Truly Mother: Si Belang (the Stripes)

I was inspired by a blog contest held by KataKucing that produced catslendar 2014. A calendar that used cats as a model. Not some ordinary cats, but the famous cats on facebook. You could order it on her fb page. Too bad I don't have enough wall to hang it.

That's why I prefer to talk about cats and not
joining the contest because they want us to talk about the models, Let's Adopt, and KataKucing. And I can't think about anything less than my first pet, si Belang.

I think I was still at kindergarden age when my mother finally accepted her as a pet. First, I need to tell you that I have some blurry memories about it. That's why this writing would have been a little weak.

Ok, Belang was my first pet. My mother was actully hate any kind of pet. As the most responsible person in her family, having a pet was more like an add of life in her life, and that pissed her off. That is why she always tried to get rid of her. But one day, Belang came, and she was pregnant.

Maybe because of that, my mother was forced to accept it. You know, she was a nurse, and something inside her told not to refuse a pregnant cat.

I think that was her first pregnancy. And she finally made it. Two kittens. Look the same to each other. Was it possible that they were twins? I don't know.

I felt excited for the first born in my house (hell yeah, there would be more babies in this house. Like a lot!). I learned that kittens are very protective at first. They only allowed their mother to get near of them. I like to hear them miauw-in in whisper. Cute.

But then I learned about the wild world. The twins had been kidnapped. They were gone. Just like that. They were never getting out of their box in the back room. And suddenly nothing else left there.

Belang frustrated. Her typical miauw-in sounded everywhere at anytime. Day and night. I could feel the sorrow. She began thinner. Her face looked down. And after a while, she heard something. A voice. A kitten voice. Very small. Very far. But it got nearer. And then she quickly ran into the source. There it was. Her child. Only one who finally came back. Maybe their father had kidnapped them. And it was the only one who survived. We called him, Wiku.

And Wiku grew bigger yet coward. And he didn't feel embarassed joining his little brothers (after a couple times delivering) feed his mother breastmilk. Belang didn't care, she let him did that. Maybe he was her forever baby.

Belang's fight hadn't finished yet. She had a couple times miscarriage. I remember one dark night, by a flashlight I could see bodies of kittens without fur all over the balcony. Just like a PKI movie. And in one dark corner, I saw her there, 'crying'.

Then the last time she delivered, she kept asking us to go to her box to see her kid. While usually cats hate to see human when they were just having a baby.

However, I must say, Belang was the best mom ever. She kind of picky of choosing the man. And she did taking care of her children. She wasn't some whore cat like I had the last time which will standing early in the morning below a parking car, closing its eyes, let its only white neckfur blowing, and when a male cat slowingdown his steps, I could see her took a peak of him. B***h.

And we kept Belang for quite a long time. I don't remember how many cats that we have from her. All I remember that I had to pass lots of cats which were running trying to catch my walking feet while bringing one tiny chicken bone.

At the end, we finally have to bring her to a traditional market because we couldn't take care of her anymore. And I think my father chosed the furthest market because she managed to come back to our house.

Now  our house still become a perfect place for cats though the road has getting wilder. Not because the male cats but the motorcycle that constanly killed kittens with its attitude. And still I wish I could know Belang better.
#my500words