Meet Arya, Luna and my 19 other cats | Steemit Engagement Challenge Season3 Week #3 |My Pets

If someone had told me in 2014 that I'd have 21 cats at my place, I'd haven given him the contact number of the best psychiatrist in Pakistan and would have probably called a mental hospital to come pick him up. Not a single person in my family liked cats. I'm an empath. I know it's a very strong word to use but honestly, I feel like I am one, specially when comes to animals. Sometimes my family gets cranky about it and I believe they have every right of being so. For instance, I feed stray cats outside my house every chance I get, ie, almost every day. So all the cats have gotten extremely comfortable with me. The issue arises when my dad is entering the house. One time, I remember, my had chicken in his hand and one of the cats snapped on the bag, tearing it in half. I didn't know what to do. It was me who was scolded by my dad, not the cat xD

Anyway, I have been like this for about 6 years now. Before that, I remember, I didn't like animals in general or lets say, I was scared of them, especially cats and dogs. So we never had pets in our house. In 2018, my friend was giving away two kittens. It was an impulsive decision honestly, and I brought one of them home. I named my kitten:

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ARYA

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The sort of serenity, joy, trouble, difficulties, emotions, love and patience Arya has given me, I highly doubt anyone's going to take her place in my life ever. I brought her into a house which didn't welcome pets. In the beginning, it was only me who took care of her. I used to bring minced boneless chicken for her everyday, boiled it and then fed her with my hands. Once, she bit my palm and I bled like a maniac. I have taken care of Arya with all my might. She was only a month old, when I brought her home. For your general knowledge, you don't seperate a kitten from her mother upto the age of 2.5 months. Arya had me as a mother. I bathed her, fed her, cleaned her mess, tolerated all the taunts, criticism and whatnot.

My mom is extremely scared of cats. She cannot stand a cat being too near to her. I had to face all of that, and I did it. But, if you ask me of today, she still cannot touch any cat but its her who feeds them every morning, it's her who's the most concerned about their health. It was my mom who cried when we had to give away one of our cats.

In no time, Arya turned into an adult which meant she was ready to mate. The first time I heard her wailing on our door, I got so scared and took her to a vet. He told me it's nothing to worry about she's just calling a male cat to her house. It changed my perspective about Arya completely. I mean, my daughter, who I have raised with good moral values and ethics calling random males into our house? Unbelievable lmao. Soon enough there used to be tons of make cats lined up outside our house. I didn't spay Arya as I couldn't persuade myself on doing that. This was my biggest mistake, I guess as after every three months we welcomed a batch of new kittens. There was this time when I had 21 cats at my place. Thank God my father was in Saudia at that time or he would have literally killed me

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_{That's Arya, her daughter Luna and their kids.}

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You know what surprised me throughout this? The compassion my mom had for each and every one of my cats. She literally cared about all of them more than I ever could. Took care of their health, used to scold us if we sometimes ignored them. It was unbelievable.

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Slowly and gradually, we had to give away kittens to other families. One thing about me, I am against trading living beings, especially cats. I didn't sell any of my kittens rather gave them away for free to people who already experience of having pet animals. I lost a lot of kittens due to a deadly feline virus in 2020 as well.

We had extreme rain in August 2020 which also resulted in the spread of a deadly feline virus. Cats used to puke out worms and were extremely lethargic. Specially the young kittens. Unfortunately my cat had birth a few days before this rain. I lost 6 kittens in a span of 7 days due to this virus. Took them to a veterinarian, did everything I could but I remember burying a fresh body everyday. It was devastating. I'll share a picture of one of the kittens who survived

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But, my cats have given me alot of moments of joy. When they play with me, when they chase my charging cord. When they come up to me silently and snuggle with me. It's so wholesome. Do you know, cats are the most narcissistic and selfish mammals out there. If they're being fed on time and have a comfortable place to sleep in, they wouldn't care about you. I have a theory that if you're being rude to your cat and are not feeding her on time, and if there's a break-in at your house, she'll probably help the thieves in the robbery.

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Anyway, from Arya came a lot more cats. Some of the survived, some didn't. The males set out of the house and some of them didn't return, ever. I think that's the nature of males, to leave and never return. Keeping cats as pets has taught me a lot of realities of life, such as the female gender is not safe no matter the specie. For instance women are scared to go out of homes at night due to the fear of men, similarly in cats, female cats don't leave house much due to the fear of beinf abused by male cats. I wonder this world would've been a very peaceful, crime free place if no men existed. But that's a debate for another day

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Right now I have two cats at my place. Arya and her grand daughter, Luna who was named after her mother. We had to give way Luna to a friend because we were moving out. I remember my mother crying on that day.

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An extremely mischievous girl who likes to play all day long. She accompanies me everyday to the prayer mat and sit besided me while I am praying.

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It's very important to take your cats to the vet every now and then for a regular checkup. I take Arya for a regular checkup every once in a while, that's how she stays healthy. Honestly in these 4 years I have learned so much about taking care of pets, that I can manage 90% of their health related issues at home only. I'm slowly turning into a veterinarian xD.

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Here's another picture of Arya:

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CONCLUSION

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From not keeping animals inside my house, to having cats inside and stray dogs outside, I have come a long way. I was asked once by a friend what's your biggest wish to which I replied that I wish to make thousands of pet houses for millions of stray dogs in our city so that no one harms them. I wish I could make this dream come true.

With this, I'd like to end my article. I'd like to invite a couple of friends to share about their pets, if they have any. @event-horizon, @nadiaturrina and @enveng.
Thank you
Regards,

Country Representative Pakistan
Huzaifa Naveed

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cc: @pennsif