Estremera: A different Holy Week

WE WERE all set to have some quiet time at the beach with best buddies Kublai and Jon on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, except that NotMyCat, the stray cat that once lived with me but whom I had to chase away after he began mauling my other rescue cats, decided to prey on Oweynj (a male rescue I picked up on our street last January 10) dawn of Maundy Thursday and leave him with a deep wound that needed stitching.

While vet clinics were closed, my friend Doc Bo Puentespina obliged to help my kitten, but only by 2 p.m. since he was attending to important visitors in his compost making factory in Binugao, Toril.

On the side I was caring for MimingSmall, my youngest rescue whom I picked up from the sidewalk just across the house last February 1. NotMy had mauled her dawn of Holy Tuesday, leaving her rear legs paralyzed. I already brought her to Doc Bo on Tuesday.

I had earlier planned on bringing MimingSmall with me to the beach (since her medicine had to be administered every six hours). But with Oweynj wounded, we all had to stay.

After the stitching and the two injured kittens now caged at home, there was nothing else to do but ponder. Will MimingSmall recover the control of her rear legs? What will happen if she will not? When will it be safe to let these kittens out of the cage? How would life be for them? A lot of questions about the future, worries most of them.

Good Friday was also spent just watching the kittens while reading a book, playing with the cats, and preparing the binignit. That was when MimingSmall had a seizure and passed away, just like that.

I felt hatred like never before against NotMy while I was trying to revive MimingSmall. She gave up the ghost, my CPR didn't work. I was wishing everything bad to happen to NotMy as he strolled past on the street, seemingly unrepentant. I was wishing I had an airgun.

Saturday morning, preparing to go to work, I went down with a towel on my shoulder. There was a cat on the floormat by the sink. But then, there are cats everywhere, so that's nothing unusual; until the cat meowed in the tone that was distinctly NotMy. I froze.

First, there was fear. I wanted someone else to catch him for me! But then came the realization: I'm all alone, there was no one who responded to my call for a cat catcher on Facebook, and the cat was just lounging there, looking up at me. I dropped the towel over him and grabbed him as he struggled, opened the pet carrier and threw him inside. I intended to keep him there till Monday when vet clinics open. But then... he meowed.

Sucker that I am, I dropped him from the carrier into the cage that already had a floor mat, water and food containers, and litter box.

Watching both kittens suffer, the panic while looking for vets on both occasions, and finding friends became my source of Holy Week reflections. Spending it all by myself made the thoughts flow out. Taking pity on NotMy despite the fact that he killed MimingSmall made for an even deeper reflection, and meditation. Indeed death is inevitable, we just have to embrace it, and forgiveness... it's difficult but has to be done because hatred is such a heavy burden.

Still, on Monday, NotMy will be neutered and he has no say in this decision even if he meows some more.

P.S.: Lucky are we who have friends who are willing to sacrifice some time for us. Luckier are we for friends who made us meet some inspiring people on Holy Tuesday, which gave us time to browse through Fullybooked and find what could have been the best book ever that you can reflect on for Holy Week -- "Into the Magic Shop" by Dr. James R. Doty. Nothing is ever by chance.

*****

saestremera@gmail.com

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