New Kitten in Town, November 2005

Shah Alam, November 2005

Kershasp waqs visiting us from Ohio and we decided to drive across the peninsula to Cherating on Malaysia's east coast, to enjoy the beach and the South China Sea. On the second day the three of us were sipping coffee at a restaurant when a beautiful cat showed up. The restaurant owner told us the cat's kittens were up for adoption. Hootoksi selected a tiny male and we christened him Cinta which means 'love' in Bahasa Malaysia. Cinta was in very poor condition and slept the entire journey back to KL curled up in a shoebox. He was infested with fleas and it took weeks to cleanse him of them. He  settled very well into his new home in Shah Alam, although his appearance threw the resident cat, Che-Che, into a major sulk.

As Cinta grew in size, strength and assertiveness he became increasingly hostile towards Che-Che. One day, Che-Che went missing and was never seen again.

Cinta was an object of intense interest to our dog Tashi. Soon, Cinta overcame his instinctive fear and actually adopted Tashi as his surrogate mother, even attempting to suckle her! When Tashi had aged and was nearly blind and deaf, she Somehow managed to go to the road ourtside one dark, rainy night, and disappeared. We and some of our neighbours searched the area, cal;ling out to Cinta, but we never found her. Cinta seemed to understand that she was gone forever. His sadness and loneliness at the loss of his "mother" lasted weeks and was plainly evident in his behaviour.

Photo: Young Che-Che and Tashi

2020 update

Cinta ruled the roost till he died of old age on 20 May 2019, while we were abroad. He was 14. Hazel and Juneid buried him in the garden. 

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