The Pet Lover in Me

August 4, 2021

Wednesday

It's a typical day in eomma’s life, but today I am missing someone, our cat who's been gone and missing for almost 2 weeks.

The cat I am talking about here is our cat, Sky. The one I always share on noise.cash.

https://noise.cash/post/1kprvnp3

He's a male cat and he just turned mature last month. Everyone at home loves him so much, though all he did was sleep and eat, he's very adorable and good at hunting.

But before I found myself loving for Sky, I once hated him. Frankly speaking, I am not a cat lover, I like dogs more than cats. But that has a reason.

When I was still young, I love animals a lot. I guess, most children are like that. And my first pets were chicks and chickens. My father who's a teacher in a public High School always receives chicken at every Christmas party they had.

He works in a remote area, near the mountains far from the city, so most families there can't afford to buy for exchange gifts. So, they sent their animals such as chickens as gifts.

I was in grade two at that time, when I met my first pet. She's a chicken, a little chicken with a white feather. They planned to cook the poor chicken but I cried and beg her from my father.

Since my father couldn't resist me, she gave the chicken to me as my pet.

I called her Ting-ting, it's weird but yeah, I love to call her by that name. Ting-ting and I were very close, I could tell about it because she was attached to me too. Every time I came home from school, my clumsy chicken ran towards me like a pet dog. But our friendship didn't stay that long, I couldn't remember how she died but we buried her in the backyard.

After I lost my Ting-ting, more chickens come and go. Some were roosters too. I named them Dakila, Agilus, and Big Brother.

Dakila and Agilus names were inspired by a Tv show/series titled Mulawin. I guess some of my Filipino friends still remember it.

But as usual, they only live not too long. Then one day, when I was washing the dishes in the sink, a tiny sound came out from the corner. It was a kitten, it was so cute, and I tried to touch it but it ran away. But I have a gut feeling that it will return to the house.

Then the morning came, I saw the kitten sniffing on the floor, looks like she's looking for some food. Then I prepared food for her and put it in the corner where I found her.

She ate it and it became our routine. She only comes for mealtime and then disappears. But because I have no pet at that time, I tried to tame her. Little by little she became comfortable with me then one day I found myself sleeping together with a kitten in my bed.

When I thought I could have a pet cat, my father turned mad when he found out about Kitty. Kitty was the name I named my adopted kitten. She's very clumsy and clingy and I really like her.

I always protect her from my father who's furious with cats. He just hates cats a lot maybe because the cats of our neighbors always ate away our viands at home. But Kitty's different, she loves to sleep in my lap, whenever she saw someone sitting she leaps on their lap and sleeps. But my father and brother got irritated.

One day, I woke up without a glimpse of Kitty inside the house. She's nowhere to be found, then I asked my father about her but he told me probably Kitty went back to her original owner.

I was sad the whole day and my father noticed it. Then he told me the truth that he threw away Kitty in the cemetery located in the neighborhood.

I was crying and angry at him at the same time. Then after three days, Kitty went back home, so skinny and light. Looks like she starved for being away for days. Then I tried to hide her from my father. I let her stayed in my room but it took only 1 week then she's gone again.

This time my father didn't mention any words but I believe he's the reason why Kitty's gone missing again. I was so down, and Kitty's forever gone.

I tried to pet and adopt another lost kitten in the house but they couldn't stay for too long because of my father. So I lose my hope and never tried to adopt one.

I just stick with dogs and chickens until I turned college. I always want to pet cats, but I always failed. Then I was traumatized to be attached to a cat and be left again.

That made me dislike having cats at home, but not until I met this cat, Sky.

Sky was adopted by the family last year, he came here as a kitten and at first, I didn't let myself be attached to him. But as time passed by, Sky showed me how funny and adorable he was so he got my heart.

He was a good hunter too which made the people in the residence like him. He caught and killed rats and birds already, making our house rat-free. He's also playful and drowsy at the same time.

But then as he turned mature last month, he often disappears. Maybe because he was on heat and looking for his mate. It's natural for male cats, but he always goes home at night or dawn.

But two weeks ago, Sky didn't come home until today. Some people threw jokes that he might be dead or was beaten by other people. Or he died in a road accident. I laughed at them but deep inside I couldn't imagine it happened to Sky.

I am worried about him for weeks because even he's a cat he's not just a pet for me. He's part of the family already and my kids were attached to him too.

Now, I'm hoping and praying that he's still alive and well. I'm just giving myself enough faith that one day he will come back even not sooner but seeing him alive will make me glad.

Now we only got our dog Beauty and two chickens, a rooster, and a hen as pets at home.

I don't want to be sad this time, I know pets couldn't be with us forever. So to share with you some good vibes let me introduce to you our chickens with very slight weird names. 😃

This is a broiler, and my son named her “White Manok” manok means chicken. Because he said, she's color white. 😅

And here's Cardo Talisay. My son named him after FPJ's Ang Probinsyano's lead character, Cardo Dalisay. 🤣

His lolo/grandpa (my uncle) told him that the rooster got some blood of a Talisay breed, so he came up with that name. 😄

By the way his grandfather (my uncle) loves to derby. 🤣

I now know what my son inherited from me, my son followed my footsteps in giving weird names. 😄

I'll just end it here. This is just another portion of my story, just when I thought some of my childhood sentiments had faded away, I acknowledged once again the pet lover side in me. I guess it won't just vanish, it's already a part of me. ☺️

Written by: @eommaZel ✍🏻🥀