Toby

In late 1996, when I had just set up home after returning from Australia, a little ginger kitten appeared at my front door just as I was leaving for work one morning. I gave it a bowl of milk. When I returned that evening it was still there at my front door, as if waiting for me.
I then decided that it wanted to adopt me as its owner! So the little ginger kitten, a he, came to live inside my house and I named him Toby. And what a joy he turned out to be. He brought out so much love in me and he almost had a 'human' rapport with me. Like a 'manja' child, he was always waiting for my return and was always happy when I was home since he spent most of the days locked-up in the house. The first thing he would do would be to run to the bedroom, wait for me to open the door, then run to the bathroom and jump up into the sink and expectantly wait for me to turn the tap for him to drink the water. That was his peculiarity; he would only drink from running water!

We lived happily in the corner terrace house with the lush garden a friend once described as ' orderly-disorderly'! Whatever, it was my own private Eden, and Toby was happiest when he was playing in it.

I travelled a lot in that three years, and Toby would always find a temporary home in my brother's house in Shah Alam, with an equally lush garden, and would find company in my brother's family cats, the wild Osama and the 'old lady' Minky. He was so at home in that house.

When I moved to Peru, Toby followed me, travelling some 25 hours in two air crafts. When we reached our destination he was a little perplexed at first but took only a day or two to make himself at home in the new house with the enormous garden and the 12 feet surrounding garden wall.

He was the happiest of cats, always patrolling the top of the wall which he managed to climb on to from a branch of a tree. Once he had a fight with a visiting neighbour's dog and was bitten in the stomach. It took a long time for me and the vet to realise that he had been bitten. He was just not himself and had lost so much weight. When the deep dog bites were finally discovered, he was almost a goner but the patient doctor operated on him, sewed the three deep gashes that had joined up to become one horrifying tear on his tummy, and came to see him daily till he was alright. Thereafter a month of confinement, and Toby was good as new. Of course the first he did upon release was to climb up the tree, onto the wall to patrol his territory.

Alas two years into my stay in Peru I developed a very bad allergy to Toby. He could not come near me without me breaking up into uncontrollable sneezing, teary and extremely itchy eyes. I put up with it for the love of the darling cat and often sent him to the vet to be bathed and groomed which had a temporary relief for me. But when I had a major operation, it was decided that Toby should not be the cause of further discomfort to me especially in my recuperative process.

Thus again Toby flew some 25 hours back to Malaysia, with Anita who came to see me through my operation. He has since lived with her and my brother in their huge Shah Alam house with their cats Osama (the terror we call him) and Minky, who had since passed on.

Yesterday Anita called, and among other things, told me that Toby was really getting old (he's more than 12 year old now) and slow but that he was alright and was well looked-after especially by my nephew Andreas.

I had not seen Toby for almost a year. Last month when I was back on leave, I went to visit my brother and Anita and as I arrived, Toby was at the neighbour's. I called out to him and went to pick him up. His immediate response was 'violent', he was hissing and growling and biting me endlessly but not hard enough to cause any bleeding. When he finally calmed down, he purred like a Harley Davidson - that's my Toby, always purring in my embrace. It was as if he was showing me how upset he was with me for being away so long.... It was the very same scenario when I picked him up before leaving.

My darling Toby, you gave Papa so much joy the 5 years we lived together.I hope you will still be there when Papa finally come home.....