🐱Being Mom to Leo

Hi everyone! How are we doing during this MCO season? I understand that everybody is going through these difficult times in their own way and with how things are progressing, I think we're all doing a great job at trying to contain this virus pandemic. As for me, things have not changed as much. I've always been an indoor sort of person who likes to go about her day in her own privacy.  

However, even for me, I have to admit, these past few weeks have put a rather strange pressure on me. I miss going outside, meeting my friends, going to class and spending my leisure time outside of my room. At the same time, I know this will be over soon enough and I'm paying a small fraction of what I can sacrifice to have the good old days back.

I would have posted an entirely separate post about my experience during the MCO or anything about the virus pandemic. However, after much contemplation on my part, I've come to the conclusion that I rather not talk about it if I can because I know we are already so much consumed with discussions on this very topic. I thought, perhaps a different fresh conversation between you and I would give us space to bring our minds away from all of that, even just a little. And with that, I want to talk about my experience of being a cat mom to Leo.

I've actually already posted an article of Leo's background in another post called, "🐈 It's Time You Meet Leo". He had a rough start as a kitten. To make the story short, he was dropped off by his mother (I said something else in the previous post) from the high wall separating our garden with our next door neighbour twice before we finally took him in before she would do it again the third time. Perhaps she was in the process of transitioning her litter of kittens to a safer place but couldn't commit to take care of all of them that she dropped Leo with us. We might never know. Whatever the reason was, we couldn't refuse him. I love cats and little kittens, we all do as a family but that day, when my parents took a look at the ball of shivering and starved kitten in my hand, they thought he wouldn't survive another day. It was hard for me to accept that, I guess I never had something die in my watch. I didn't want to give up either.

I made sure he was warm, took every few minutes to check on him in his little box filled with dry warm towels we had to spare. And during all that chaos, I was still hoping that his mum would call out for him, knowing that she had one little kitten missing. But she never did. Hours passed by and it was noon, he looked a little freshened up after his long nap. And he was immensely hungry. He was peeking at me through his half-opened eyes, almost closed shut with dried tears. We didn't have any suitable food or milk for a kitten, and he was hungry. I think I was alone at home that day and I couldn't drive (not even for toffee) to the nearest pet store to get what he needed. Leo was getting weaker and feeling a little desperate, I booked for the nearest Grab and bought the necessary things from a pet store. He got his milk warmed up, I made sure to rub his tummy with a warm towel to circulate his bladder and put him back in his towel where he started to wobble around and explore this strange box he was put in. 

We pretty much knew we were head over heels with Leo to give him away. He's a really sweet loving thing who absolutely craved for attention, especially mine at the time. I was like his surrogate mother in a way because in every 2 hours, I would be ready with a small cup and syringe to feel him milk, cleaned out the soiled towels from his cage (he moved to a cosier "room" after his stay in the box), reheated the water from a metal bottle before wrapping it with a warm towel so that he could hug it to sleep (it keeps him quiet when I finally left him to do my own thing). I realised, that even though it might never be the same as the real thing, being a cat mum is tiringgggg. It was a full-time job because small kittens need to be attended to every few hours and they're also adamant about getting your attention too. Leo used to scream/meow his lungs out if I finally thought it was time for him to settle down back in his cage. But was it all worth it? The many restless sleep I had in those short weeks he was in my care before I had to whizz back to university for my masters? Was it worth the little heartaches when I could only see him on the weekends? 

It was. He turned out to be a handsome little cat now. As he grew up, he got plenty of interesting nicknames that I'm sure he responds to each time: Yoyo, Squirrel (for the many times he literally fly from one furniture to another, with his tail behind him and looking very much like the animal he's nicknamed after), etc. He's good company for anybody who needs to stay up for work in the living room where he'll unintentionally distracts you with his cuteness. 

He loves having attention from his hooman family but we discovered he can be a little shy with new guests. Leo might be a little braver when he's older, just like his "sister", Dessi, our cat. Despite how he got us all swooning over him, I realised that even till these days, many months after we first took him, he could never really win over our Dessi. She's pretty much set on disliking him for life although she's completely fine to tolerate with his presence at home. However, that never stopped him from trying to invite her to play and hangout. 

I present to you, Queen Dessi, the empress of this household. She insists on being featured on my blog if Leo was to be showed off to.

I always imagined that this would be how their conversation go if I could understand it. I'm pretty sure it's 99.99% accurate judging by the look Dessi throws at Leo.

One thing I can take from this experience as Leo's "mum" is that caring for a kitten as young as he was might not be for everybody. It was stressful and you have to be ready at all hours in case he's hungry, needs his bedding cleaned, etc. Having support from my family made a huge difference and I had time for myself to prepare for my upcoming semester at the time. I also learned that in contrast to how I've always viewed of myself - hesitant and awkward to display affection towards those around me, I grew to be a huge softie over Leo.