hani aziz: Do I have the strength ... ???

This is Ching or as her owner calls her - Bushy. If you have read my older posts, I wrote about her and her kittens in "My Feline Friend" dated 6th March 2015. She is very quiet. Actually, her owner said she is depressed, sad and hardly ate anything for the past few days. Her teats were swollen. She lost her three kittens. They should be about three months old. She came over to my house and sat at her feeding station - just waiting to be fed. She hardly meowed or made any cat sound. She just looked at you with her expressive, soulful eyes.... asking to be understood. I put some cat food into my palm and put it near her mouth. She ate a little, just to pacify me. After a few days, she began to eat from the feeding bowl. She is just a cat, you might say, but she has feelings and nurturing instinct of a mother.

Then, there is Kitty as I call her or Lucy as her owner calls her. This is one of Ching's kittens in the posting referred to above. She had already given birth to a litter of three kittens. Her owner wanted to give away her kittens as another one her cats was also pregnant. My sister in-law in Kangar wanted the kittens. I told her to wait for two months to wean the kittens from their mother. We did not take into account the feelings of the poor young mother cat. When I went to collect the kittens from the owner, Kitty followed me until my house and got into the box in which I had put them in. Even after my sister in-law had driven away with the kittens, she just waited outside my door step every day (that was almost three months ago) ... and when I let her into the house, she started to sniff every part of the living room looking for her kittens. Only Allah knows how bad I feel ... until now she still waits outside my house or under the car in the porch. She meows for her food and only goes home if she is hungry or the owner calls for her. She is just a cat ....

Why am I pursuing this line of thoughts ... recently Noor received a message via his family whatsapp that a mother wanted to give up her eight month old baby due to poverty and her unfavourable condition. It was a baby boy. I suggested that they sponsored or fostered the poor woman rather than separate them. She refused as she had another two young kids with her. One of his sisters was willing to find a foster family willing to adopt the baby. The baby is eight months old. He should still be breast feeding by his mother. He has bonded with his mother emotionally, mentally and physically. How is the mother going to let him go? She has to have a heart as hard as stone to be able to give up the baby, turn away and not looking back ... only Allah knows how she feels ..

I cannot imagine the magnitude of strength and resolve that she must have had to let him go. If the two cats described above makes me feel so horrible and sad ... imagine how devastated the mother feels. I can just hope and pray that she has the faith that by letting go, she is ensuring a better future for the child. That alone can give her the strength to carry on with her life with the older kids. I feel for her as I feel for the poor mother cats. What trials and tests await her future .. or the older kids' future.