My unexpected kitty love story in Langkawi

Kitty love story

Today is my birthday. I am celebrating forty-seven years of life, learning and development. Looking back into recent events, I realize that this year, the Universe has offered me a precious gift: the realisation, through this kitty love story, that my maternal instincts, that I believed to be non-existent, are present after all.

This is how it happened.

FRIDAY, July 21st– A Scared Little Visitor

It must have been around 20:30 when we were sitting by the pool of Alamanda Villas and heard an intense meow coming from the garden. James was having a Whatsapp conversation with someone in the U.K. We presumed it was Tiggy, the house cat, but as the calling intensified James nodded indicating for me to check what was going on. I looked everywhere but could not see Tiggy.

After a while, I realized that it could not be her because her meow is different, this pitch was too low. In the meantime, while still on the phone, James spotted something and pointed in its direction. There it was, a tiny black scruffy kitten, looking very scared and crying incessantly.

The noise was driving me crazy. I tried to follow it but it ran and hid, without stopping to cry. James finished his call and, being the animal charmer that he is, almost immediately won enough of its trust to catch the little desperate creature. Unlike me, James is very used to animals so he knew immediately to give the little kitten some milk and coconut cream dissolved in warm water. (Little did we know, at that time, that you should never give cow´s milk to kittens, unless strictly necessary!)

We organized some water and a place for the kitten to rest. After dinner, not sure of what to do or whether we should take him home, we headed to our bungalow, leaving him in a cosy little sleeping arrangement, hoping his mom would find him during the night. We left him in his improvised bed in the pool area, where we found him.

As we walked down to our bungalow we wondered how that kitten got there. There is a forest on the right side of the property and a house on the left side with a fence dividing the properties. The kitten must have gone in through the front of the property and had to walk up the steep ramp to reach us. Maybe someone dropped him at the door hoping he would cry himself into a new home.

SATURDAY, July 22nd – Getting used to each other

When I walked to the swimming pool café in the morning, I did not expect to find our visitor, but there he was, sleeping all curled up exactly where we left him the night before. The milk bowl was clean. As soon as he heard noise his ears pricked up and from the way his small green eyes stared at me, I understood that its first meow meant, “Where is my mom? I’m hungry!“. Until that moment I hadn’t held him because, to be honest, I thought he might have been full of fleas or may some disease, but being there alone, looking at that defences little creature in need, I couldn’t help it but to pick him up and hold him against my chest to give him some comfort. I held him close to me while warming up some water to add to coconut cream for his breakfast.

When James arrived, we had already started to get used to each other. The kitten was finally relaxed in my arms. I decided to call him Yoga, in honour of my life-changing practice. We spent our day around Yoga, between check-ins and check-outs, talking to guests and trying to organize our daily routine. We fed him, played with him, let him take naps on our laps and gave him lots of love. James discovered a recipe for de-fleeing him so he even had a warm de-fleeing bath, which surprisingly enough, he seems to enjoy.

When we returned from our daily shores, followed by dinner out, we decided to take Yoga to our bungalow. After all, if his mom did not show up until then, she most probably would not. She never did.

SUNDAY, July 23rd – A day of Realizations

Yoga behaved like a well-trained cat. He did not disturb us during the night, ate all his food during the night and did not do any of his physiological necessities in the house, although I had laid out an improvised littler-box with kitchen paper. Before getting ready for our morning routine, while James got ready, I picked Yoga up for a brief morning snuggling session in bed, after all, he was now clean and supposedly flea-free. He stared at me, meowed and explored his accommodation options by rubbing his fragile little body against my right arm, which was supporting my head, as I laid down sideways. Yoga finally chose to settle with his head tucked on the side of my neck, and his body against my arm and chest. That’s when I realised that he chose a place where he could hear my heartbeat. We stayed there enjoying that moment for maybe about ten minutes. It was an enlightening moment for me, as I realized that maybe I would have been a good mother, had I had kids. I understood that I do have maternal love to give, but now I’m forty-seven years old and maternity is no longer an option.

After our snuggling session Yoga asked to go out for his morning pee and poop. I let him out and got ready while James made sure we didn’t lose sight of our little friend. “What a cute well behaved kitten, I thought“. At that precise moment, I knew I was hooked. That little scruffy kitten that I was initially afraid to touch, had won my heart. It’s quite ironic because I was never crazy about cats! I like them, but I am more of a dog person. The Universe has its ways of teaching us lessons!

