Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
broken clouds
weather
OMAN
23°C / 23°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Why July was a memorable month for me?

Rasha-al-Raisi
Rasha-al-Raisi
minus
plus

July will be a memorable one to me for many reasons. It was the first that I spent here in Oman. Since my childhood, my dad was never a fan of the hottest month of the year. He always made sure that we’d be somewhere else around the world with a better climate. Other than the scorching heat, we were lucky to witness a total lunar eclipse on the 27th.


Wasn’t it marvellous to witness Mars so bright and close? The days that followed the eclipse were even more interesting as we were hit by a hazy weather.


Mom started getting WhatsApp messages speculating the end of days, why else would the sun disappear for many days? The newspapers announced later that it was a dust storm coming from the Empty Quarter and that it would clear in a few days.


But the main reason for July being a memorable month is what has been happening in my cat’s world, here in Kitzania.


My garden was suddenly flooded with around 20 kittens who either came along with their mothers or unaccompanied.


It was fun to watch as the mother walked in confidently with at least 3 kittens following her.


She would regard me with a look, before leading her lot to the biscuits plate.


The kittens would enjoy nibbling under their mother’s protective gaze.


Unlike these kittens, the loner ones weren’t as lucky.


They came extremely sick with the flu and huddle in pairs or in groups.


When feeding time came, they’d attack the plates with a funny war-like cries.


Of course, their kamikaze’s efforts are stopped immediately with slaps and hisses from the bigger cats.


The loners would go back to their initial spot and wait till the big cats are done, the way nature intended it (at least they tried!).The problem with the sick kittens was that they were very untrusting which made their treatment a struggle.


They were spreading the flu around.


I didn’t know how to slip the antibiotics pills in their food, as they ran away once they saw me coming.


I decided to approach them differently by gaining the trust of one of them.


He was a white and ginger kitten that I took as the alpha male.


He had more courage than the rest of them, and always kept a distance rather than running away and hiding under the car.


I called him Shawal (as he came in the month of Eid) and decided to befriend him.


It took a week of biting and scratching my hand, before Shawal allowed me to stroke him and decided that I was worth his friendship.


I started slipping antibiotics to some wet food and giving it out to Shawal.


This drew the rest of the kittens to the plate, which solved the main flu problem.


On the same week, I had a call from my friend regarding a mother cat that resides in her building with her kitten.


The cat was refusing to feed the 2-week-old baby for no good reason and my friend was worried about the kitten’s health.


I went to check and found out that both mother and kitten were suffering from the flu and started treating them.


Both are doing well now.


The best part was receiving a 2-months-old blind kitten that my cousins rescued and were not sure what to do with.


It was my first ever experience with a blind kitten.


Will share more details about this interesting experience in the coming weeks! Stay tuned!


Rasha al Raisi is a certified skills trainer and the author of: The World According to Bahja.


rashabooks@yahoo.com


SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon