Cats and Dogs

My first pet was a cat when I was in pre-school and staying in a condo. Actually, it was a stray. It had followed us back to our apartment. Till today, I am still quite puzzled how it had found our apartment as we took the lift and it walked up the stairs! Because of that, my mother decided to take the cat in. It was a black cat, pretty docile and gentle. I named it "Black Cat", yup, real original, lol. I remembered playing with it and taking it for walks on the grounds of the condo. But it hated the lift, would only take the stairs. So I would take the lift and meet the cat downstairs, lol. Black Cat was with us for 3/4 years until we moved to a landed property at the junction of Stevens Road and Bukit Timah Road. Before we moved, it disappeared and never came back. I never knew what happened to it. Still think of it at times.

At the landed property, we had two dogs: a boxer and a mixed breed between silky terrier and some other breed (can't remember, lol). The boxer, Sharon, was a real gentle dog. It looked fierce but was actually most friendly. The other dog, Starbuck, (yup, I named it after the character in Battlestar Galactica, lol. :P) was a small dog but most ferocious! I had good times with the dogs - bathing them, taking them for walks, feeding them. Sharon, the boxer was with us for 13.5 years before passing away. I was in my 2nd year in Australia then, I remembered crying my heart out upon hearing the bad news! Starbuck was with us for 17 years before it too disappeared one day, like Black Cat. I was then teaching at SCGS and my students were most helpful when they heard about what happened. Some of them and their parents actually drove round the area to help look for Starbuck. (I lived right next to SCGS then.) I really appreciated their help. I thought that was it with pets. Probably never going to have another pet. Losing a pet was too great a pain to bear.

Exactly 3 months after Starbuck disappeared, I found a Grey Tabby kitten hiding in our carpark. Life seemed to have some sparkle again. I named it Starbuck Ngeow, in memory of Starbuck the dog. :P It was the most adorable and clever kitten! When we moved to our current place, Starbuck Ngeow came along with us. It quickly got used to staying in a flat. It was a really nice cat until it started to "bully" me, lol. It would hide in a corner and jumped at me, often scaring and scratching me in the process! But on the whole, it was still a nice cat. :P Starbuck Ngeow was with us for about 4 years until an accident took its life. I was in MOE HQ then and expecting my first child. Although Starbuck Ngeow always bullied me, I was still upset about her death . It would be too distraught for cat lovers if I mentioned how Starbuck Ngeow passed on. But from then on, we never have another pet. The pain was just too much to bear.

But maybe one day, when the pain is forgotten, I might just venture to have a pet again.