Sir Winston and Mr Midnight were in the cellar, waiting patiently for their evening meal. Sir Winston thought he would use the time to have a small wash while Mr Midnight stared at the rows of cat food tins and pouches aligned neatly on the shelf opposite.

May I interrupt you for a moment Sir Winston?  I have a small question which you may be able to answer.

Sir Winston was in the middle of his evening wash but he stopped just to say;

Fire away Mr M. I`m just finishing the last final strokes to my early evening care program.

It was playing on my mind, but do you think our food grows in those strange flimsy, slippery things daddy opens when he serves us our food?

There´s also the long, twiggy food he gives us as a snack.  That also seems to be carefully protected in shiny, slippery, unedible stuff.  I`m not sure if it grows on those big, graceful things, like in the garden, but I do know that the heavy, shiny things do not grow in our green kingdom. Daddy said that the heavy food containers are produced by humans.  I think he called them tins.

Listen! He´s coming down the stairs to feed us.  What a great sign!  I will ask him before we wolf our food down our necks.

Hello daddy, and purrr purrr.

Good evening Mr Midnight. Are you alright?  You usually trip me up, wrapping yourself around my legs when I arrive at this time in the evening.

Before Sir Winston and I commence our evening banquet, I was curious to know what our food containers were made from. I don´t mean the things Sir Winston said were called tins. Do the other containers grow in a green kingdom somewhere foreign, because they look strange to me?

You mean the cat food pouches?

They are also man-made, especially for you cats.

So, Mr Midnight was right when he said those pouch things appeared to be a little strange.

I know you cats are fussy sometimes, but does it really matter? The food tastes alright doesn´t it?

I try and vary your diet as best I can.

Oh yes, we love the stuff you dish up. We were just curious to know that´s all.

I once read that cat food pouches, just the same as toothpaste tubes, although we won´t talk about toothpaste just now,  are made from a thin layer of aluminium and a substance we call plastic.

What´s aluminium?

And what is plastic?

Aluminium is a light metal and is one of the commonist metals in the Earth`s crust.

So, it is a natural product?

In a way, yes it is. It is mined from Bauxite and is a man-made natural product. We like to make things out of it, such as part of your cat-food pouch.

And Bauxite?

Bauxite is a stone, so it´s a natural product.

And the plastic stuff? What about that?

Plastic is a synthetic material and is man-made.

Do women make it as well?

I´m sure they do Sir Winston.

Plastic, and its byproducts, are harming our environment. We use way too much of the stuff and most of us humans take plastic for granted. I suspect we rely on it so much because of convenience – it is relatively cheap and light in weight. However, some of us humans are now coming to terms with the problems associated with plastic.

My food doesn´t seem so appetising now daddy. It´s wrapped up in stone stuff and strange synthetics.

It won´t harm you, I´m sure. That´s why I try as best I can to vary your diet.

Well, my tummy´s rumbling so aluminium layers, synthetic stuff or not, I would like you to dish out the “mains” now daddy.

Thank goodness I forget stuff so quickly. You´re right Sir Winston, let´s eat and be merry!

(C) Copyright MAGS 2019

       What´s all that about – mobile phones, television sets, soccer and automobiles?

       I´ve no idea Sir Winston. I suppose they could be linked to the human races survival packet.

       But I thought a human survival packet was similar to a cats survival packet – you know; plenty of exercise, good nourishment, lots of nice sleep and time for play.

       Well, I haven´t seen many human beings using that kind of survival pack Sir Winston. If they did, most of them would be more balanced, healthier and much happier human beings. I`m afraid I don´t see many of those kind of humans when I`m on my travels.

I really think that the humans have swapped their instinctive survival pack for the one you mentioned above.  They can´t seem to live without mobile phones, television sets, soccer and automobiles.

       I see what you mean. You could be correct in your assumption Mr Midnight. I suppose most human beings would really be lost without such items.

How would they cope?

They would have to write down messages on paper, create their own sources of entertainment, move about a bit, and move about even more!

How terribly old fashioned.

       Just imagine, a human being would sit down (with a nice cup of tea or saucer of milk) and write a letter (with a pen, not a touch screen) to a friend, asking them if they would like to go for a nice walk to watch some form of entertainment in the village.  It doesn´t bare thinking about does it?

       I can imagine most of the poor darlings would get out of breath just thinking about such a notion.

       But, don´t you think they´d realise that somethings not quite right somehow?  You know, their constant illnesses possibly getting on their nerves, their short concentration spans, their dissatisfaction’s and their aggressive mood swings becoming intolerable?

       I very much doubt it Mr Midnight. It seems to be a human thing to want to suffer in life. It possibly has something to do with the learning curve. That´s how some of them wish to learn and experience things in the long run.

It appears easier (and certainly less time consuming) to write hacked-up messages on a machine or to take a moving vehicle on the shortest journey. The poor darlings. You have to feel sorry for them don´t you?

       Human beings have so much going for them, what with their technology and extensive knowledge of the planet. On the technology side of things, we cats have absolutely no idea.  Humans are incredibly intelligent creatures; it seems they just choose to not show that intelligence so often.

We cats haven´t got a hope of a chance of becoming as advanced as the human beings but then again, feline creatures (as of all creatures of this planet) are usually a lot more healthier, satisfied and more intact with their environment.

Oh well, I suppose it´s all a human thing. It seems that everyone is on their path.

Perhaps we can help the humans a little more on their journey through life – that´s why we wrote our little book; “A Helping Paw“, which daddy informs me should be on the market in March 2019.  Maybe a reader of two would be interested.

(C) Copyright MAGS 2019