The Three Mus’cat’eers
It still amazes me how life is able to turn around and help you find a path when you feel like you’re lost. Lost, is what we felt when our almost ten-year-old Great Dane – Boxer mix was taken from us. Our normally loud and exciting household had fallen silent and sad amidst the palpable lack of doggy barks and things being knocked over by an extremely exuberant tail. But, life decided we needed help being pulled out of that dreariness, and decided to do that by way of a stray, scraggly, and ginger kitten.
Meelo (as she would soon be christened) just decided to waltz into our garden and balcony and simply point blank refused to leave. No amount of shooing and chasing did any good as she remained stoic and defiant. She was going nowhere.
After several trips to the vet, lots of baths, and several bouts of feeding her, she was practically our new pet. I say practically because to this day, she will randomly get the urge to step outside our home and walk around the neighborhood. But, no matter how long she’s away, or how far she might wander off, she always finds her way back to us. Since her kittenhood, where she spent her days playing with my sister and myself, sleeping in our room, and getting pets and cuddles from us, she has now grown attached to our mum and dad and has effectively made herself, their pet. Wherever in my house my mum maybe, be it cooking, cleaning or even praying, you will be sure to find Meelo, regally by her side.
Did we stop there? Did life decide that Meelo was a good enough replacement for our dog Skibo? Of course not. Skibo was massive and had an equally massive heart and presence. So we needed more cats. And these ‘more cats’ came to us in the form of loud mewling from our ceiling. As it turned out, a mother kitty (possibly Meelo’s mum as they have similar colored fur) had somehow made her way into the gap between our roof and ceiling and had littered four tiny kittens. After some rescue work, and one of them managing to fall out of the ceiling, we now had a whole litter full of them. All four were similar in size to small rats and could all easily be carried in one hand. They were immediately christened by me as follows.
Cinnamon Spice (aka Cindy) – number one of the two Spice Sisters
MooShu – On account of his cow-like fur patterns and someone to hold the Shu family name
Soon after being rescued, their biological mother bailed and my sister dutifully took on the role of ‘mum’ and spent the next few weeks feeding them, cleaning them, and making sure they were kept warm. There were moments when each of the kitties had breathing issues and needed extra warmth and special care in their feeding but they all managed to pull through with the unfortunate exception of MooShu. The little guy succumbed to the absence of motherly warmth and nutrition and was unable to make it. This left us with the Spice Sisters and Ash. A mischievous trio in every sense of the word to the point where we realized there were too many of them for us to handle.
So we looked to give them up via adoption. Allie gained some interest and she left the trio much to Ash and Cindy’s dismay because, during the span of 6 months, the three of them had gotten quite close. So realizing that we didn’t want to separate the siblings a second time, and promising to make playdates between Ash, Cindy, and Allie, we decided that Ash and Cindy would be taken care of by us.
And thus, the previously ‘empty’ house, left petless by Skibo’s passing, now had three new rays of sunshine running (or mostly lounging) about. The Three Mus’cat’eers.
Meelo, as usual still keeps herself mostly to herself, preferring my parents’ company to mine or my sister’s, while Ash and Cindy due to their fear of, and lack of exposure to the outside world, prefer to limit themselves to our room. The three of them love each other and have grown very close, spending most evenings chasing each other up and down trees in the garden, swiping at each other’s tails, and playfully rolling over and over each other. Ash and Cindy are especially inseparable being siblings of the same litter and can rarely be seen apart.
