About Nude Not Naked

Her name is Pebbles. She adopted me more than 4 years ago when she was found in my porch, recovering from shock. When we first brought her to the vet 4 years ago, the vet commented that she was approximately 3 years old when she came to our house and she mostly was ran over by a motorbike.

I took her in and nursed her. Bought her kitty kibbles, a bed and a litter tray. She was never locked up in the house but was free to explore the garden in our old house. She soon got better but out of her own free choice, she chose to adopt my family as her new human family. Sometimes I wondered how her previous owners must have worried for her. I knew she had another family because she was house trained. That was why we have never restricted her movements because we thought she would one day recover from her accident and return to her old family.

But she stayed with us and she brought us so much joy. She was truly lovely as a cat, very affectionate and responsive.

I cannot write. I feel pain when I think about Pebbles. You see, two evenings ago my maid found her hidden among the bushes. She loved lazing in the garden and catching lizards and birds. But two evenings ago, she collapsed with a nose bleed. I took her to the vet immediately and the vet said that it was likely that a dog or a pack of dogs attacked her.

Damn the old man who walks his three dogs each evening without leash. Damn that man for allowing his dogs to terrorise my Pebbles since we moved to this new house. There were never dogs around in our old house.

The family said our last good byes to her. The vet suggested we bring her home and observe her for the night and should she recover, I was to bring her to the vet yesterday morning at 10 a.m.

Suffice to say her internal bleeding did not stop and blood dripped from her nose until the moment she died.

This was a beautiful cat who would greet all of us when we came home. She was a great conversationalist, often "talking" to us whenever she sat with us on the garden bench. Each time she caught a lizard or a bird, she would bring it to us, mewing away loudly, as if to say, "Look, look! I am doing such a great job as a cat. I protect my human family from pests!". We would look at the lizard/bird and praise her, "Well done, Pebbles". And as if she understood, she would pick it up and took it back out into the garden.

The maids dug a hole under the jambu tree. The Muslim call to prayer resonated on the first day of Raya. It rained and I did not know whether it was because of the monsoon seaon or because the skies were crying with us.

The household is quiet. Everyone is affected by Pebbles sudden death. Even Milo, my red smoke domestic long hair is more quiet than usual.