Of The Yowler, Taiji And Life

Gerald’s yowling has intensified.

Early this morning, he started yowling at 4am. I tried my usual “telepathy” messages which always worked, but it totally failed this time. His yowling continued until 5am. So, that’s an hour’s yowling, which was really very disturbing and exhausting especially when it was during the wee hours of dawn. I had half a mind to just go downstairs and let him go outdoors because I know I would not be able to stop him.

He’s doing it again now, after his nap.

Whenever he gets up from a nap, he will start looking for a way to escape, and when he cannot, he yowls.

If he carries on this way, especially when it is so loud and if he does it at night or early dawn, we may just have to release him outdoors again, if that’s a way to stop the yowling.

Safety vs. Mental Health. Sigh…whose mental health here? It’s Gerald’s and everyone else’s, including our other cats’ and us humans’ (and the neighbours’).

For example, when he yowled this morning, from 4am to 5am, even Tabs woke up and could not get back to sleep. Gerald’s yowls are really loud and sharp.

On another note, I have been doing my daily walks every day. It’s been five weeks since the accident and I have not been able do any taiji at the park because it feels so empty without Gerald and Misty’s company. Even when I walk along my usual route, every car that drives past worries me.

This morning a small tabby cat (who looked like Riley when she first came to our road) was sitting right smack in the middle of another road in our housing estate. I walked towards the cat, hoping she would run away, but she refused to even budge. She just stayed put, so I carried her and put her by the side of the road. Then I asked the domestic helper outside one of the houses if the cat belonged to any house and she said no. In fact, she asked me to take the cat home. I’ve seen this cat many times before on my walks.

If it were ten years ago, perhaps I would have taken the cat straight to the vet’s for a check-up and get her spayed (or castrated, if male), but not now. Picking up another street cat almost means adopting them ourselves now. How am I going to adopt another young cat? I already have no space in the house and do I have the luxury of time to see through another young life?

So I picked up the cat again and took her to the other side of the road where it looked safer, where the curb was wider. She stayed there and in my next few rounds, I did not see her anymore. Hopefully, she belongs to one of the houses. She looked well fed.

Then, after I finished my walk, I braved myself and walked up to the park to do a round of taiji. It’s been five weeks…. Misty lives in my heart now, she will always be with me. As I performed the movements, I missed my special cat-taiji where I would have to step over Gerald and Misty because they would be sitting along my path. There was no one there with me today. Only me. And Misty in my heart, and Gerald was home.

In the last five weeks, there were many times when I was still in denial. I wondered which was worse, to know that Misty had had an accident and that she was gone forever or to not know what had happened. The latter would mean she’s just “lost” and might return one day. There’s still hope that she might walk through the gate one day… I realise it’s futile thinking, and I was just in denial. The five stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Barganing, Depression, Acceptance. The process simply cannot be rushed.

I think it would be just a matter of time before we release Gerald back to the outdoors. If he continues whining and yowling this way, it isn’t good for his mental health. It would not be right for me to confine him for his safety, at the expense of his happiness.

At such times, don’t you wish you could understand what they want so that you could take the next step to make life better for them?

It’s nonstop whining and yowling now.

Safety vs Everybody’s Mental Health. Which is more important?

The post Of the yowler, taiji and life appeared first on AnimalCare.

Source: https://animalcare.my/2024/08/12/of-the-yowler-taiji-and-lif..

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