Ratón que no sabe más que un horado presto es cazado.
According to this saying, it’s difficult to avoid danger if you only have one thing to fall back on. We had heard before that some rats only know one escape route, but the saying doesn’t mention the path, only the hole in the wall. So, when all is said and done, the number of routes the little mouse has managed to memorize doesn’t matter, because all of them lead to the same hole. The journey doesn’t matter, only the destination does. How sad.
There is a hole in the wall. There is a curled-up cat staring at that hole. A mouse-catcher that has lost interest in everything. There are no mice left in the house, and the cat doesn’t know what to do. Catching mice was its whole life. And the cat laments that none of its rivals measured up.
Dogs fill their lives with friends. Other cats are aloof and detached because they don’t need anyone else’s help to feel alive. But mouse-catchers live for the hunt. That rivalry gives meaning to their lives, and those cats depend entirely on mice to judge their own worth.
The curled-up cat doesn’t feel victorious. It doesn’t feel alive. Because it no longer has anything to do. Because the mouse that should have been its rival for life only knew one hole in the wall, and hunting that mouse down wasn’t much of a challenge.
But what would have been the alternative? Letting that mouse escape, when the cat could have caught it? The cat would never have forgiven itself for not living up to its potential. But maybe that would have been better than spending its days staring at an empty hole in the wall.
Traitor. Coward. Mouse. You are not even trying. Do you call that running? I want to do my best. But you drag me down. I hate knowing that I wouldn’t even have to try. I could catch you with my eyes closed. And people wonder why cats are aloof, detached creatures? The world is full of mice like you, that only bring out the worst in cats like me. Nine lives? I have lost count of how many times you have killed me. I deserved a worthy rival. But you are afraid of failure. You think that you can outrun that feeling if you don’t try. Winning is everything to you. But I would have accepted defeat gracefully. I would have been grateful for every chance to better myself. But you are a mouse, and I should never have expected anything other than crumbs from you.
Here’s the thing, I wasn’t born to breathe. I was born to give my all. To hunt, until I ran out of breath. Having air in my lungs doesn’t make me feel alive. Not when I can effortlessly breathe in my sleep. Life is fire. And all I have ever wanted is to feel my lungs burning. But I caught you in the blink of an eye, with breath to spare. Your name shouldn’t be Mouse. It should be Disappointment. And I just wish I had never wasted a second of my life on you.
I should never have pinned my hopes on a mouse like you. I blame the stars. I blame the crumbs that fell from your mouth. They were right when they told me not to rely on someone else for my happiness. I should have listened to the wolves. But I wrongly thought that their moon couldn’t be farther from the stars. That my dream wouldn’t be out of reach. That it wouldn’t end in disappointment. Because you were a mouse. You were within my reach. But catching you was too easy. And now I am beyond hope. At least the wolves can keep howling at their moon. Even though it hurts, they can cling to a sliver of hope. But I have already seen more crumbs than there are stars in the night leading to your hole in the wall. And I think that I have lost sight of my happiness for good.
It’s my fault. I will do better in my next life. I will set a different goal for myself. One that doesn’t include you. I will strive to be a better cat. Aloof. Detached. Dead inside. I have heard that catnaps are nice. That sunlight has a gentle touch. And maybe it’s high time I gave purring a try. I will radiate contentment in my next life. I will turn a blind eye to you. And soon enough, the need to run, to hunt, will evaporate from my blood. I will lay in the sunlight. And disappointment will be a thing of my past.