This is a picture of Kecik staring out into the distance from the balcony. Though you cannot view the expression on her face, I can tell you that she had a faraway look that suggested only one thing- Rindu. And she has had that look reflecting through her yellow cat eyes from the deepest recesses of her fragile heart, for a very long time. Who has she been waiting for? None other than her dearest Andi.
Andi was not her macho bob cat spouse nor was he the 'wham bam thank you ma'am!' father of her kittens. Andi was her tall and lanky (ok lah, boyishly cute too) former owner who saved her from the lonely life of an abandoned cat in an animal shelter, brought her home and loved her to bits. On the day they parted, they had the same sad look on their faces. Although Kecik was more confused than he could be. She remained that way for many weeks.
Kecik has been an emotionally difficult cat code to crack. I'm sure she thinks of her stay here as an abandonment on Andi's part. But the truth, as I have tried to wedge into her little heart-shaped head, is that he had to let her go to pursue a career in the sky (literally). Frankly a place she could not follow. Bringing her along was not an option. So the next best thing was to place her and her kittens here with the almostcrazycatlady me. But she refuses to let go of the idea that Andi is off on a short vacation and will soon take her back to their spacious home without weird old cats around giving her vicious 'i will eat your eyeballs when you go to sleep' looks or obnoxious little boys squeezing her like a rubber ducky. I thought she would gradually come out of it and move on with her life and see that we are not planning to skin her alive but instead offer her a home full of love that even teddy bears would wish themselves to be living creatures to take her place...ok, that's a little creepy. But still. Not that I give myself such high extols but if I were a cat, I'd like to live with me. Just ask Mama Ayeow. You may not wanna ask Pat though, he's still mad at me because I put him on a diet so that he could still use his limbs for another day or two (I know, talk about being ungrateful. It's because of his food limits that he can still RUN FROM ME when I try to get a hug out of him).
Quite honestly I haven't yet had a cat who has refused to be chummy with me. But understandably she was tight with her owner and it is sad to see her pining away for his return. If it weren't for her kids and the ever so attentive Parsi, I suspect that she would've run away. Perhaps she realizes though that the cats in this neighborhood are freakier than me my cats.
However, all is not lost yet and there is good news to report. In the past 2-3 weeks I FINALLY saw some signs of Kecik wiggling out of her seemingly unbreakable iron-clad shell. Surely it was a pleasant surprise for me when she just came to me and decided to be an affectionate ball of blue fur. Suddenly, we were like childhood friends at a slumber party confessing stupid little school girl crushes on that one guy and sharing dreams of one day owning a silver unicorn or at the very least, pierced ears so we could wear chandelier earrings down to our butts (of course at the time we didn't know that they could break your neck from the weight were called chandelier earrings).
I have been trying to "connect" with her for so long, I've nearly given up out of frustration and admittedly have been feeling insulted by her lack of response. This week she's gotten more friendlier with the people of the house. She has also started vocally responding to direct speech. Before this, if we talked to her she would ignore us and buat bodoh even though she's fully aware of the fact that we're talking to her and not to my fairy godmother. But now she mews and has taken to rubbing herself against my legs. She is also a big fan of flopping on the floor and stretching long, expecting a belly rub from her display.
Needless to say, I am thrilled with this improvement and only hope that we can establish a closer bond in time. It's not just for my ego as I have had a good track record with cats (as opposed to humans--really, sometimes I just can't stand people) including feral ones but also because I think it's important for her to feel at home here if she intends to stay.
She still misses you, Andi. And I do believe she'll always have you at the base of her heart. But seriously, if you're going to poop in the litter box that I scoop everyday, I do expect at the very least for you to be seen with me in public and not pretend to be Miss Independant.
