History of My Beloved Feline Companions

June 2006 ~ Found Albator in a road accident. This little black kitty was so scrawny & had so many injuries that it was unbelievable. A true survivor he turned out to be.

G & I had just returned from a trip to Phuket. I was sick, probably from too much sun, & was going to visit the doc. On the way to the GP, we noticed a slight commotion at the cross-road junction & stopped to kay-poh. A delivery van had stopped & was holding up some traffic. The driver came out of this van & approached a small black thing that seemed to be his way. The black thing moved & scambled,crawled under the van, just at the front wheel. It was this injured kitten. I froze. G ran across the road, took some rags from the exasperated driver & pulled the scared kitty out from underneath the van. My hero :)

You would think that finding a kitten is the cutest thing that could happen. But ‘cute’ was not the adjective for this situation. On the contrary, it was a bloody sight. Broken right fore leg, bone sticking out, dislocated shoulder, filthy, flea-invested, fangs showing, hissing, dehydrated-looking… it was quite horrible & heart-breaking. At the vet, we discovered it wasn't its 1st nor 2nd accident. Barely 6 weeks old, it had been severely traumatised. Bloated tummy, scarred body, crooked spine, weak hind legs, infected tail... it was in really bad shape. The vet stitched up the open flesh wound so the broken leg would heal & hopefully, the shoulder might locate itself cos’ it was too expensive & risky to operate on a kitten this young. We also went home with a lot of medicines & instructions to carefully nurse it back to health in the next few weeks. There was no saying if it would survive the ordeals & we were told to expect the worst. Cats have nine lives but we had no idea how many lives this kitty might’ve already used up. The healing process was tedious but significant. Albator was a feisty little creature, often hissing & snarling whenever we tried to clean his wounds or feed him medicine/food. He was like his name – a warrior, scarred but determined to get well & that he did, with loads of love & patience.

Aug 2006 ~ Found a white tabby kitten loitering at the coffeeshop where I often had my lunch. While deciding if I should adopt another cat, I was afraid that Albator might get jealous or develop a low self-esteem in seeing another healthy kitten. Then I figured Albator might appreciate a playmate so Capucine came home with me. The first night was funny – the 2 kittens (almost the same size, so I decided they were about the same age) stared & hissed at each other. I was almost worried that bringing Capucine home was a mistake. But the next day, my worries were unfounded. They became best friends. Having Capucine around probably helped Albator heal too, cos' he became more active. She was naughtier but the copy-cat theory proved true. At least Capucine picked up Albator's good toilet habits. It is such a joy to see them play - wrestling & chasing each other around the house - & clean each other with so much love.

Albator & Capucine ~ my beloved kitties :)