Something unusual that happened...

That particular day was in December last year(2009). It was the Secondary 1 orientation day. The ''unusual'' thing was that I helped to bury a dead teacher's cat. Really. It may not sound believable, but it really happened.

What happened was this: It was around noon time, and I was at the Scout den at school. The orientation had finished and we were packing things up and I saw my Teacher-in-charge talking to another teacher. Later I heard my friend say that this particular teacher in question's cat had died, and they were going to bury it. I wanted to see, so I decided to tag along. My Teacher-in-charge brought along a hoe and me and a few other Scouts went with him. We went to the large grassy area beside school(facing the highway and East Coast Park).

Then we started digging. My teacher started first, demonstrating to us how to porperly use a hoe. Then we all took turns, and I actually dug the most, and eventually an impromptu grave appeared. It was about a metre deep and half a metre wide. It was actually like a ''U'' kind of shape when viewed from the top, except that the 2 ends were further apart, due to the shape of the hoe. That took around half an hour, and to tell you the truth, I had a lot of fun doing it, but we waited another ten for the teacher to come with the "prize". The cat was actually in a plastic bag, which in turn was in a reusable carrier bag.

He went to the grave, and took out the plastic bag with the cat, but all I saw was this rather big black shape curled up in it. And it wasn't moving. He lowered it into the grave, and then we covered it up with the earth that we dug out. After that, the teacher asked me who helped the most, so I said me. He thanked me and walked away.

But it doesn't end there!

Then, I had to keep the hoe but before that, I had to oil it. Since that was my first time, I got some on my hands. I went to the toilet to wash it off. In the toilet, I saw the teacher again. He looked at me and said," Samuel, I didn't know you were such a good gravedigger!" I felt a bit awkward, then I smiled and asked,''So, are you going to get another cat?" To which he replied, casually,"No lah! No more pets. So depressing!''