Assalamu Alaikum!
We are back with the continuation of the post we did three weeks ago on our cats. If you didn't already know that we are crazy cat people, then now you do! The cats we are going to be talking about in this post were ones we met at a tuition centre we use to attend. Some of them were visiting stray cats and others lived at the centre(but were still strays). Since we named them and fed them regularly, we always felt that they were sort of ours! The centre had a students common room for us to hang out in, as we were there for several hours each day. The cats were allowed in and it was very therapeutic and entertaining to be around them, masha'Allah.
Gingersnap
(December 2014 - June 2018)
Gingersnap, or Ginger for short, was a crazy schizophrenic cat. She was happy and purring with you one minute, then angry and biting you the next for no reason. As you can imagine, she was not the most popular cat at the centre! However, we felt that she was misunderstood and that her behaviour was not entirely irrational.
The cloudy grey mark on her eye is a cataract. We think she was pretty much blind in her right eye which explained a lot. If you tried to stroke her and your hand was in her blind spot, she would scratch you because she hadn't seen it. She was feisty when she was hungry and was also extremely jealous of all the other cats.
Alhamdulillah, she eventually calmed down - perhaps due to getting older and becoming a mother. She gave us many nasty scratches, but of course we still loved her.
Dawud
(January 2015 - December 2015)
Dawud was a sweet and lovable stray kitten that turned up at the tuition centre and ended up living there(in the garden). When we found him his tail had been cut off somehow and he only had a short stump left.
He was always hungry and ate a lot for such a small cat! He was a bit of a crybaby and was afraid of most things. He loved sitting on people's laps and being petted. Ginger was very jealous of him and so they had to be kept apart most of the time.
A strange and interesting thing about him was that his pupils never dilated; they were always just thin slits. Dawud was a favourite at the centre because he had a pathetic, whiney meow and was just so adorable, masha'Allah!
Benedict
(April 2015 - December 2015)
Benedict, or Ben for short, was another stray cat that ended up living at the centre. He turned up a few months after Dawud and, although he was a grown male, he didn't drive Dawud away. Alhamdulillah, he would only ever play fight with him and no one was seriously hurt.
Did you know that cannibalism can occur in cats(although it's pretty rare) and some male cats have been known to kill and eat kittens?! But, as you can see from the photo above, Benedict was a lovely, gentle male cat, masha'Allah.
Also, he was in love with Gingersnap and would sit nearby watching her sweetly. Ginger however, being her rude, haughty self, was always aloof and cold towards him, poor thing!
When we first met him, Benedict was suspicious of humans and we noticed that he was very scared of shoes and feet(maybe he had been kicked in the past). However, once he realised that we meant him no harm, he became so relaxed and happy, masha'Allah. He absolutely loved sitting on our laps and being fussed over. If Katniss was our favourite female cat, then Benedict would definitely be our favourite male cat. He was such a big softie, masha'Allah!
Kohl
(May 2015 - December 2015)
Sadly we don't have any photos of Kohl! He was a tabby-coloured kitten and he looked like he was wearing eyeliner(hence the name: Kohl). Again, he showed up one day and decided to stay. He soon became best friends with Dawud and the two would play fight and sleep curled up together. He was inquisitive, brave and daring - the complete opposite of scaredy-cat Dawud! However, he was a little too big for his own boots at times when he would try to challenge the older cats - Benedict and Gingersnap. He had quite a deep voice for such a little kitten but he was 'all meow and no bite' and they soon put him in his place! Oh, and we cannot forget to mention the fact that he was the perfect lap cat, masha'Allah.
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Gingersnap, Benedict, Dawud and Kohl did not all get along, however, they tolerated each other most of the time. Some days, during the winter months, we would take them out on walks around the neighbourhood. They would follow us everywhere, whether we were going to the shops nearby or just taking a walk to stretch our legs(our breaks were often 1 or 2 hours long). When outside, Ginger would become more friendly and playful, darting about all over the place. Dawud would lag behind and whine, wanting to join in but afraid to go too far. He was afraid of crossing roads and we had to help teach him. Kohl would canter ahead exploring, and then wait for us to catch up. Benedict would walk with us, cautious and sensible as always. We really enjoyed our 'hacks' as we called them, even though we got some weird stares from strangers!
So, what happened to Dawud, Benedict and Kohl?
Unfortunately, some annoying people complained about them and they were removed from the tuition centre. We came back from our winter break and they were gone. We were so upset! Yes, they could make a lot of noise sometimes but otherwise they never bothered anyone. We never even got to say goodbye. Had we known they were going to be sent away, we would have definitely adopted them - at least temporarily, until we found them all good homes. Qadr-Allah! Insha'Allah, we pray that wherever they are now, they are safe, happy and loved. Ameen.
Yasmin, Skeeter & Hamza
(September 2016 - December 2017)
These three were Gingersnap's kittens! She brought them to the centre, but alhamdulillah, they lived elsewhere so they were not kicked out. Although they were all scared and suspicious at first, they soon came to trust us. We named them Yasmin, Skeeter and Hamza.
Yasmin
Yasmin was the first kitten we met and was the friendliest of the three. She was timid and afraid but was soon won over by food. After eating she quickly accepted and enjoyed being stroked and petted.
At first all the kittens were very skinny and hungry. After we started feeding them regularly, they became healthier and their fur became longer and silkier.
Yasmin was quite delicate and had slightly weak back legs. If you didn't stroke her gently, her back legs would give way and she would collapse.
She was gentle, sweet and very quiet. She only really meowed when she wanted food.
Skeeter
Skeeter was the second kitten we met. Her name is short for Mosquito, in case you were wondering. She was very active and had Gingersnap's feisty, split-personality. For example, the first time we fed her she was eating out of our hands, but looking up and hissing at us every now and again!
She also had this adorable frown that Maryam managed to capture in the photo below.
Skeeter was naughty and scratched...a lot. It wasn't out of fear or anger usually, she just enjoyed attacking people's hands and shoes! If we were writing she would pounce on our pencils and deliberately lie all over our books.
She loved playing with Hanifah's watch and, after 'killing' it, she would pick it up and proudly walk away with it. She had slightly longer fur than her siblings, mainly around her chest and on her tail.
Towards the end she calmed down a lot. When we would feed them, they would all rush to eat the food. However, a now grateful Skeeter would often come and thank us first(by rubbing up against our legs).
Hamza
Of the three kittens, Hamza was the most timid and shy. It took us over a month to be able to gain his trust, because he chose to keep his distance. He would sneak up to eat when we were busy with his sisters, and then run away if we so much as looked at him.
He had these large, sad-looking eyes that made you just want to give him a big hug! However, we knew that it would take time and patience. After seeing how nicely we treated the other cats, he slowly started edging closer. Then he was comfortable being around us(as long as there were no sudden movements), but he wasn't yet ready to let us touch him.
Eventually he let us stroke his back while he was busy eating. Once he was certain that we meant him no harm, he got comfortable sitting in the doorway. It was so rewarding when he became fully trusting and relaxed in our presence, masha'Allah!
Under a better diet he became healthier and grew to be even bigger than Ginger!
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We spent a lot of quality time with Gingersnap and her kittens. When Ginger was around she was in charge and kept her kittens in line! She sat on the table in the common room and her kittens had to stay on the floor.
