A month ago, Betty went out for her daily roams and never came back. The neighbours reported not seeing her. She was gone all throughout Ramadhan. We live close to thick tropical-grade underbrush. One possibility is that she might have come afoul of local wildlife – and I don’t mean squirrels. After three weeks, I had accepted that we would never see her or hear her little mewlings again. For weeks only Comel, the neighbour’s cat, hung around about the house. Here she is trying to persuade me to let her drive us to town. Well, not without a valid driver’s licence, missy. But on Sunday, while Irfan was playing with Comel’s owners from next door, his classmate came a-visiting bringing with him Betty! Thanks to Irfan’s sustained crowdsourcing efforts and detailed descriptions, his friend from school recognised Betty’s markings and her collar at a housing area half a mile […]
Continue readingTag Archives: Betty
Veronica – Hello and Farewell
Before we left for Kuala Lumpur and Sitiawan last weekend, Ain was enamoured with another stray kitty who hung around at a roadside stall nearby. She took to Ain very well, so she thought we would also adopt her and Betty would have a companion. We took in the new calico on Tuesday and named her Veronica. Like their namesake, Betty and Veronica did not really get along well. Betty was quite haughty and Veronica was a better-behaved kitty. They did things together, but once in a while they got into hissing slap flights. We thought that after a week or two of acclimatising, the two kitties would be okay with each other. On Wednesday, while we were having lunch at home a neighbour knocked on our door and told us she saw Veronica get hit by a car. She was at the doorstep limp and lifeless, her eyes looking […]
Continue readingWedding at Lunas
One day we had to leave Betty kitty at home for the weekend. [[image:lunas-wedding01.jpg:What IS up with the many-angled ones?:center:0]] We travelled south to Lunas, Kedah about three hours south where Ain’s cousin Zariff was getting married. [[image:lunas-wedding02.jpg:Lunas is near Kulim which is a spitting distance from Pulau Pinang:center:0]] Ain had found a homestay online and booked by phone. It was quite a comfortable pace to stay, we discovered upon checking in. [[image:lunas-wedding03.jpg:This is the same place we rendezvoused with them a couple of years ago:center:0]] Then we rendezvoused with Tok Bah and Tok Ma in Kulim who had driven in from Pasir Mas, and had some nasi ayam for lunch. We also took a drive to Butterworth to buy some pickles at the pickle store. [[image:lunas-wedding04.jpg:Soon Irfan will be taller than me:center:0]] The next day, we took the opportunity of having family members around us to take a photo […]
Continue readingFinally TIme for a Breather and a Kitty
I have not been posting much because life in the last month or so has been very hectic. [[image:bettycat-arrives05.jpg:Betty loves Google+:center:0]] First, I was commissioned to proofread a doctorate student’s thesis from a neighbouring university. The work has – to put it simply – given me the desire to take a Master’s Degree once I’m done with this Bachelor’s Degree in English Studies, and perhaps if the opportunity opens up even a Doctor of Philosophy Degree eventually. What in? I have no idea just yet, but I am looking into Applied Linguistics. Perhaps I could integrate tabletop gaming into it somehow. Secondly, I began writing the assignment papers for this semester, which should be my final semester in this Bachelor of English Studies programme. I spent all weekends reading and writing for these assignments. Although some of them are freeform writing requiring no reading, most of them required me to […]
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