We Met Just to Say Goodbye

There are 365 days a year displayed on the calendar and every person has their own special day. For me it’s today, October 10th. That might not mean anything to most people but to me is a very special day. Today is the 3^rd anniversary of my marriage. Though last year on my 2^nd anniversary it was even more special. I got a little gift from my spouse that lives with me with a forever memories. This special gift was a cute little kitten. I named my little fella “Mangkut” (Means mangosteen in Thai language)  and a friendship began that I will never forget.

Mangkut was an American Shorthair breed. He was very amazing looking cat because he had an interesting pattern on his body that I had never seen before. When I first met him he was only 1 month old with very tiny body, the same size of coffee cup. I fell in love with him right away and after receiving him I rushed to the shopping center nearby to buy foods and toys for him. I was very excited to have him in the house.

When he was 5 months old, Mangkut had grown so much. He became so big almost the same size of full grown cat, I couldn’t believe my eyes to see him grow so quick. I searched in the internet about this type of cat and found out that they could grow much bigger and would reach the maturity in about year and a half or two. He could get big and be almost the same size of the medium sized dog, living for 15-20 years. I was a little scared that he could become a tiger in my house and couldn’t feed him anymore, he would eat me instead, I laughed.

Mangkut was very smart kitty. In morning when he wanted to wake me up, he would claw on my bed and sat on my face, or he would sit on my chest and started to massage my chin. Sometimes if that didn’t work to wake me up, he would then run back and forth between my bedroom and the living room. Our apartment had wooden floor and it created a lot of noise. I couldn’t resist any more of this morning activity but to get up and play with him.

One day when I finished my laundry, I had found out that I lost a lot of my socks. At first, I tried to look for them everywhere but there were no sign. I was wondering where I forgot them. I went to buy a few new pairs but it kept disappearing. Then one day I saw Mangkut carrying a pair of my socks as he disappeared under the bed. I lifted my bed up and found almost 20 pairs of my socks piled up like an eagle’s nest. I put all my socks back in the drawer and next day after I came back from school I found my socks everywhere on the floor with him playing with them. First I blamed my spouse that left the sock drawer open. Then a few days later the same thing happened again and it continued to happen again. I was laughing and mad at the same time wondering how was this happening. Later that week I was at home watching TV when I saw Mangkut open and close drawer by himself. I was laughing so hard and took a video of him opening drawer. I went to the shop and bought a medal stick to lock the drawer. My cat was way too smart. He could steal the sock on his own from the drawer.

The day when I found out that I had to leave China to come to study here at the U of M, my heart was broken for I knew that I couldn’t bring him along with me. I have never thought before that I would have to say goodbye to him but the time had come too soon. I gave him to my good friend in Beijing and he promised to take a good care of Mangkut. I went to say goodbye to him one last time before I left China. Now I have been living at the new place but every day I come home without seeing him playing with my socks. I feel like I missing something in my life. Today is October 10^th and I could not stop thinking about how happy I was last year. This year all I can do is to remember that once he had put smiles and laughter on my face each day I was with him. His memorry will stay with me forever.