Wednesday, November 29, 2023

The First Time We Met

Feeder went out to buy gas for cooking. He came back not with gas, but with a seriously injured Ogre-mi, of course that time we didn't call him that. We put him in an extra room to isolate him from our existing Medium Cat. And waited for the next morning to bring him to the vet. That was Feeder's birthday 11th January 2021. I left the taking care work mostly to Feeder because Ogre-mi was so smelly and dirty and weak.

Ogre-mi was being brought to the Ipoh Garden Animal Clinic, which I hated and would only go there if I had no choice (it was one of the largest and most complete clinic in Ipoh). The vet cleaned his maggot-infested mouth and diagnosed him FIV positive, estimated age about 8 years old. He wasn't a young cat.

We brought him back and nurse him into health, and fatness. We named him obviously because of his crooked teeth and slightly deformed chin, which was amazing he lived through it. I didn't think his dental condition would be one of the reasons and complications that caused his death later.

He wasn't exactly good friends with Medium Cat though. They hated each other! But that didn't stop me from loving him so much. I always love Ogre-mi more than Medium Cat.

When I came back from work. The first thing I'd do was to release Medium Cat into wilderness, and Ogre-mi from his isolation room. Because they didn't do well together, Ogre-mi could only be confined into a small room during the entire one and a half year. Only when we moved to a new house that he was able to roam the whole double-storey area whilst Medium Cat is being released as an outdoor cat.

When Feeder came back from work, he would sit down crossed-leg, and Ogre-mi could come greet him, climbed onto his lap and would sit there like a boss. And he wouldn't leave until he was satisfied, by then usually Feeder's legs were already numb. He wouldn't sit on my lap though, no matter how hard I asked. He did try and maybe it was not as comfortable, he'd sit for a while and got back up. 

Ogre-mi would understand if we'd beckon for him to come. And he would obey. And when we sat on the couch and tap on the seat next to us, he would jump up to sit next to us obediently. He understood this hand gesture! He was truly the most obedient cat I've ever met.

Sometimes Ogre-mi would come to sit next to us uninvited. He'd always jump up to bed, made a u-turn, and leaned against your leg. And he would make sure with the u-turn to face outward, and not towards his humans.


The leftmost photo was when we first picked him up. The rightmost was when he was healthiest.

Ogre-mi was healthiest at these moments, way before his CKD diagnosis.