my cats were sick just a few days ago. imagine, one was lost for two days. and when she came back, she was all wet and she sat still. curling her body. in need of warmth. it was raining that day. i was scared. i was scared that if i carried her, she might be dead in my hand. i was scared. i didn’t know what to do. so, i shouted for kaklong. “kaklong, lala is back. she’s sick. she’s really really sick. faster. faster.”

kaklong came down; after all, kaklong loves cats more than i do.

kaklong carried her inside and gave her warmth. tried hard to dry her, but we couldn’t find the hair-dryer. with all the piled up things from our older house, it’s hard to find the hair-dryer. we didn’t even know if the hair-dryer still exist. so, kaklong wrapped lala with a towel, hoping that it was warm enough. she was very sick and weak. she wouldn’t even respond to anything we did. hurt her, she didn’t care. she was too weak to do anything. it was scary. it was night and we still didn’t know any veterinars in the neighborhood. we didn’t know whom to call. so, we just wished that she would still be alive tomorrow so that we could bring her to the vet.

kaklong asked me, “aisya, probably lala would be better off sleeping in the same room as you are. you would hear if she needs anything. abang afiq is allergic to dust, so i can’t bring her to my room.”

but i was double scared, “how if. when i get up next morning, she’s dead already. what would i do? how if, i accidentally woke up late nights and realize that she’s not there?” all the negative thoughts were flooding my head. she didn’t look like she was gonna stay long. i hoped she would, but i was scared.

lala ended up sleeping in abang’s room. downstairs. covered up with piles of clothings.

when i woke up the next morning, i had the urge to look at the room. but i was still scared.

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i remembered not so long ago, only abang and i were in the house. the others went back, i think. if i am not mistaken, it was near spm or something. it was either i companied abang at home, or. i, too, was going to be having PMR. we were lazy bums. we didn’t really go out much and we didn’t care to bring the cats in because we didn’t want to have to wash their sh*ts. (i can’t think of a better word for this, excuse me) :\ so, we let them stayed out. we would only go out if, and only if, we need food. :p at that time, cooking is a definite no no. i rarely (or should i say haven’t) cooked on my own. so abang would go to kutty bavoo and bought us koey teow goreng. we fed the cat every morning and night before we got to sleep. and one day, when abang wanted to go out to buy koey teow goreng for us, he saw our cat was dead right in front of the door. he called me, i immediately came down. our cat was not moving and was covered by ants and flies. it wasn’t a good sight at all. my brother did all the work in order to burry the poor cat.
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these are actually extras. there’s nothing to do with the cats. don’t have to read. : i went back to sleep but i ended up not waking up for work. i told ayah that i wanted half-day. let me sleep til 12.30. and picked me up after lunch. when i was half-asleep, half-awake, i tried hearing if kaklong shouted in terror or not, to see if lala was still alive. and she didn’t, so lala was still safe. i woke up at 10 something because mama called. and she said, “aisya, can you please tell ayah and kaklong that some thieves went in their house because there was no grill and they just broke in. make sure that no one is left home alone.” and i was alone.. i didn’t dare to tell mama that, because i was scared that she might be worried. i wanted to go out to check lala, but i was scared. i was scared of the thief. what would happen if a thief came in and saw me? i guess, i was negative after all. so i bathed and continued sleeping, waiting for kaklong to be back and picked me up.

kaklong knocked on my door, and we immediately went to the vet. the vet was shocked at how weak lala was. but couldn’t figure out what was wrong. she tried checking if there was any blood sticking out, for a sign of poison but there was zilch. lala was a bit sick, but she couldn’t think of anything more than that, that is certain. there must be something else that made lala soo weak. so, she thought of fip.

fip (Feline Infectious Peritonitis) is the scariest disease a cat could have. there’s no cure, and it wouldn’t live up to 6 months. if it were really fip, lala was in a critical stage. only 7 days to live. but, she wasn’t certain yet. all the signs seemed to pointed lala to the disease. the disease used the antibody itself to fight with the antibody. it was something like cancer, it would affect the brain and the eyes til the cat died. it was scary. really scary.

so, we brought lala to the vet everyday. i didn’t follow them one day, and the vet told kaklong that probably it really was fip. but it was still not certain. since lala’s temperature the day before was above the normal range and the day after was below the normal range. what was left was for us to give all the attentions and loves the cat needs. but lala was still brought to the vet everyday.

suddenly, back home. qiki didn’t want to eat anymore. we were scared because the disease would infect all the other cats. we have 6 of em. so, we brought qiki to the vet, too. however, then, in the vet, (this was all told by kaklong, i didn’t follow her) while the vet was giving lala some antibody and pain reliever medicine, lala was a bit strong to fight back. and suddenly some fluid came out from her ears. all the worries ended there. lala was actually been infected by ear infections. it was probably when she was lost, she fell down into some drains and caused the bacteria to fill in her ear. right after the vet cleaner her ear, she immediately wanted to eat. phew.

so, qiki was easy. the first thing the vet checked was her ear and she was infected by the same virus, too. since she was still strong, she tried hard to not get any injection at all. she even climbed the wall in the clinic! three people holding her was not enough, so the vet ended up letting her sleep.

back home, i was with mama breaking fast. kaklong came back with lala which looked really healthy, compared to days before. and qiki in the basket. kaklong laughed and told me the whole story in the clinic. qiki was funny, she got the sleeping dose but she was still trying to show how tough she was. with a half-awake, half-asleep situation she walked out the basket. after two or three steps, she fell down and went back to sleep. later, she woke up again, and walked as if she were drunk, and again, she fell down and slept. just a few seconds after that, she woke up and brought her legs to scratch her neck, but while she was bringing her legs, suddenly her head fell down but the leg was still up. it was funny. it was as if she tried hard to not sleep but still ended up sleeping. all night, she looked as if she were drunk. and when she was asleep, she looked as if she was unconcsious at all. i laughed when she was awake, but worried when she was asleep.

but alhamdulillah, both lala and qiki are safe now. all we need to do was to force them to eat medicine. and that wouldn’t be so hurtful compared to looking at them weak.