Hello Kitty

Cats and my family – we are tight. Growing up, we’ve always had cats. And no, we didn’t keep any pedigrees. We just adopted strays who wandered into our backyard. Some of them look really hideous but we loved them all the same.

And since we spent most of our childhood in real kampong places, there was never any shortage of cats and kittens. No dogs there – kampongs are predominantly Malay areas anyway. We were perfectly fine with that. I personally can’t stand dogs very well. They stink and drool. A real put-off!

Of course, being so attached to your cats has its drawbacks. When they die, it’s really heart-breaking. I remember Buffy, our “sweet cat”. She was adorable and extremely clever. Unfortunately, she didn’t live very long. We found her carcass across the street from our house one day. She had a nasty head wound. We were not sure if she was hit by a passing vehicle or someone bludgeoned her to death. Her death left a big hole in our hearts.

She was succeeded by a few other outstanding felines – Twiggy, who was so scrawny when she first arrived; Sporty, the gorgeous but not so bright tabby who got left behind when our family moved from Alor Setar to Bukit Mertajam but who was miraculously found when my parents went back to Alor Setar for a brief visit; and his sister Pity (so named because she had that perpetual pathetic look), who had to be put to sleep when her cancer got really bad.

After her death, my parents decided not to keep any more cats. However, that didn’t stop my mum from feeding the stray cats along the back alley of her house. And cats love her. Strays would follow her around in markets, coffee shops, etc.

I don’t see any stray cats here in Melbourne. The few cats that I’ve seen are obviously pampered pets. They are all huge and with shiny, healthy looking fur. Joshua and Joanne always get excited whenever they catch a glimpse of the cats running about. No such reaction when they see dogs (and there are so many pet dogs around here), though. In fact, Joanne has openly declared that she “hates dogs”.

They must have got that from me. No question about it.