Koko

Friday, January 4, 2013

Koko

Assalamu ‘Alaikum

Koko

Mine was called Oren in reference to his colour. I vividly recalled the day Oren came into my life. It must have been frightened out of its wits when this 5 year old boy grabbed it and wouldn’t let go come what may. I remembered there was a boy, in the house granny and I visited, who cried and said or intimated the kitten was his but something came over me and I held on very tightly to Oren. Of course in the traditional Malay way Pakcik Roleb and his mother persuaded the crying boy to let me have the kitten and Pakcik Roleb then drove me and granny home with the kitten. I can’t say I remember much playing with Oren but I do remember he led a long life and can still picture him as an adult cat walking majestically in our home in Kampung Sira. 

My kids have asked for a pet for a long time but being previously nomadic we feared we might be nomadic again and declined their request as not a good idea. When mama said a mother cat had delivered and left two kittens in Zahir’s room I thought nothing of it taking the kittens out and delivering it to their mother. I knew the mother and the two elder siblings as they sort of assumed they were our pets asking for food at the front door every morning. We obliged by putting chicken bones and fish ribs on the grass outside the gate thinking why not as we would have rubbished them anywhere. So we were surprised to learn on coming back from mama’s kampong that there were two little kittens in the house. When I placed the two kittens at their mum’s feet what later shocked me was she only accepted one and refused the other. She took the favoured kitten away, left the other one motherless and disappeared for a long time. The appeals from the lonely kitten was heart rending. A bit later we saw the mother came back sniffed the abandoned kitten and again abandoned it! Mama says probably the kitten didn’t smell like hers and therefore she doesn’t want it. When I came back from work in the evening and mama reported it is indeed an abandoned kitten on our doorstep, we made a family decision to adopt it. The kids wanted to call it Kiki but I said it’s a male kitten and so they decided on Koko instead although he is rather black. We made a house for the kitten out of a large foam box making a door for it to slip in and out. In the current coldish weather it should keep the kitten warm if there is a thunderstorm at night. The beseeching calls to mum is still there but we can’t communicate with it to appease it so the kids decided to play with it often to keep his mind off mum. Food is condensed milk mixed with water until she gets a bit older. Kids are excited they have a pet now.

It dawns on me now why cats are so loved by the Prophet s.a.w. and is said to be the only pets in Jannah. They are so trusting on human and constantly appeals to the human heart. It was presumptuous of mother cat and her elder siblings to demand food from me every time I return from dawn prayers but they do it in a fait accompli sort of way we ended up feeding them every day. It was also presumptuous of her to choose our house to deliver her litter but I am quietly proud that this animal have high regards and trust of humans. When I left the kittens with their mum it was with some trepidation knowing what amorous male cats can do to kittens if they sense mother cat is on heat. But that didn’t happen fortunately, and in dramatic twist our hearts go out to this abandoned kitten instead. The family don’t know whether we will be adequate as a surrogate parent but we will do our best as Allah has put him in our care. Koko seems a rewrite of the story of Oren. Caring for Oren must have imparted values that now forms a part of me. I eagerly await how Koko will shape up my children in sya Allah.

Wassalam,

Zahid