Little Present

The most exciting thing to have happened to me this summer weighs about a kilo of a mixture of light to dark grey fur, has green eyes and a squeaky meow. I named him Xiao Liwu (小礼物)which means little present in Mandarin.

For as long as I could remember I didn’t get why people would have pets. Cleaning up dog poop, cat litter littered (no pun intended) all over the floor, your favourite shoes chewed away and your clothes constantly covered in fur. No thanks!  Not even when I looked after my god children’s pets nor cat sat for my neighbors did I form any real connection. Then Covid happened. During the Covid lockdown I had the habit of going out for a walk at night. I had my preferred routes, usually the ones that were flat plains and lined with trees. However, one day I decided to change things up a bit and challenge myself by going up a road with the steepest incline in my neighborhood. I had just panted my way to the top of the hill, and stopped to recover my breath. A cat walked towards me and stopped in front of me. It was a robust tabby that had a long, ample fluffy coat that made it look bigger than its actual size. The cat looked at me with its bright and welcoming eyes. It was the most beautiful cat I had ever seen. Bewitched, I approached it, bent down to pet it. I broke my rule of never petting a street/strange animal. I stayed petting and talking to the cat until it went off into one of the houses. I continued my walk with more bounce in my steps. The moment I got home I told my partner that I had met the most beautiful cat ever. As a cat person who had lived with cats all her life, she was skeptical. She asked what made her more beautiful than any other cat I had seen.  I couldn’t say exactly. I simply replied: “You have to see her to believe it.” From that day onwards, I always took that route with the hope that I would once again see her. Sometimes I did, sometimes I didn’t. On the days that I saw her I felt like I was blessed with light that not only brightened the darkness of the night but of that lockdown period. One day my partner agreed to come on a walk with me to meet the kitty I had been going on about. As luck would have it, we did bump into the Vesta Road cat, as I came to call her. My partner agreed that she was indeed a beautiful cat! Towards the end of summer of 2021, a month passed without me seeing her.  I was worried something had happened to her.  I approached one of the houses on Vesta Road where I often saw her. I pressed the bell and waited for someone to come to the door. The next door neighbor arrived, I explained I was inquiring about the gorgeous super friendly fluffy tabby cat. She informed me that the cat did live next door but she had moved away with its owner about a month or so ago hence why I hadn’t seen her. She told me that they too missed her. I walked away relieved that she was alive and well.  I was very sad that I would never see the Vesta road cat again. It is no exaggeration to say that she was one of the things that got me through the gloom of Covid lockdown in London. 

Back to Little Present

A year ago we decided to get another cat to keep my step-cat company. I really wanted one just like the Vesta Road cat! Though I always had my phone with me when I went on my night time walks, I only took the picture of that cat once  to ask a friend about her breed. The picture came out blurry so I never figured out what type of breed she was. Instead, I would settle for having just a fluffy cat. Our older cat is short-haired and plush. We looked for months at cat shelters for one to adopt without much luck. In the meantime, I got to learn about different breeds of cats, Short-haired, Scottish Fold, Persian etc… Then I was introduced to cat-influencers Siberian-Reinhardt, two Siberian cats traveling the world. Yep, you read correctly, Rein and Percy as they are called, travel the world, sometimes in business class! According to their website, they have been to 15 countries and have over half million followers on Instagram. I loved how floofy they were so much that I wanted a cat just like them. 

Six weeks ago Xiao Liwu, a 4 month old grey Siberian kitty arrived. Prior to his arrival I was both excited and anxious: what if he didn’t get on with our existing cat or if we didn’t like each other? The moment Liwu was let out of his carrier, he walked around smelling every object and being including the big kitty (what we started calling our older cat as she is now the bigger one). Big kitty snarled at the new smaller kitty, but he was unfazed by her hostility and continued with his exploration. We couldn’t detect any fear or timidness in him as he moved from room to room. Neither could we see signs of the stress he may have experienced from the long day of traveling caused by long flight delays and a stop-over. To protect him from the snarls and hissing from the older cat, furious with the invasion of her space, I picked him up.  He didn’t try to wiggle out of my arms or meow in protest. He settled into my arms and rested his small head on my chest. What?!?! A kitty that likes to be carried! Our older cat avoids being carried. On the rare occasions that she lets herself be carried (I’m pretty sure it is out of pity because she knows how much I adore carrying her), she will meow incessantly to be put down after about 30 seconds or just wiggle herself out of my arms. I had wished for a cat that liked to be carried. I looked down at Liwu, it was way past 30 seconds and he was content to be there. I was smitten! By the next day, Liwu had fully made himself at home. He didn’t stay in the space we created for him away from the big kitty. He ate and drank from her bowls, sat on her favourite blanket, used her litter box (she did the same to him). And he kept trying to get close to her undeterred by her hissing at him. He came from a home full of friendly cats and a giant dog so the concept of a hostile cat seemed strange to him. She, on the other hand, had been the only cat in the family for 7 years. But he refused to accept defeat, and it took him about three weeks to win her over. She now allows him to hang out with her and will even play with him. Around the same time, she let me lift her up and carry her again to show that I’m finally forgiven for bringing a foreign cat into her space. 

