Living the good life now, the handsome, orange-hued Atan, who loves napping and watching TV, was once a sickly and hungry stray until a kind couple rescued him from off the streets of Shah Alam.
Suzianah Nhazzla Ismail still remembers the shock and sadness she felt when she first laid eyes on a battered and badly injured street cat. It was Dec 24 last year at around 10 pm just after shopping for groceries.
Because of the darkness, she initially thought it was a discarded soft toy. “However, as I slowly approached it, it lifted its heavy head, and I realised it was a male cat,” she says.
Since she had a small bag of Whiskas cat food with her, she poured some out for him. “He bumped his head against my hand as I was putting out the food. I think that was his way of saying thank you.
“I got into my car but throughout the journey home I couldn’t stop thinking about him,” she remembers.
After storing away the groceries, she spoke to her husband about the sickly cat.
“He asked me what I planned to do and I told him that I wanted to rehabilitate the cat and put it up for adoption.”
Her husband agreed and the two went out again into the night in search of the cat. “We went around every parking area there but we couldn’t find him. My heart sank and I just couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down my cheeks,” Suzianah says.
I couldn’t sleep the entire night. All I could see was the cat’s face, a very sad and broken face. We set out again on Dec 25 at about the same time we first saw him,” she says, remembering that the search this time lasted 45 minutes.
The cat however, was nowhere in sight.
However, just as they were about to leave, Suzianah spotted him, lying limp on the cement.
“I jumped out of the car with a pet transporter and I gently caressed him. As I opened the transporter’s lock, he slowly walked into it, as if he knew that my husband and I were there to help.”
The couple took the cat home that night but considering how late it was, there was not much they could do except feed him and give him some water.
They took him to the veterinary clinic the next day, where the doctor who examined him, said his injuries were severe and that there was the possibility he could lose an eye.
Since he was already being hospitalised to treat his condition, the doctor, who estimated the cat’s age to be about five years old, took the opportunity to neuter him.
“Within a week of tender love and care, he had transformed into a different cat. We saw how good looking he was and rather graceful too,” Suzianah says.
Although a new home was awaiting him upon his discharge from the clinic, there was a new development at home.
“My husband had fallen in love with him. My husband named him Turgut, in memory of Ertugrul’s lieutenant of the Great Ottoman Empire.
“But as time went by, his name became more local with a kampung flavour. He is now known as Atan. So yes, Atan is our foster failure,” says Suzianah.
Atan has now found a forever home with Suzianah and her husband. “He is such a loving and gentle cat. He loves food but he prefers his nap time more than anything else.
In fact, he snores like a train when he sleeps on his back, Suzianah says affectionately. He also has a healthy appetite, eating two servings at each meal time.
“I am glad that Atan allowed my husband and I to rescue him and nurse him back to health. He has completed our little family and he will never again know what it is like to go hungry or to have untreated wounds and injuries.
“Atan is also very attached to my husband and the two spend quality time watching TV together,” she says.
Suzianah has one message to all who are reading Atan’s story right now. “Atan didn’t choose his fate to live as a stray, so I urge every Malaysian to open their heart to homeless cats.”
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.