Sunday was a quiet day at Alamanda Villas, with only one check-in, so we decided to stay in, take care of Yoga and finally enjoy a bit of the idyllic environment around us. All the guests went out, almost like knowing that we needed that time of peace to regroup. James spent most of the morning doing bits and pieces around the resort while I took half an hour to swim and relax and then spent the rest of the morning at the café area trying to get some writing done. Yoga was sleeping on my lap most of the time while I worked unless he decided he wanted my full attention and determinately sat on my laptop.

I knew this fairy-tale had its clock ticking. In two days we had to go to Thailand for my visa run and we had nowhere to leave Yoga. Leaving him at Alamanda Villas was not an option. I consciously chose to enjoy that day, leaving the logistics strategy for the next day.

After lunch, we took Yoga to a pet shop to get a proper grooming and a second de-fleeing session as we noticed that we continued to scratch.  After a long talk with the owner of the shop, he suggested we take Yoga to the veterinary to have an injection against fungus (the source of his scratching and lack of hair in some places). We walked away with an anti-flea shampoo, two packs of samples of kitten dry food and the contact of a veterinary which works inside an animal sanctuary. We headed back and continued with our usual shores.

We decided to go out for dinner, as we had nothing at home to eat. We had to leave Yoga by himself while we were out. On our way to the restaurant, we meant to stop at the sanctuary to talk to them, organize an appointment for the next day and ask if they would keep Yoga for the four days we were going to be away. Unfortunately, we were late and starving, so we decided to do it the next day.

When we returned home, Yoga had not destroyed the house, like in the movie “Home Alone“, but we could tell he was mad at us for leaving him alone. At first, he would not let us approach him but soon his pride faded away. I don’t know if animals have the capacity to love, but I believe they have gratitude for those who take care of them. I felt that gratitude. I could feel our bond grow as the day progressed.  It felt wonderful.

MONDAY, July 24th – What to do?

Although in Langkawi I usually lose track of time, this time I was clearly in Monday mode. We had a mission: find a solution for Yoga.

At the beginning of the day our options were:

1 – Go to the sanctuary and ask if they would keep Yoga for 4 days.

2 – Beg the pet shop owner to take care of him while we are away. (He had already mentioned that he would not do it because he already has too many cats in the shop)

3- Come up with another solution, like finding a new home for him.

After breakfast, James gave Yoga a second anti-flea bath and again I tried to do some writing during the day.

At lunchtime, I met Zai (the lady who cleans the Villas) and showed her Yoga. I tried to tell her the story in broken English for her to understand and asked if she would eventually take him. She said yes, but I wasn’t sure what her “yes” meant. She is very shy and doesn’t understand English very well. Either way, we were relieved by the possibility of her keeping our kitty.

As the day progressed I became more nervous because we did not have a solution for Yoga during the four days of our trip. The day was a bit busy and again we left Alamanda Villas a bit late in the afternoon, however, we were determined to visit the sanctuary to check it out and if necessary go back the following day for Yoga’s shot.

At the end of the day, we went to the Lassi sanctuary. It was already closed but we were able to walk around and go through a door that was supposed to be for staff only. The minute I laid eyes on the cages I literally burst into tears. I have immense respect for the initiative of the sanctuary and can only imagine their struggle to keep the place running. Nonetheless, that was for sure not the place I had envisioned for our little Yoga. My heart was feeling squeezed in my chest and I could not stop sobbing. I had a strong feeling about having to leave Yoga behind and looking at all those abandoned cats and dogs did not make me feel any better. That was definitely not an alternative, not even for four days. Some of the caged animals were in better shape than others, all waiting for someone to take them home and give them some love and care. It was so sad.

We decided to talk to the owners of Alamanda the next day and ask their help by talking to Zai to make sure she understood our question about whether she wants to keep Yoga.

TUESDAY, July 25th

After all, the crying the day before, I woke up with really puffy eyes. We slept late and worried, but I woke up confident that we would find a good solution. At 9:00 a.m. sharp I was ready to talk to the owners of Alamanda. I was fully confident that they would be touched by the story and would help us find a way.

Our conversation did not last long. I walked away completely speechless as a result of one of their solutions: “putting down the cat“. I was in shock! No way that was going to happen. We would walk away from our Workaway job if necessary, but would definitely not put our little Yoga to sleep!

