the cat next door

The cat out at my neighbour's front porch

So recently, a cat has been paying frequent visits to my front porch in the mornings. 

My family doesn’t really fancy cats; we are more like dog people (?) (but I am still very terrified of huge dogs).  Hm let’s just say, we aren’t exactly animal people.  Don’t get me wrong, we do not despise or hate on any type of animals, we are just afraid.

So back to the cat story, this cat had no home.  Not anymore; I am not sure if it belonged to my neighbor (they have a lot of cats + since it goes there every time it runs away), but it is definitely now stray.

 ‘Oh, joyi, stray cats are everywhere in Malaysia. ‘But this one was different.  One of its eyes was infected and ruddy, bulging out from its eye socket.  When I first saw it lurking around the front, I was stunned and astounded.  I quickly ran upstairs to find my dad, while shouting ‘Pa! Come take a look at this cat!’

By the time we returned to the porch, it was already gone. I insisted that the red ball was its eye bulging out from its socket but my dad argued that it was just a huge tumour-like pimple (?)  Anyway, a couple of days later, we confirmed it was the eye, probably a result from a very aggressive cat fight or an allergic reaction which then caused the cat to scratch it out? I don’t know, only the cat knows.

What I do know, was that this cat was turning scrawnier day by day.  Its fur became all patchy and it was experiencing hair loss.  We knew then, that no one was going to care about this stray cat.  People were afraid of its exterior (I admit I was stunned when I first encountered it) but a bad exterior does not mean you should be ostracized, and that was exactly what the poor cat was facing.  It is bad enough that its eye could no longer see this world; it might even cause more serious circumstances.  This cat definitely does not deserve to be thrown away or kicked out from the house.

We felt tremendously bad for the poor cat, so we bought some dry cat food and placed it outside our house every morning.  It did eat a little at first but its movements were eventually slowing down – sometimes, its small body just lies on the side of the road even though there were cars passing by. 

Here - my grandma was feeding it with some food

These couples of days, we no longer see it around.  I have no idea where it is, but I just wish and pray the best for this poor little cat, hopefully it is feeling better now in a better place.

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On the same note, I know many people in real life are facing similar issues – just because they don’t look or act normal, they are ostracized by the society.  It hurts me deep inside, knowing the amount of unspoken pain these people have to go through living each day, and the only thing on their minds is – how much do I need to change to feel accepted and appreciated?

They change and convert into someone entirely different from who they really are.  Are they really still living when the person they truly are died during this transition?  Is this the happiness they have been longing for - acceptance into the society by being someone else?

So I chanced upon this picture on instagram @thegoodquote and it resonated a lot to how i felt at that time.

Well, I believe everyone is born unique and special in their own ways; we are not all molded to be the exact same version of each other.  You see, one individual will also have different sides of himself depending on the people he is with or the mood he is in.  So the question is – who are we to judge other people when we ourselves are so much different from other people?