My Pet Cat

Yesterday, I read Jessica Zafra’s blog where she noted that her pet cat Koosi passed away. I read the blog entry and it was sad. I am no cat person but we do own pets. There were cats around but we do not really have a pet cat. Our pet dogs hate cats.

picture taken in Nov 2006

Around 2003, A stray cat my sister named "Tiffany" had kittens. One was left in our roof gutter so I kinda adopted the kitten. It is white with orange patches, classic stray cat appearance. It was a male kitten but I can’t tell. We are not cat experts. With that, I kinda give it a lot of names one of which was Crookshanks, the name Hermione’s ginger cat from the Harry Potter books. We just figure that the cat is a male because for a long time the cat is around, we never see it pregnant.

We never own the cat because of our pet dogs but the cat is around if we have something to feed him like leftovers especially fish. In time, we call the cat "Saw" because of the sound my mother used when calling the cat. She uses "Saw" instead of "Meow". The cat recognizes us calling him that through the years. We like that cat. He was good catching mice. It was just unfortunate that we can’t keep him because of the dogs.

There was a time that I thought the cat may be dead, or lost because it hasn’t showed up in a long while but one time when I returned from the States I saw a cat which looks like him. I called it with his name and it responded. I even petted the cat. After that we were able to see the cat again every once in a while. The trick with cats is just feed them. They will be around.

Now the thing with our dogs is they are good in killing big rats, and even kittens. Last week after I give them all bath one of our dogs chased the cat. I was afraid that the dog may kill the cat. It is 10 years old and maybe slow. Luckily it got away safe. After that I look for it then feed it with pork feet in the side of the road. It was cool see him stay in that spot minutes after all the food was consumed. 

In a way, I am waiting for it to happen. My cat is old and he is around our place. Or dogs may kill it.

Last night my dinner included fish. With that, I went outside with my leftovers calling out the cat just like everytime I can. The cat was not there. This morning I woke up early then went jogging. When I was coming back home I saw my father walking with a neighbour. They told me that they saw my cat dying near their house. My father’s description of the cat is Kabang, the heroic dog without a jaw because my cat is slowly losing the front part of the lips exposing the cat’s teeth. They suspect that the cat lost some kind of fight, with our dogs maybe. Just maybe. I went to the place and I saw my cat. Flies and maggots are slowly going in but the cat is still breathing. I almost cry seeing him like that. I called out his name again: Saw, Saw, Saw and I think the cat did hear me but it is slowly dying and cannot respond. It was not easy. I want the suffering to end but I don’t know how. I also want to bury him at least. Our house is a few blocks away. I was thinking of carrying the cat but we have no backyard where I can bury him. I thought of getting a shovel and a pickax and start digging right there. After a few minutes my father and the neighbour who lives nearby passed by for their next lap of jogging and told me he will bury the cat by and by. He didn’t want to bury the cat alive. Fair enough for the cat. It was the last time I saw my pet Saw. I almost cried. I really miss that cat.

Update 14 April 2017

  It turns out my sister has some other pics. This one must be 2008-ish. He looks old in this. I still miss my cat.