jhungary
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While i was supposed to work on my next piece on Toilet war, the part 2, instead i have written this, mostly because my beloved Tabby had passed away over the weekend on 18 August.
I love cats, i will never denial this fact, truth is, i am only a late comer to cats, believe it or not, i was a dog person when i was growing up.
Cat is a strange yet fasinating creature, they are quite independent, yet they stick to you, they were there when you are down and they will be there when you are in trouble.
Ancient egyptian treat cats as god, and traditionally, cat hold a special place in muslim world. Cat supposedly save Holy Mohammad from a deadly snake and muslim or not would also know how mohammad views on cats.
My love affair with cats are strangely begin in an muslim country - Iraq.
While many of you know i was a soldier stationed over there for a stretch of period.But i never really told anyone of this story, even to my wife. Who still think i am some sort of humanitarian who hell bend on saving cats......
I don't remember which days was it, nor the month, but it was unusually hot on that particular morning. In come Bolo, a ginger domestic short hair which have a face of "I-Don't-Know-What" his blank face almost immeidately coined the name "Bolo" on him. He was quite dehydrated and stumble on to our camp, it was the gate MP that notice this little fella and bring it to our attentions.
Never before my unit work indeed as a unit and do not ****** over every little things, some soldier start building a small temperory huts for shelter and some gather water bottle and some gather what left of our last meal. While some gone to the rec room for some ice
We try to save this little fella and forming a 24 hours watch on him. Which exactly lasted 24 hours....We even call over the battalion medical officer to look at him....
Day by day, he is getting better, and we also get used to his present around us, and i feel he is also started to grew on us. Whenever we have to go outside the wire and do routes, he keep following our humvee until we left the gate. We even make his own tiny little bunk in the best corner of our service tent.
Some time he would jump onto the seat and ask us for going with us, other time he would just hide inside one of the cab and sneak out with us. We don't mind him being there, and he is actually quite well behave under fire, no stratching or anything of our man.
Then, there is one day,when we have to go outside, suddenly in come Bolo and he is blocking the way out by sitting in the middle of the road leading to the gate. As if he don't want us to travel out that day. The lead driver move him but before the lead driver get back inside the cab, there he is again, sitting in the middle of the road. We try everything from throwing stuff at him to throwing food on the roadside. Nothing works. Finally we have to radio inback to the compound and have someone hold him and drag him off the road before we can move out.
Somehow, he broke free of the hold and ran away up to the market we are enroute to. We have to stop rolling as he literally ran pass our Humvee and sped off ahead of us.
You may say it's a cliche, but 5 or so minute later, I've heard a big explosion the direct he went to which we are supposed to go. And from that day on, we have never saw Bolo ever again.
Some think he trip an IED and got blown up til kingdom come, yet some insist they have saw Bolo after that day, either way, with no confirm sighting of either living or dying, we carry on with our work. But he sure as hell have left a quite a big scar to each of us. A feeling that some part of us is missing.
Back to the state side, the first thing i told my then girlfiend when i got back from Iraq was
"Hey, i think we should get a cat."
When we got to the pet store, we pick up a ginger domestic short hair. And out of no where, tear start dripping off the corner of my eyes. I can't pick him up, for some reason this Cat remind me of Bolo a lot and without saying a word, i put him back in the cage and went for another tabby domestic short hair instead. I don't know if my girlfriend notice this.
Almost 10 years later, now i am a proud owner of 7 other cats.
This is dedicated to the memory of my beloved tabby - Charlotte, may she rest in peace and play in the god's garden whereever she is. May she rest in peace
I love cats, i will never denial this fact, truth is, i am only a late comer to cats, believe it or not, i was a dog person when i was growing up.
Cat is a strange yet fasinating creature, they are quite independent, yet they stick to you, they were there when you are down and they will be there when you are in trouble.
Ancient egyptian treat cats as god, and traditionally, cat hold a special place in muslim world. Cat supposedly save Holy Mohammad from a deadly snake and muslim or not would also know how mohammad views on cats.
My love affair with cats are strangely begin in an muslim country - Iraq.
While many of you know i was a soldier stationed over there for a stretch of period.But i never really told anyone of this story, even to my wife. Who still think i am some sort of humanitarian who hell bend on saving cats......
I don't remember which days was it, nor the month, but it was unusually hot on that particular morning. In come Bolo, a ginger domestic short hair which have a face of "I-Don't-Know-What" his blank face almost immeidately coined the name "Bolo" on him. He was quite dehydrated and stumble on to our camp, it was the gate MP that notice this little fella and bring it to our attentions.
Never before my unit work indeed as a unit and do not ****** over every little things, some soldier start building a small temperory huts for shelter and some gather water bottle and some gather what left of our last meal. While some gone to the rec room for some ice
We try to save this little fella and forming a 24 hours watch on him. Which exactly lasted 24 hours....We even call over the battalion medical officer to look at him....
Day by day, he is getting better, and we also get used to his present around us, and i feel he is also started to grew on us. Whenever we have to go outside the wire and do routes, he keep following our humvee until we left the gate. We even make his own tiny little bunk in the best corner of our service tent.
Some time he would jump onto the seat and ask us for going with us, other time he would just hide inside one of the cab and sneak out with us. We don't mind him being there, and he is actually quite well behave under fire, no stratching or anything of our man.
Then, there is one day,when we have to go outside, suddenly in come Bolo and he is blocking the way out by sitting in the middle of the road leading to the gate. As if he don't want us to travel out that day. The lead driver move him but before the lead driver get back inside the cab, there he is again, sitting in the middle of the road. We try everything from throwing stuff at him to throwing food on the roadside. Nothing works. Finally we have to radio inback to the compound and have someone hold him and drag him off the road before we can move out.
Somehow, he broke free of the hold and ran away up to the market we are enroute to. We have to stop rolling as he literally ran pass our Humvee and sped off ahead of us.
You may say it's a cliche, but 5 or so minute later, I've heard a big explosion the direct he went to which we are supposed to go. And from that day on, we have never saw Bolo ever again.
Some think he trip an IED and got blown up til kingdom come, yet some insist they have saw Bolo after that day, either way, with no confirm sighting of either living or dying, we carry on with our work. But he sure as hell have left a quite a big scar to each of us. A feeling that some part of us is missing.
Back to the state side, the first thing i told my then girlfiend when i got back from Iraq was
"Hey, i think we should get a cat."
When we got to the pet store, we pick up a ginger domestic short hair. And out of no where, tear start dripping off the corner of my eyes. I can't pick him up, for some reason this Cat remind me of Bolo a lot and without saying a word, i put him back in the cage and went for another tabby domestic short hair instead. I don't know if my girlfriend notice this.
Almost 10 years later, now i am a proud owner of 7 other cats.
This is dedicated to the memory of my beloved tabby - Charlotte, may she rest in peace and play in the god's garden whereever she is. May she rest in peace
