Truffles and Chips were two kittens we had fostered for awhile when we lived at Jalan Minyak. My sister’s friend had asked around for anyone willing to take in some kittens while they looked for a permanent home, and we said yes. We already had gotten some netting fixed up because cats were coming into our house and we needed to keep them out. Netting worked both ways, which meant keeping the kittens in.
By this time we were also quite comfortable managing things in our rental. We were willing to play with our space a bit, and more importantly, our aircon was either dying or dead, which meant we didn’t have any hot air blowing out of our bedroom door. This would have definitely cooked the cats, because they would sleep in our living room area and not in the bedroom with us.
There were some notable regrets. For example, the kittens would wake up at about 6am with some high pitched squealing. They wanted to eat, and by the time they left us, they could easily jump up to boards we had set up to break up the room. If we had no air con in the room, it meant we still needed air to come in, and this meant having our door open.
Truffles and chips would also be zooming about the house in the cutest ways possible and knocking into each other more than anything else. They would scatter about if it was raining and there was thunder. They loved hiding under the fridge, which made me sneeze for the first week. After that, they had moved most of the dust out, so no more sneezing for me. They climbed on our tables whenever we had meals. They could also climb up on me, with their claws gripping my jeans and t-shirts. They would lie in sunspots when the days were toasty, and then snuggle in our basket of clothes or cloths wherever convenient. They also loved to bundle together as brothers, and then fight as brothers too.
One of the nights, we had a wedding dinner to attend. I was the MC, so I needed to be there early. I was also part of the church part of the wedding in the morning. Clarice fed the kittens and left to come for the dinner. There was this sense of uncertainty if the kittens would still be alive by the time we came back at night. But they were alive, and screaming for food.
We considered adopting them every single day. Not a day went by without us saying, maybe we should really just take the kittens. But our house was small. Not tiny, but small. Also, at the start, they were a lot smaller, so they couldn’t reach many things. But by the time they were leaving us, they could easily get up much higher. Our apartment really wasn’t set up for pets, so it was just not right. Not that we weren’t willing to make the change, I think we were just not sure what would need to change.
But a family finally came after a month or two of them staying with us. A family that visited, parents and children, and it looked like the family was willing to house them and love them the same way we did. We couldn’t say no either, because we were just helping to hold them for a time.
I cried for two to three nights in a row. I would come back home, missing their screams for food and attention. I would sob on the floor where I would hold them during the rainy nights, and pet them to sleep. I wailed, missing them dearly, and regretting not being willing to make changes a bit quicker so that I could take them in. I spoke to them aloud, hoping they’d hear me through their cat senses about how I missed them and missed them climbing all over me. I lay flat on the floor, with some incredulous thought of maybe finding them underneath the fridge, or tucked in our shelves again. I missed them from the bottom of my heart.
We weren’t ready for kittens, but I really wished we had taken them in. Our life would be significantly different from what it is now. But it would have been added in value by a tremendous amount.
Having them made me also realise how much of my heart I give when I love, and how I can’t imagine how to say yes to Allison asking for pets in the future. My heart would break if the pets pass away, and I don’t know if Allison would be okay seeing her father cry so hard.
In a practical sense, I am also sure my loving heart for Allison has already outweighed the love I had for Truffles and Chips. But just recounting the memories of them over the past few nights has made me miss them a lot. Are they okay? Have they grown longer than they already were? Do they remember me? Are they still afraid of the rain and thunder? Will they love Allison too?
I can only hope and wish them all the best.
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