Kalo

I inherited a cat when I moved into my house. His name is Kalo, which means moon in Bambara. The PCV who used to live in my house originally had two cats, Kalo and Tile (moon and sun). Tile never came back one night (before I moved here), so now it’s just Kalo. She got them only about a year ago when they were kittens, so Kalo is a young cat. I hope that explains some of his antics…

I have never had a cat as a pet before so I didn’t know what to expect. As far as I could tell, at first this cat was a royal pain in the ass. He used to meow incessantly to get what he wanted (and still does from time to time). He was not happy when I fixed the screen on the door so he couldn’t go outside and come back inside whenever he wanted. So the first few nights, in the middle of the night, he would meow and meow and meow until I got out of bed and let him out or in. Sometimes it would happen multiple times in one night! I got pretty fed up with this, to say the least, and gave Kalo some “Malian feedback”, essentially a good whack, so he would learn. He’s much better now, and won't bother me until I get up in the morning.

The old PCV used to give Kalo real cat food to eat, but you can only get this in Bamako. I haven't been to Bamako since pre-service training and didn’t bring cat food with me before moving out here. So he has been eating what I eat every day for lunch, usually white rice and sauce. Sometimes he likes it, but sometimes he doesn’t, and just won’t eat. If he is still hungry, he lets me know! Cue the incessant meowing.

But things are better now; he understands that rice and sauce is what he’s going to get, more often than not. It has taken a while, but we have warmed up to each other. He comes and cuddles on me if I’m lying in bed. If anything, it is great to have a cat around to keep the (other) pests out!