Backstory

Our domestic cat feeds in one of two ways; from the food we put in his bowl, or from hunting for rodents or birds. This creates a system where if he does not find food in his bowl then he has to do the alternative and vice versa. He was adopted as a kitten and he has grown a lot since then. You can see it in the way he practices to catch prey or climbs up a tree or reveals his sharp nails when he stretches. He practices his hunting skills by pouncing on anything, sometimes even my leg! He has scratched me a few times probably by mistake, I don't think he means any harm.

I'd like to believe that my cat has failed to catch prey a few times. This could be caused by a lack of experience or humans unknowingly chasing the catch away with noise from their footsteps. I can imagine on one particular day if I had forgotten to feed him and then he fails to catch some prey which may cause him to become grumpy. He tends to be aggressive when he's not happy.

As of late he has grown much bigger and he catches prey with ease. He has developed an ego. I saw a dead rat once just outside the kitchen door to the backyard, or maybe it was a mouse. It was strategically placed there almost as if to say "hey! Look what I caught." His bowl sometimes goes stale with old food, I think he prefers to catch it for himself now. He can go AWOL for a week and you could easily forget about him until he scratches your leg or you step on him by mistake or I find him lying on the bed.

One thing is for sure, he is much more confident in his skills now and it's all because he practiced. Sometimes when the house is really quiet you can hear a scratching sound on the carpet. That's him, my cat, sharpening his nails or showing them off - I'm not too sure. One time I saw him pinning down a little bird in the backyard with poise. He looked at me when the bird was under his front paw and whenever the bird tried to escape, he would bring it down again and return to his poised stance. He spent the whole afternoon performing this sequence as if he were on a stage or being recorded on camera.

Lesson Learned

I would relate my experience as a software developer to my cat because sometimes the only skill I lack is confidence. I get intimidated whenever I see what other more experience developers are doing with their careers or creating on GitHub. The lesson to be learned from my cat is that all experience counts. Even making a contribution to an open source project is good enough. Just like my cat can leave a rodent on the outside mat as a way of building confidence, and bit by bit it all adds up until you become the master hunter that is my cat. Practice makes perfect and confidence is everything.