Kitty Cat

 It has been more than a year since Jasper left our home. It was on the night of Good Friday that he left. My mum has recounted this over and over again for the past year. She was on her way to church that evening for Good Friday mass and she saw jasper running arnd downstairs. He was his usual active self and my mother fussed over him for 5 mins before she left for church. She told him she'll be back in 2hrs and take him home (this was normal). After that night...we nvr saw him again. My mum has regretted not bringing him home before she left for church. She thought he still wanted to play downstairs and decided to bring him home after church. So it has been more than a year since we've gotten a cat. My father hates animals that can walk arnd the house cos he finds them annoying. He wasnt very fond of jasper cos jasper was really a difficult cat to be with. He was a stray and he would get extremely bored being confined to the house. He only came home to eat, bathe and sleep. The rest of his time was spent playing downstairs. He was also difficult to discipline. Scolding him wasnt an option cos he didnt really care and volume of our voices didnt scare him. The spray can method did work, but only to a certain extent. Jasper was wild. Spaying him didnt really work well either.

So ever since he was gone, we havent gotten a cat cos our area was pending en bloc and getting a new cat would interfere with our future house-moving and stuff. It would also be difficult to get the new cat to adjust to new environments in the midst of us adjusting to our new home after en bloc. The only pet we had this whole time was vodka...melody's hamster for a birthday present.

On Monday morning this week, i was getting ready to go to school. My lecture was at 9am. Melody left 20mins earlier than me cos she had an exam. I wore my shoes, slung my bag, strapped my flute over my shoulder and opened my house door. Then i stared into space for a few seconds and realised i didnt take my vitagen. So i closed back the door, put my stuff down, took a vitagen from the fridge, carried my stuff again and opened the door. And a cat that looked like jasper started meowing and came right into my house. For one moment i thought it was jasper who miraculously managed to find his way home after a year. But the meowing was very loud and jasper has no voice (his vocal cords were broken when he was young). The colour of this cat's fur was also slightly different and this cat is not spayed (i dun see how testicles will grow back). This cat just walked right through my door and started snooping arnd. I took the opportunity when he was curious and afraid of his new environment (cos it will prevent my house from going topsy turvy) to awake my sleeping mother. My mother grumbled at first but jumped up in excitement the minute i mentioned "cat".

She hurried to the living room, saw the healthy-looking cat in amazement and then brought him into the kitchen where she fished out jasper's leftover packet of cat food (it hasnt expired yet!) This cat ate to his heart's content, and meowed alot. And when he was slightly settled down, i left for school. By the time i came back at 12am after turandot performance, the cat was named "Ah Boy" by my sister (Jasper was named by me), and the cat was wearing his new blue collar. He was also sleeping on my bed.

It has been 3 days since his unexpected arrival. We suspect he belongs to someone in my neighbourhood cos he looks so healthy and he was clean when he came. He was only very hungry. But there have been no notices looking for a missing cat put up so until the day someone is looking for this cat, then we will have to part with him. But now...he's ours! Muahaha! He's much more well-behaved than jasper. Very domesticated, doesnt even think of going out. He greets everyone who comes into the house. He loves being near people but is fine with being alone too. He can get overly excited when i play with him. He'll start chasing my legs and biting my legs which can hurt. Melody scolded him just now and he responded very well. He just sat still at her feet and looked at her. He meowed at every sentence she said and after a while he rubbed his ears against her legs as though asking for forgiveness. Lovely cat. He's very responsive too when we talk to him. And best of all, he is litter-trained! =)

So we got our dream cat by chance. But that doesnt mean we dun miss jasper. Sometimes, i still wish he is jasper. Cos jasper is just different in his own way. They may look very much alike, but they are very different in character.


This is Ah Boy =) He has yellow eyes. Jasper has green eyes.


Ah Boy on melody's bed.