The plan was to first ask the next-door resort if they lost a kitty and then ask Zai if she really wanted him and wanted to keep him now.

In the meantime, we had to go to the laundry to drop off and pick up clothes and as we explained the situation to Zu, the owner of the laundry, she said in her broken English, ” I take. When you come later, bring“. I cannot put in words how relieved I was. This lady is so adorable and good-hearted! Although we don’t communicate much due to the language barrier we can tell she is very compassionate and loving. She is a hard worker who takes care of the whole family. I was relieved but my heart was aching. That was it! Yoga had a new home.

A PEACEFUL AFTERNOON

We returned to Alamanda and for a change decided to hang around our bungalow to enjoy some quality time with Yoga and to make sure he didn’t disturb the owners of the resort.

After a quick lunch and organizing a few things, I decided to take a shower and just stay in the bungalow reading and spending some quality time with my furry friend. It felt as if he knew what was about to happen. Unlike his usual eat-play-sleep routine, he slept quietly on my chest until the end of the afternoon. I remained motionless reading “The Art Of Happiness”, by his holiness the Dalai Lama.

The air-conditioner was set at 18C to make sure Yoga didn’t get cold. However, the temperature inside our bungalow was so high that we also had to turn on the ceiling fan. The speed was just enough to make that movie-like sound as the blades span slowly.

It didn’t take long for me to follow Yoga into la-la land. Although asleep, I could feel every move Yoga made to adjust his position to continue his blessed sleep. We spent the rest of the afternoon napping and enjoying each other’s warmth.

We both woke up around the same time. He stood on my chest and stared me straight in the eyes with his strabic cat eyes, with hypnotizing winks. His meow sounded like “you are letting me go. I know.” Maybe my emotions were making me delirious but that was such a powerful moment. I continued to caress his tiny little face while thinking “I don’t want to do this. I want to take him home. I am powerless, trapped in a dead-end situation“. I knew I was going to carry that moment forever, I just prayed I could live with it.

MORE TEARS

When I heard James’s footsteps approaching I knew it was time to go. My heart squeezed and ached. I was trying to control my desperate tears. Minutes later, Jackie and Alex showed up to go out to dinner. They were a very friendly Dutch couple who had checked-in earlier in the day.

We packed Yoga’s box bed, biscuits and flea shampoo and left to pick up our laundry and deliver Yoga. During the ride, he was restless, but stayed still the whole trip, as I held him to my chest. When we arrived, Zu’s daughter-in-law came running toward me to take Yoga from my hands. I think she was offended when I said “No no no. Take it easy.”, and continued to hold Yoga close to my chest. I told Zu I needed to give instructions and asked her to tell me when she didn’t understand what I was saying. She called her son and we started to communicate with more ease. He seemed to understand most of what I was saying. Again, I told him “please tell me if you don’t understand. Yoga is very small still and its important that you understand what to do with him“. It seemed as though he truly understood what I was saying. Only then I realized that he was the one taking Yoga.

While we were talking, Yoga was going around feeling the new ambience, a bit scared with all the commotion and too many people around him. I could sense he was scared. I picked him up one last time, kissed his forehead as I told him “I love you” and thought to myself “please forgive me“. I passed him to Din’s hands and got in the car quickly, barely looking back. I couldn’t stand the pain in my chest.

We took off quickly to have dinner. I apologized to Jackie and Alex for the drama but they understood and were very comforting. We had a really pleasant dinner that kept me distracted for a while. When we returned, we dropped them off at their bungalow, closed the pool café and went to our bungalow. It was empty without Yoga. We packed and prepared everything for our trip to Thailand the next morning. We eventually went to bed at almost 1:00 am. I cried myself to sleep.

WEDNESDAY, 26th July – Life Must Go On

We got up early to head to the jetty. I had an emotional hangover and, again, very puffy eyes. I missed my morning snuggling session with my little furry friend and his intense and penetrating green eyes staring at me. I wished he was there, sitting on my chest softly meowing “good morning“, with coconut milk breath.

My short-lived motherhood was over. I had to get used to the idea that life would go on without Yoga. I had to pull myself together to go to Thailand.

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• Home at Last – Animal Sanctuary – How to take care of kittens.
• Lassie Animal Sanctuary and Veterinarian in Langkawi (Bon Ton Resort)