Felix religiosus?

This last couple of months we've made a regular routine of reciting the 'Sandokai' together at our home altar after breakfast and we've been touched by Tora's evident interest in what is going on. Soon after we begin saying the scripture he comes and sits beside us and often adds a few 'meows' of his own. I always harboured some slight suspicions about this latter part as he generally gets vocal once the 'signal gong' is ringing and there is some possibility that he is feeling more irritated about the noise than wanting to join in with us, he is certainly no fan of music.

However Edera spotted something a couple of days ago that made us both really laugh because there was such an obvious link involved. No sooner had we started saying the 'Five Thoughts' before lunch - the Zen Buddhist equivalent of 'grace before meals' - than he left his patch of sunlight in our 'school room' and came quickly trotting over to the table to sit between us. It was so transparent that it was obvious what was in his mind. He's a terrible scrounger of tidbits, more like a dog really. In fact I often think of him as a 'dat' or 'cog', a kind of a 'cross' between cat and dog. And he will eat pretty well anything, even broccoli and bits of biscuit.

So then of course we also made the potential link. If Tora has 'sussed' that humans going 'bzzz... bzzz.... bzzz' together in unison is related to looming opportunities to get something tasty to eat then probably he's put two and two together and made five when it comes to overhearing the 'Sandokai' from the washitsu in the mornings.

Maybe I should organise a poll on this one from Tora fans around the world, of which there are many these days. Do you think that Mr. Felix religiosus is:-

a. coming to join in 'morning service' with us?
b. letting me know that cats definitely don't like the noise of signal gongs? or
c. hoping against hope that something tasty is going to come in his direction from the family altar?

Personally I think that it is a bit of a mixture of all three of these. He is that kind of a cat. Subtle.