Pet owners have their fair share of hilarious and heartwarming experiences during the Movement Control Order (MCO), but nothing can quite top what Aida went through with her cat, Manja.
According to her, the highlight of her family’s lockdown during the MCO was having two fire engines with their sirens on full blast and 12 firemen stopping by their house lane to help extricate Manja out of a tree.
“Our cat’s reason for climbing up the tree will always remain a mystery, but the whole neighbourhood now knows what a naughty pet we have!” exclaims Aida, who added that if ever a movie were to be made for an adaption of T S Elliot’s poem ‘Macavity’, Manja would be the leading contender for the infamous feline.
Besides getting the whole fire department over, Aida says that Manja has committed other ‘crimes’ – so to speak.
Aida proceeds to list them: “He has stolen food from the dinner table, licked butter and coffee, pulled threads on the curtains and sofa corners, ruined shoelaces, knocked down mugs and litter bins, left dead birds in our living room, left paw prints at the entrance after heavy downpours, ruffled our folded laundry and walked on my laptop keyboard while I worked.”
That isn’t all, Aida continues, as he has also given her and her family members scars from scratches and bites on their legs and hands that are proof of the menace to society that Manja actually is.
“He truly is in a category of his own in temperament and character!”
Looking back, Aida says that she never would have thought that the grey stray meowing for his mum two days in a row would turn out to be such a mischief maker.
“He was a scrawny malnourished little kitten with an exceptionally lean and long tail when my husband finally pulled him out from under our car,” she recalls.
She vividly remembers the day she reached home from work sometime in February this year. The kitten had confidently slid his body between her feet and dropped onto the floor to present its belly.
“Aww, so ‘manja’. That’s how the name stuck,” Aida explains.
“But the moment we welcomed him into our home, he monopolised our attention while terrorising our two other cats!”
Aida says that she soon began to realise that despite his sweet name, Manja is constantly in play mode, disturbing his ‘brothers’ when all they want to do is nap. On top of that, he is also always curious about household items which he deems as toys.
“He is the only cat with a bell collar on so that we know where he is and what he’s up to.”
Unfortunately, as handy as the bell collar might be, it didn’t stop an accident from happening one fateful day.
“My husband and I were in our car one afternoon and we accidentally reversed over Manja’s hind leg,” says Aida sadly.
Fortunately, Manja was lucky that he was fast and that Aida’s husband was on a slow reverse. Manja’s life was saved and he was only left with a slight limp.
“This happened on my husband’s birthday, no less. Manja sure had a way to rain on someone’s parade!” jokes Aida.
Although Manja does seem like quite a terror to be around, Aida says that he is afraid of just one thing – and that is the presence of strangers in their home.
Manja will disappear for hours on end and will only return when Aida shakes the cat biscuit container, which is a signal for his mealtime.
On top of that, Manja does also seem to know when he’s being scolded for all his wrongdoings.
“He will crouch low and give us that sad look and blink those large eyes at us in a bid to look pitiful,” says Aida fondly.
“He can get on our nerves, but he’s our cat nonetheless.”
TELL US ABOUT YOUR PET: FMT Lifestyle readers are invited to send in pictures (landscape format) and a short video (if any) of their furry, scaly or feathery friends to [email protected]. Don’t forget to include details like your pet’s name, age, breed and a short story about them.