I was in the garden, returning from a walk with our cats, when I noticed something disturbing. I saw it out of the corner of my eye as I passed one of the evergreen bushes.
I saw "something" and almost passed it. Wondering if I should stop in front of it or not. Because it was completely unknown.
And one more thing - I didn't know whether to stop in front of it or not, because I didn't know what it was and how dangerous it was.
Will it jump on me, will it fly, will it bite me, is it poisonous?
But first was the unknown.
Within seconds, my brain began rummaging through the catalog of familiar images and the first thing that came to mind was: a turtle.
Oh, don't make fun of me now. I know what a turtle looks like. But the point is that there are turtles in our garden, but this is the first time I see this strange animal. I mean, my brain only knows the turtle, not this. And we're looking for familiar images, aren't we?
In the next split second, I noticed the menacing looking pair of front fore limbs and the second image that popped into my head was: cancer.
No, don't laugh at me again. We don't live near a body of water and there is no way this could be cancer.
(See how content our cat Shisho is. I'll explain why in a moment.)
And here came the third image - a scorpion.
You see how the brain works, or rather, does not work in such situations. 😁How easily it is confused and manipulated. Even by a bug, if that beast here can be called a bug.
In fact, I only stopped in front of it for a split second. There were no cats around me at that moment. But I didn't carry the phone with me at the same time.
It's impossible not to photograph this animal, I thought as I ran to the door of the house, opened the front door, shouted to my boyfriend that something very strange was in our garden and that I was going to get my phone because I had to photograph it.
By the time I went to the room at the other end of the house to get the phone, my boyfriend had already gone outside after my warnings to be careful.
But outside was already our freakiest cat, Shisho, who is definitely not careful with anything. 😅
Shishi is a monster who is not afraid of anything. Of course, is there a cat that is afraid of anything? Especially of something as interesting and unfamiliar as this bug.
I was afraid of it. Definitely. I was afraid even for Shisho when I saw what he was doing to it.
There was a fight. Between him and the bug. He caught it and threw it into the bushes, the bug tried to escape. At the same time, it tried to attack the cat. Several times.
Shisho, however, did not allow himself to be intimidated. He was aiming for the head of the creature. This is what I saw in those brief seconds as I watched them and at the same time tried to take pictures of what was happening.
By following the progression of events on the timeline of the photos I'm showing you, you can now tell what happened next.
As scared as I was, Shisho wasn't. He seemed to know what he was doing. It's as if he meets these animals in the garden every day. And I assure you - this is not the case.
And it was as if Shisho had read the Encyclopaedia Britannica or all possible encyclopedias at once,
as if he had gone to the library to educate himself on the following questions: "what does one do when meeting such and such an insect?", "how does it react and what this and that animal do under threat?", "what is the weak point in attacking this and that insect?"
and above all: "which animal is edible and does it make sense to kill it to eat it?"
(oh, there's always a sense to kill something, Shisho would say 😄)
At first I was angry that Shisho wouldn't even let me take a picture of this creature. Everything happened so quickly and by the time I got back with my phone he was already on it.
Then I felt sorry for the killed animal, even though I had no idea what it was.
But after it was all over and my boyfriend and I went back to the house amazed at what had happened, he found the name of this animal on the Internet and the description of its species.
It is called 'giant water bug' and it really was giant.
This can be seen even in its photos together with the cat - Shisho is a big cat.
It had rained quite a bit the day before and I figured it had ended up in our garden with the rain - you know the kind of rain that brings frogs or fish with it.
I had no other explanation for how it got here.
Besides, it was just one.
And believe me, this insect is not typical for Bulgaria. I know this because I am seeing it for the first time in my life. And on the Internet it is written that it is eaten in some parts of Asia (Shisho knew that for sure, from the encyclopedias he reads every day 😹). As well as that it is distributed in continents such as North America and Africa.
Besides, this creature bites.
Here I am no longer sure that Professor Shisho was aware of this.
Still, he managed to avoid being bitten, aiming for the head from the start.
After reading on the Internet, as much as I felt sorry for the animal, I realized that there was no way we could let this unknown monster roam our garden. It could have been a threat to our cats. Even to the turtles. Because we read it feeds on baby turtles.
Professor Shisho may have read the information about the turtles and decided to protect them.
He also probably knew that he was big and strong enough and would handle this animal, he just had to not let himself be bitten.
In a sense, he even saved us from having to think about what we humans should do with this animal. He took away the responsibility, so to speak.
He took responsibility for everything. And saved us.
Shisho, our craziest cat, the greatest freak, as I have called him before, saved us.
Fast and clean. Without any detours and delays. As a professional assassin.
I have to tell you that my attitude towards this kitty changed from that day on. You know that I have often complained of him before - he is a great Annoyer! 😹
But now he suddenly became very nice to me and I saw beyond all his behavior so far - he is a very nice kitten. 😻
A nice killer, so to speak, ha ha 😄
In the end, there were just some wings left (yes, this animal flies, apart from everything else) 🙀
Wings that I didn't even dare to hold in my hand because I was afraid that somehow they would suddenly come alive and bite me.
So when Shisho, tired and content, lay at my feet on the lawn, I arranged them on top of his fur to photograph them.
P.S. You know I'm a nature lover and I hope you view this post solely from that perspective.
Happy #Caturday to all cat lovers!
Copyright: @soulsdetour
 | Soul's Detour is a project started by me years ago when I had a blog about historical and not so popular tourist destinations in Eastern Belgium, West Germany and Luxembourg. Nowadays, this blog no longer exists, but I'm still here - passionate about architecture, art and mysteries and eager to share my discoveries and point of view with you. |
