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.

A pet in training

Aiman has been wanting a cat for a pet for a very long time. But, since he is asthmatic and has a bad case of eczema, we have been advised by doctors and many others not to have one in the house. But, Aiman has never stopped asking for one.

Recently, our back door neighbour’s cat gave birth to 4 kittens in our wet kitchen. While she was nursing her 4 new kittens, who should come around to play in our wet kitchen so as to be able to stay close to his mummy, but the big brother of the 4 little kittens!

We found him one day waiting by the back door, meowing in hunger as our neighbour had left for the long Chinese New Year Holidays.

Aiman took one look at his adoring eyes and was immediately smitten by the cute little kitten (seen in the above photo with his mum), whom he later affectionately calls `Abang’, as the little kitten was the big brother to the 4 little kittens just born.

Ever since that day, Aiman has found himself a pet in Abang and would wake up early every morning to feed him. Before this, it can sometimes takes us close to 10 minutes to try to get him to get up every morning, but with Abang meowing outside waiting for his food, Aiman practically jumps up every morning to feed Abang. LOL! Now that’s what I call a good influence! *grin*

Aiman is getting very attached to Abang and would get all sad if he can’t get to say goodnight to Abang before he goes to bed each night. He rushes to the back kitchen each time we come home from anywhere to look for Abang. He would stay at the back kitchen for as long as possible to play with Abang and would not want to go anywhere in case Abang might come and wants to play with him.

Having Abang has also made him do his chores faster as it becomes a motivation for him as we tell him that he can only play with Abang when he is done with all his homework and chores.

Tonight, Aiman was upset that when Abang came to play with him, but he wasn’t done yet with his chores, and as he rushed to finish off his chores, Abang had left. He wanted to play with Abang first before he went to bed, and he must have felt that all his efforts, rushing to finish off his chores quickly, did not pay off, as by the time he was done, Abang had already left and it was also almost his bedtime.

I hope something good will come from Aiman’s attachment to Abang, as seen so far in that he is more motivated to do his chores . I only hope that when it is time for Abang to go back to the neighbour, Aiman wil not feel too sad.

I have promised Aiman that if he really wants Abang as a pet and if he can prove to us that he can take care of a pet cat, I will ask permission from our back neighbour to let us have Abang. I told him that for now, he is in training and his duty is to make sure that Abang’s bowl is always filled up with food and water everyday. So far, during this long CNY holidays since Abang’s arrival, he has pretty much fulfilled his duties.

Tomorrow it’s back to school for Aiman. I am waiting to see if he remembers his duties with regards to taking care of Abang, and at the same time, nor forgetting to do his daily chores.