The cat by the bay

Vacation

Last summer, my mama took me to IloIlo province to spend my vacation there. I, as a girl who grew up in a city, had beautiful thoughts and expectations of what I could see in the province, wide rice fields, high corn stalks and a clear, blue sea. The thoughts were nostalgic and kept going as we travel out of the city.

The travel took a couple of hours. Mama said that we will be staying at my aunt's place in Sta. Rita. The place was amazing. I could already see the beach through a big window as we went inside my aunt's house.
My first two weeks were great, I got to swim in the sea whenever I wanted and learned few things about fishes and sea weeds because that's what we ate most of the time during our stay there. I also learned how to identify the varieties of coral reefs all thanks to my aunt and uncle who willingly taught me.

My aunt told me that her cat goes all by herself at the bay every afternoon, it would take an hour or so before the cat comes back home.

On the third week of our vacation, a case of food poisoning spread in our area. Uncle said that the fishes and crabs they caught were the cause, so my mama and aunt decided to cook vegetables for our dinner instead.
On May 12, mama asked me to collect small shells by the bay. It was low tide that time so it was easy to find them. I went by the bay with my aunt's cat. It was a windy afternoon. I put the cat down and collected every shell I could find.

It took half an hour before I finally filled the bucket. I looked around to find the cat but it was nowhere to be seen. I got worried on where the cat might be wandering off to, so I decided to search the entire beach for her. After twenty minutes of looking, I found her a few blocks away from where I put her down. I found her near a pond that connects to the sea where the fishermen used to place their fishing net to caught fish. I walked towards her. She saw me but didn't budge and just continued to walk the rocky path that goes through the small bushes.

I followed her and was surprised to see a bunch of wet plastics behind the bushes. But I was more concerned because the plastics and other garbage were laying around the pond right across from where we were. Some of the wastes were floating and mixed with the dirty water that unfortunately leads to the sea where the fishes live. My heart melted when the cat went across and grabbed one of the plastics with her mouth went back to the bushes and carefully placed it there. I was stunned and it took seconds for me to realized what it really meant.