SHAGGY❤️

You know, there are people you meet in life, often in strange ways, who, even if they leave, you can never forget because of the memories you created together. It is the same for animals too.

Growing up, we had a lot of cats that worried the hell out of our lives, but none of these cats were ones my parents or grandparents went hunting for, let alone buying. One just found us and became attached.

One wounded orange cat started coming to our house. Nobody knew where it came from, but my dad used to feed it anytime it came. Then, before we realized it, the cat came with a kitten: a black-and-white cat that won the heart of everybody.

The kitten was called Shaggy. Shaggy was the kind of cat that would run to meet my father even before he entered his room. He enjoyed every food my father enjoyed, and even in the morning, he was offered milk when Dad was having tea.

When it was time for dining around our small table, you would hear people calling out, “Shaggy, Shaggy here, Shaggy there,” because they were about to drop food for him.

I don't know if Shaggy was loved because of how smart he was, or because his games with birds were something we used to entertain ourselves with. Watching him play hunting games with lizards was also interesting. Or maybe it was just my father making the best of a stray cat.

I grew up hearing “Shaggy” all over the house until Shaggy died when I was 8. One afternoon, I saw his body behind my mum's room, and there were ants all over. He hadn’t even eaten his evening meal. As much as my parents thought about his death, they couldn’t pinpoint the cause. They thought he might have been trapped yet escaped or ate something bad when he went out for love.

Yes, Shaggy went out for love,sometimes we used to see him doing things with cats we've not seen before. In fact, his mother even vacated our house to stay at my  maternalgrandpa’s place a point in time. Animals do things for love too!

But after Shaggy, I have not seen my father bond with any of the other cats, and he has never named any cat since. Shaggy was, and probably is, the last cat with a name and all that attachment, though they still leave food for cats in our house.

It's been more than a decade but I still remember Shaggy. When I was typing this last night,I called my mum and mentioned Shaggy, I wanted to know if it was because of the memory I have or my mum remembers too. She remembers Shaggy and even asked why I was mentioning it now😂