Ailurophilia

I’ve been trying to figure out what it is about these felines that I love so much. I sought counsel. A friend who lives with 6 cats said they teach her how to live. I asked for further clarification, she said: “they just live.” Another said it is because they are entertaining. A third replied: “they are just so cute.” Since I’m not satisfied with my friends’ explanations, I went to the internet.  It turned out that part of the reason why we humans are attracted to cats is indeed because they are entertaining and cute. Cats give us “special unique permission to stroke/ pet them and keep them on our laps, which we know releases oxytocin, which in turn suppresses the production of cortisol, a stress hormone.”Oxytocin is also known as the love hormone. Bingo! I finally understood the tranquility I feel every time I pet my felines, the smile that takes over my face every time I see their faces, the warmth that radiates holding them and the chuckle that escapes my mouth when I hear them meow. It has to be because I’m loved up, right? Why else would I, a clean freak, put up with vacuuming the  never ending bits of cat litter all over my floors and the layers of hairs on my clothes? Sometimes, I even allow the older kitty into my closet to hide and snooze on a pile of my clothes. Why would I cheerfully give up my favourite and most comfortable chair in the house for them to nap on while I sit on a back aching one or stand? And there is my treasured wool rug, hand woven by a granny in Tanzania that the cats scratch their claws on instead of the two scratching trees we got them. And when I shoo them away from it, they will do it on the sofa instead.  I guess this is what they mean by unconditional love. 

Since my little present arrived I feel that my ability to love has expanded. I didn’t know that I was capable of uttering “I love you” a gazillion times a day. Every time he allows me to pick him up, the words just escape from my mouth. And at the same time, I still try to pick up our older cat, and express my love verbally and through petting. Because my love for her hasn’t changed or diminished since the new kitty arrived. In fact, I actually appreciate her more. She is calm. She can stay lying down under a blanket or in the closet for hours. No amount of prodding will bring her out. However, she will take a break to come and find me to say hello and sit close to me.  And she never demands or shows any interest in food other than her dry kibble so we never have to worry about fending her off eating off our plate. 

In the time my little present has been around I haven’t had a gloomy and dull day. In the mornings, I no longer have time to think of how I don’t want to get up and out of bed. The moment he detects I’m awake, he jumps on the bed and settles himself on my chest and purrs away any grogginess that I may be feeling. I’ve finally discovered what Zen meditation is. It is having a cat sit in the palms of your hands resting on your lap, purring away. And every time he joins me for my meditation practice I feel closer to achieving enlightenment. When I’m sitting at my desk, working, he leaps up, right onto the keyboard on my laptop, plunks himself down so I would have to lift him up in my arms. If I put him down, he would just jump right back up. He wouldn’t stop until I gave up and held him. Work be damned. I would giggle away. I used to have to rely on TV shows as background noise to mask the monotony of cooking. Now, I have Liwu clamouring at my feet to have a closer look at and smell whatever it is I’m concocting. If he likes the smell, he will meow away until he gets a taste. He would eat with such gusto that I’d wonder if I shouldn’t go on Master Chef. I also wonder if I shouldn’t have named him Big Present because that is what he has turned out to be in my life. 

Perfect Victims by Mohammed El-Kurd

The author Arundhati Roy wrote in reviewing the Perfect Victims: “Here’s a river of fire. Dive in, if you dare. It will clear the fog.” I dared. Not only did it clear the fog but it also amplified my vision. It was an incredibly moving and thought provoking read that challenges the predominant narratives about Palestinians. This is the best book I’ve read all summer, possibly this year.