Meet Mai Tai the cat. My cat. My little bundle of fluffy joy. It has always been a childhood dream of mine to own a furry mammal but an asthmatic younger brother pretty much made that impossible. Fast forward 20 years, said brother asked me, “Was spending all that money worth it to bring her home here? You could’ve gone on a South African tour!” Yes, it was. So. Worth it.
I got Mai Tai from a colleague when I was based in Palm Springs, California. She got the cat from a shelter so her own cat would have a playmate. Lord knows she tried to get the two furballs to get along but it was not meant to be. Rather than return Mai Tai to the shelter, she asked me if I wanted to keep her while I was living in the country. I readily agreed with the original game plan of getting her another furever home when I had the go back to the Philippines.
She was delivered to me on an uneventful day off: a plain-looking 2-year-old tuxedo cat that had a big appetite and tended to puke out her food if she ate too much too fast. Mai Tai meowed loudly as we carried her cage up the stairs to my flat. She quickly hid under my bed as soon as she got out of her cage and stayed there the entire day. I woke at 4 in the morning to her whiskers tickling my nose, probably peeking at me to see who her new pet parent was. I was glad that she wanted to bond on the first day, despite being up way before the sunrise. I stroked her fur for the first time, her tail around my wrist and her contented purrs are the only sounds in that ungodly hour. I totally fell in love from that point.
Mai Tai was one of the good things that had been constant during my 18-month stint in the US. Nevermind if I was lazing in front of the TV or coming home drunk out of my mind, she was always there waiting for me in my room. Simply playing with her made a crappy day better. Stroking her fur became therapeutic for me. I never thought that I would establish such a strong bond with an animal!
Weeks turned into months and next thing I knew, my stint was coming to an end and it was time to go home. I was a wreck for the last few weeks! I would cry whenever I would see her because I had to give her up before I left. I cried when I saw her after coming home from work, I cried when I came home from a party, I even cried whenever I woke up and she’d be right in front of my face! I was probably moping about pretty badly when a fellow pet parent asked me, “Why don’t you just take her home?” And almost immediately, I researched how I’d be able to do just that. People had asked me, “WHY spend all that money???” It’s probably my naïve thinking that I am convinced that money can always be earned back. I have no regrets in making my decision. I guess the bond between pet parent and fur baby was already pretty established during the time that I was in Palm Springs. Or maybe it was because I knew that she will be well provided for when I brought her back with me, with the assurance that she would never have to go back to a shelter. I mean, really, there was no way that I could leave her, even if someone was already willing to take her in.
I contacted a shipping company that specialized in transporting animals. While I could bring Mai Tai as a checked-in luggage, I knew I would be all sorts of paranoid if she was comfortable in the carrier, or if she already died from the freezing temperature in the carrier, or if the luggage handlers aren’t tossing her cage around like they do with most baggage. There’s always a chance that an animal dies because of mishandling in a flight and since it was my first time to do such a thing, I decided to get professionals to do it.
Mai Tai has been living in the Philippines for 8 years now. She likes her kitty brush and plays in empty boxes like most cats. She still wakes me up at an ungodly hour either to get more food in her bowl or to open our bedroom door so she can go potty. She likes getting her back scratched and she loves laying on anything that’s black. She hates taking baths but would only meow loudly in protest, never attacking the human giving her a shower.
She’ll be turning 11 years old in September. She’s no longer as hyper or as active, opting to lie on our bed for at least 20 hours in a day. I was told that such is normal behavior with older animals. I am pretty convinced that she will live until she turns 14, 16 the latest. I don’t think I can stomach to watch her struggle with her health if she reaches 20 but I will still accept her if she perseveres in those senior years. Again, people may ask me why.
Because she’s my fortune kitty. My furever and ever.
Simply Chiara 