The purr-fect home away from home
VICCU is 18 years of age and although frail, still manages a friendly fight or two with Ziggy, a hyperactive adorable four-year-old.
Viccu and Ziggy are my pet cats; they have free rein of the house.
Often times, I have looked at a little poster hanging in my bedroom that says, “The cats and their housekeeper live here”. Yes, I slave for them and have given in to all their feline demands simply because they have a way of looking at me in the most adoring way.
Ziggy’s favourite place in the daytime is the top of the air-con where he looks menacingly at any insect or lizard, while Viccu would be curled up on my bed.
In September, I had to go to Australia to be with my daughter for a month due to some unavoidable circumstances. I asked around for someone who could care for my cats but could not really find anyone who was willing to cat-sit for a whole month. I then browsed the Internet and came across an advert for a cat hotel. Call it serendipity if you will, but a phone call told me that the cat hotel was located next to my sister’s house.
I made an appointment and went over to the cattery to check the place out.
I was greeted by the owner, Khairul, who gave me a tour.
It is a clean and spotless place. The back portion had a number of cages in which a few felines were stretched out sleeping, quite oblivi- ous to my peering into their cages.
Khairul himself is a warm, bubbly person. He listened patiently to me as I tried to explain that my cats had never been caged up before. He reassured me that he loves cats and would give them the best care possible.
As I left the cattery, I had a good feeling and, that night, managed a restful sleep, something that had eluded me for some time.
The day before I was due to leave, I sent two bawling cats to the cattery. As Khairul caged them in, Viccu moaned and Ziggy clawed at the lock, trying to escape. I cried and quickly left with assurances from my sister that she would visit the cats as often as she could, an idea that Khairul wholeheartedly agreed to.
As the flight took off for Australia, my heart felt heavy, thinking of my cats, caged in, with no room to run and play and no bed to sleep on at night.
The first message I received from my sister was very disheartening. She said Viccu was still crying and Ziggy was trying his hardest to unlock the cage. How was I going to survive messages like this for a whole month, I wondered.
I prayed very hard that postings from home would get better with each passing day.
I would wake up each morning, and the first thing I would do was to check for messages.
I was not sure what to expect, but a message that said “the cats have settled down, they are OK”, would have sufficed.
God does listen, you know. Exactly one week later, I received some photos and a video from Khairul himself. Ziggy was stretched out on the sofa while Viccu sat on Khairul’s lap, getting a good ear rub. My sister also sent me similar pictures and, as the days went by, Viccu progressed from Khairul’s lap to his son’s playroom while Ziggy was free to roam about. Both my cats had actually acclimatised to their new home! Khairul told me each time Viccu moaned (maybe he was missing me), he would just carry him and stroke him till he slept.
No one can fathom the extent of my gratitude. I cannot think of another person who would have cared for my cats the way Khairul did. He never once complained of Viccu’s unusually loud meows or Ziggy running helter-skelter all over the house.
At the end of the month, the first thing I did, when the plane touched down, was to make my way to the cattery. I profusely thanked Khairul and took my cats home.
It was as if they had never been away. Viccu found his way to my bed, and Ziggy made a beeline for the air-con, from where he looked down disdainfully at me, something he does all the time, knowing he is too high up for me to get to him.
Khairul’s cattery is not a business. It is a place where cats are loved and truly cared for. I am happy there is such a place where my cats were loved as much as I love them.
I hope I will not have to board them for long periods of time again, but if I have to, then this cattery will be my only choice – a place where cats can be purr-fectly happy and feel at home.