Blood of Jesus! Back to sender!! What did I just see? A cat! God forbid! (Dials pastor’s cell)…”Pastor, good evening sir. How are u sir?” Please sir, pray for me, I just saw a black cat pass through my window.

That’s how cats have been stigmatised in Africa… Nigeria. They are labelled as dark creatures of the night…one of the common animal form most witches choose to turn to. They have such scary eyes that can see through the most opaque of humans! And when they cry or are in labour, it’s scary, they sound like real humans.

See, if you see a cat please start calling on the lord because ‘they’ have sent someone from the village after you. Be warned! Woe betides you if it’s a black cat that has mirror eyes. And if your child has eyes that look like a cat’s, hmm…

Did you chuckle? Oh you laughed? Sorry for you, if you like don’t believe me. Be laughing you hear? You think all those ‘oyibo’ people who keep cats as pets are normal? Pussycat will be running round your house and you think you are normal? Later you will say your marriage didn’t last or you don’t have children. Continue!

Oh! What have cats not experienced? Honestly though, I feel so much pity for the domestic cat specie. They have gone through so much. If only they could voice out their feelings. They probably want to be seen as best friends to humans too.

I met neighbour X and his girlfriend the other night, we were walking home together when we stopped to exchange pleasantries with two other neighbours. Neighbour X thought he saw a rabbit run pass. “Chei! Did you guys see that rabbit?”, he asked. We didn’t see it. He wouldn’t focus on the topic we were discussing. He probably imagined eating roasted rabbit. Other neighbour notices his distraction and says to him, “maybe its a cat”. That was it! Neighbour X apparently doesn’t think well of cats. He says he grew up associating cats with evil. That’s what he learnt as a child – a cat is bad omen, harbinger of doom!

It’s true. Nigerians will agree with me, the Yorubas will definitely agree; they are the ones who produce home videos that have black cats appearing as warning that evil is lurking.

Okay, enough people! Cats aren’t really that evil please. Give the creatures some credit…they are animals too and they have rights (yes, I said it). I hear they kill snakes. Someone told me they taste good in soup too!

Hmm, now that I have turned a temporary ‘pussycat right activist’ (PRA), I do hope no cat crosses my window tonight. Kidding!Anyway, my point is…please give the creatures a break. Leave them be. Use other creatures as agents of evil. Show some love to these specie, take a stray cat into your house when its cold outside and keep it by your fireside. I think the cats deserve a chance, you know…like dogs.