Saturday, June 02, 2007

And Then There Was One….

We started with one. Then came number two. Third, fourth and fifth came within a short span of period as the orang asli kept on phoning us to buy his ‘miniature leopards’. Wanting to breed Bengal cats, hubby brought back a suitable feral he chanced upon in Tioman, aptly named Tioman. But it was not to be, when Tioman was found dead, one night, most likely poisoned by a cat-hating neighbor whom we named the cat-killer.

When number two began mating number one, he started to mark his territory by pissing all over the house. It is said that by castrating a male cat, this habit will subside. Thus poor number two lost his only chance for any off springs. Then number one began her ‘illegal mating’ spree and ended getting pregnant so frequent that almost immediately after giving birth, she’d be ‘singing’ her cat calls again.

As number one was busy breeding, her matured off springs too started mating and producing their own batches of kittens. At one point, there were possibly more than ten of them, altogether! Fortunately (or unfortunately, which ever way you perceive) one of them had the habit of eating her young ones thus helped curb the number down.

When their number sky-rocketed, we began giving them away. One managed to come back, not once but twice! And she even tried to impress us by putting on her best behavior in an effort to prevent us from dumping her once again! Many died of suspicious circumstances. If you were to plow through our yard, there’d probably be more shallow graves than those found in the house compounds of serial killers!

Beloved number two went missing one day and never returned. A year later, exactly on the same date, number one, too, followed suit. But not without leaving behind four lovely long-haired, just like her. At this point, there were 3 adult cats, 6 newborn kittens, 4 long-haired kittens and 3 leopard cats. They were such a handful that we had to dump 2 adults in a nearby eatery, an unbearable act that had made the person doing it, shed sad tears and vowed that should they return, he would keep them for good, come what may!

When hubby came down with his illness, we decided to call it quits and sent the 3 leopard cats to Zoo Negara. A good Samaritan willingly adopted the 6 kittens and brought them back to Dungun. In between, the long-haired, one by one, began dying mysteriously, leaving behind only one, called Tempang, so-called because his right front leg was maimed by one of the leopards!

At that point, we were left with Tempang and Whirl (a stout orange fellow with whirled patterns). Good Samaritan, whom by now has shifted back here, borrowed Whirl to mark territories at her new abode, in a futile effort to prevent strays from mixing with Labu and Inteb (the only 2 living from the original 6 kittens). Whirl went missing, overnight, probably lured by the strays.

So we are now left with Tempang, whom I am now calling Mayo, in remembrance of number one, his mother. The latest I heard, Labu has been missing for 36 hours. So Good Samaritan too, is left with one, Inteb.

And then there was one….

20 comments:

pycnogenol said...

ROTFLOL
DITH, are you giving us a trailer to an upcoming entry entitled: "And Then There Was NONE?

mynn said...

my father has lots of cats and i could relate to your stories of the various affairs of cats very2 well. Nowadays I'm not that big a fan of cats as I'd come to realise that I'm allergic to them!

mynn said...

(in fact reading your story has almost made me sneeze)

dith said...

Pycno-No. Actually this is a sequel of "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest". Remember that entry? Hehe

Mynn- Good Samaritan is also allergic to them but for her love of cats, she persevered, sneezed, took clarityne and has almost overcome it...I think..:P

dith said...

Btw, Good Smaritan and her soul partner might not be able to read this as they are still stuck in non-virtual world!

ifos said...

Mak, how could you guys give away Whirl when I specifically requested not to..... *sad*

dith said...

ifos- we did nt give away. We lent it.

Mama Sarah said...

from the title, i thought it was another episode of your children. you know, first child, 2nd, so on and so on.

then they left for Uni, college, boarding school. and now you are left with Luqman.

ternyata meleset sama sekali sangkaan saya. kucing rupanya.

dith said...

Nisak-

In 10 yrs time you'll be writing the same about kids leaving you huh? :p

Arifah said...

dith said...

ifos- we did nt give away. We lent it.

Er, what did u mean by lent? Boleh ye pinjam kucing?? Hehehe.

I've seen some of those cats. Cutiessss. =D

HCI said...

roza, ala problem with me, tutti ada tiga ekor anak cantik2, tapi hubby tak nak let go, cancer-menser dia kata, mana boleh dia makan hati....he he he, i kata cancer-menser, tak sanggup aku nak cuci.....

thank for your kind words, ni sempat i curi masuk sini lepas sent off my hubby home for home leave. tomorrow ct scan. i am managing him and doing my on-call duties this week, thus buzy2. we said to each other, cancer-menser; on-call, on call juga, kerja tetap kerja, masa tunggu dia lepas op nanti, boleh curi2 gi presentation for cancer survivors. Not to prove anything, but to maintain normalcy and sanity.

dyanna said...

oohh.. so many cats! I thought we had it bad when our cat, Semek come to realise that she's a kitten 'factory' every 4 months. Somehow they got a 'system' to control the grounds from being overpopulated by running away and suicide.

Idham said...

:)
i can imagine...DITH...
and reading on how u felt after leaving 2 adult ones at an eatery reminds me of what i did ...exactly the same.
I made a u turn just to see what happens to her. then one day later drove there again. she was not to be seen.
i assumed someone had picked her up...afterall she was so good looking.

eh, leopard cat tu macam mana?

idham

dith said...

Afie: Good Samaritan said: Can I borrow Whirl for a few days to mark my house to bar the strays away?

Has: Tutti's kittens are so cute. DOnt give them away! I'd take them anytime if I am near you! Yes, maintaining normalcy is next to sanity, :p.

dyanna: masyallah! Cats committing suicide??? This is a first for me! But I've seen some cats looking very very depressed...I guess that's possible...how sad..:((

idham: reading your comment gave me goose-bumps. Because that's what I did. I made a u turn and pass the spot for many days. I tried searching in the comment box if ikelah has made any similar comment about me but none. And I wrote nothing about it in the entry. You wrote as though you knew what I did! :)))

dith said...

Btw,

Leopard cats dont meow the usual way. they chirp almost like a bird.

Anonymous said...

this reminds me of a huge billboard along the bayan baru highway promoting spaying (you've seen that one dyanna, near Queensbay?)

i honestly couldn't believe my eyes

simah said...

i suppose having a ct is like taking up a responsibility of having a kid coz u need to care for them etc..etc...

do u miss the gone ones?

by the way akak.. u have been tagged :0)..check out my blog for the info...(tapi up to u la kalau u nak jawab... no restrictions :0)

Ikelah said...

the main reasons i agreed to send the two away:

1. she started to have this bad habit, rummaging the bin.on top of that, bad example to the younger kittens.

2. Cannibalism. the other ate all her newborns and had a feast out of it. Momad had to shoo them and i almost vomited out.

3. my health refrain me from discipling them and we had no choice.

As for the three, they will be in better hands although, they maybe be devoid of love.

even then it took me weeks to give the green light.

maklang said...

kat my house pulak....every year kucing datang nak 'melahirkan'...

tapi semuanya kucing 'datang'..

kenkadang rasa rumah tu macam hospital kucing beranak pulak!

we do not have any as Cik Abang n Hakim especially , geli bebenor kucing...

Mama Pongkey said...

Very sedih when Whirl hilang. We patrolled round the housing area looking for him but to no avail. Intet (now named Pongky) still does her 'Duduk Whirl' with her hind legs stretched out behind her as she relaxes in the sphinx position. Oh Whirl!!!! Now the kitties are trying to imitate Pongky, we see their legs stretched out too but haphazardly, they can't quite get it right yet.


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