According to Wikipedia
“Curiosity killed the cat” is a variation of the proverb – curiosity killed the cat – that includes the rejoinder “but satisfaction brought it back.” Although the original version was used to warn people of the dangers of unnecessary investigation or experimentation, the addition of the rejoinder indicates that the risk would lead to resurrection because of the satisfaction felt after finding out.
I had a first hand experience of literally “witnessing” this proverb last week, on my solo trip to Maasai Mara.
After a not-so-exciting afternoon game drive, as I was returning to the camp, my driver Simon got a call informing him that 2 leopards had been spotted at the location we had left minutes back – after a futile search for these very animals. The sun was about to set and darkness was fast descending. He quickly reversed the jeep and reached the spot in time to find 2 jeeploads of tourists keenly looking towards a spot, dimly washed with twilight. My eyes needed a little time to figure out what they were looking at – two leopards lounging on the fallen trunk of a tree, looking into the bushes and beyond.
One was visibly much smaller than the other but I couldn’t make out if it was an older brother or the mother. Anyone who knows me even a little bit, knows about my love affair with these very beautiful but shy grey-eyed cats. As I sat enraptured, feasting my eyes on these two cats, I noticed two young elephants benignly progressing towards these spotted felines, while merrily chomping on the plucked grass. Although the little one was closer to the pachyderms, the older one had wisely slipped off the log and disappeared into the long grass as they came closer.
The little one was as fascinated with the trunked giant as I was with her. She refused to budge and kept watching it. For a split second, there may just have been a change of mind, induced by the instinctive feeling of possible danger, because she jumped off the log for a moment. But seconds later, she jumped back on it, even more curious!
But now, the elephant was within nudging distance, and not looking too happy at the cub’s public show of defiance. I was getting edgy now as I knew what even a playful nudge of those tusks can do. Then came the trumpeting call of warning. The little one had not an iota of doubt any more about which road to take. In a flash, she was gone and I started breathing again! The mini tusker kept slamming into the log, with her tusks, with displeasure but soon went back to the more pleasurable activity of munching grass.
My hunch is, these two “kids” encountered each of its kind for the first time and went home all the more wiser. I also think the bigger leopard was probably an irresponsible older brother because he never entered the scene after his vanishing act. Would a mother leave her cub to spar with a tusker, no matter how young the calf may have been?
But the unanswered question that remains is: was the cat’s curiosity satisfied and if so, “will satisfaction bring it back?”
PS: Dusky conditions made photography very difficult.
rollingonmythoughts 