Cheezo.

Actually, let me repeat that.

THIS

IS

CHEEZO.

Now that that has been firmly established, let me also establish something else.

Cheezo is the baddest, meanest, baddassest tomcat I've ever known, my whole life.

(And I've known a lot of cats)

Cheezo has been living in our neighbourhood, a few houses away, about slightly longer than I have. A nice, beguiling householder took him in when he was a kitten, and informed us, rather daintily, that he would eat nothing but Amul Cheese. Ergo, Cheezo.

We met Cheezo when he would regularly stalk our wada looking for female cats to fornicate with. Cheezo is very determined in this pursuit. He takes his purpose in life (siring his progeny) very, very seriously. Since the four years that his puberty kicked in, he has regularly, on a very strict schedule, been adding members of his lineage to our neighbourhood. By my record, there are currently no less than at least 15 felines in our neighbourhood who can trace their ancestry directly to Cheezo. Of course, many of these we do not see around here anymore, because Cheezo doesn't seem to want to do much with them once they actually start existing. Although there have been moments when I've observed him begrudgingly fulfilling parental duties - but that is only until his kids are old enough to fend for themselves. After that it's cat eat cat world out here.

Cheezo is also extremely focused on keeping his territory intact. A fair bit of our neighbourhood - about 20 houses, I think, come directly under his jurisdiction. I have never seen another tom cat appear anywhere within this area. Certainly not twice. 

We witnessed his ruthless dedication to preserving his territoy when we had a pet boka (tom cat) of our own. Other than our house and the 4 sq. ft. area of our window sill, which our our boka had rightfully claimed, there was no place where our Gundu Kinky could sit and groom himself, even for a measly 10 minutes, on Cheezo's watch. Not even in our own wada. Not even on the staircase. In fact, although Gundu Kinky doesn't live here anymore, Cheezo has still tried to claim, many times, the window sill, our window sill, that he used to sit on. I'm most certain he will also try to claim our carpet area if we ever leave the window unlocked.

Another thing that Cheezo is dead serious about is Respect. Cheezo is all about  Respect. See this face?

This isn't a one-off stare down. This is Cheezo. All day, every day. 24X7. Cheezo demands respect. He expects to be treated, looked at and even spoken of (I think) with a certain amount of dignity not usually reserved for felines. My attempts to pet him, call his name sweetly or even feed him have all been met with this exact look. He has seen me almost every day for the past four years, but yet showing the slightest hint of recognition or just a mere acknowledgement that my existence is somewhat appealing to him, is beneath him. Unlike other cats, he has no interest in being cute or cuddly, or even feigning any affection towards other humans. Cheezo takes his existence seriously. He expects you to as well. He doesn't take things that come his way lightly. Everything - (human, animal, object) is either an accessory to his life purpose (furthering his progeny) or a threat to his territory and he deals with them accordingly. Either way, if you mess with Cheezo, you get screwed. No other cat has lasted. No human has ever been spared. No thing has ever been looked at non-judgmentally.

This is Cheezo. He's not a cat. He's more than a Cat. He's THE CAT.

Live in Peace, Cheezo.