Farewell to a dear feline friend....

My son cried for two days when one of his little kittens (there were 3 of them) got ran over by our car one morning on our way to work. My hubby didn’t see it. It must have slept on the tyres of our car the night before. Even when my hubby started the engine, we thought that the little kitties would have been alarmed by the engine running and would scoot off. But, unfortunately, one of it didn’t. *sob*

When my hubby told Aiman about it later that evening when he picked him up at my MIL’s house, his first reaction was a show of strength, or rather, one of denial when he showed no immediate emotions.

He asked which one was it. When my hubby told him that it was the black one (he had named it Abby after Abby the scientist in NCIS. Aiman names all his cats after characters in NCIS and CSI), his response, “Oh, OK, as long as it isn’t Dinozzo”.



Abby is the black one, and Dinozzo is the other one

Dinozzo had been sick almost since birth and we had been taking special care of him, bringing him to the vet and all. He was closest to Aiman. The other kitty is Director Sheppard, also a character from NCIS.

We thought that he had taken the news pretty well, but, according to my hubby, after the initial questions, there was silence, and then my hubby noticed that there were tears welding in his eyes. He cried for pretty much most part of the journey home from my MIL’s house to our house that evening.

When I arrived home soon after that, he came to me with eyes all red and still sniffling from the last tears. He cried all over again upon seeing me. It was heart-breaking. I hugged him and told him that it was fated that Abby had a short life, and that God loves Abby more.

He wanted to blame my hubby for not looking out for the little kitties, but I did not want him to go on blaming others for what’s fated, and told him that he still has Dinozzo and Director Sheppard to take care of who needed him more now that Abby isn’t around to play with them.

He calmed down for a while. In fact, he put up another strong front when we ran a funeral of sorts for Abby and buried her at the end of the road from our house. He refused to shed a tear. It was me that could not hold back my tears as my hubby laid down Abby’s body into the ground and covered it up with loving care.

We said a small prayer before heading back to our house.

When we did our maghrib prayers that night, I told him to say another prayer for Abby. He went up to his room and refused to come down. When I went to check on him, he had his nose in a Whimpy Kid book, but he wasn’t actually reading it. He was trying to cover up the tears that were flowing freely.

I sat down on the bed next to him and we talked. I told him that it is OK to cry if you had just lost a loved one. I also told him that all living things will die someday. I told him to be strong for Dinozzo and Director Sheppard. They would need him even more now that Abby’s gone.

He calmed down, but when it was time to feed Dinozzo and Director Sheppard that night, tears flowed freely again. In fact, for the next few days, each time he went out to feed the little kitties, I would find him in tears. It was heartbreaking, but I know, give him a few more days, he will get over the loss, though he will still hold Abby dear to his heart.

It’s been two weeks since Abby’s demise, and Aiman still talks about her, saying that he misses her so much, but the tears have somewhat stopped flowing. I think he is getting stronger.

Aiman had just had a lesson in life. I always hope and pray that he will grow up to be a strong person, and be able to go through even the worse of situation. My hubby and I will not always be there for him, though we always pray that we could at least see him succeed in life and be there when he takes a wife and have children of his own. May Allah answer our prayers, insyaAllah.

Farewell, Abby, our dear feline friend. May you rest in peace. Amin.