Just a few years ago, Liyana was volunteering at Penang’s Cat Beach Sanctuary when she met two beautiful cats who stole her heart.
“One was a white, highly-strung bob-tailed cat constantly zipping through the area,” Liyana said, explaining that the cat known as Speedy back in the sanctuary is now known as Boboq.
“She would crawl on top of me and wrap herself around my neck like a necklace.”
The other cat that caught Liyana’s eye was Foxy. This feline had a bushy tail and an arrogant aura about her which Liyana couldn’t get past.
As the heart wants what it wants, Liyana instantly fell in love with the two beauties and decided to adopt them.
Boboq is a loving and good-natured cat that most people tend to be naturally drawn to. But don’t let that easy-going nature fool you, Liyana says, as Boboq has had a tough life.
“Boboq developed an eye problem after she was adopted from Cat Beach Sanctuary. It became worse and started to affect her other senses,” Liyana says.
She says Boboq was also suffering from the flu and was on antibiotics nearly all the time.
“She was in so much pain, so we had to send her for surgery to get her eye removed,” said Liyana woefully.
However, Boboq showed remarkable resilience throughout her recovery and still remained her fun-loving self, something Liyana admired about her.
“Most cats would show signs of pain or have little to no appetite after surgery. But for Boboq, there was no such thing. She went straight to the food bowl,” laughs Liyana.
“When it comes to mealtime, these two cats devour anything and everything you put in front of them,” says Liyana, “But Boboq has a strange habit of scattering her food around.”
Luckily, she is particular about not letting even a morsel of food go to waste and so cleans every bit up as thoroughly as a vacuum cleaner would.
“She also has a habit of farting everywhere she goes, leaving quite a stench behind!” shared Liyana mirthfully.
When Boboq is not busy farting or messing up the floor with her food, Liyana says the little kitty can be found basking in the sunlight every morning.
Foxy, on the other hand, is a friendly kitty but has moments where she acts like a diva.
Liyana says that Foxy demands attention whenever she’s around as if she were gracing those present with her very presence. Once that’s been established, Foxy proceeds to give everyone ‘cattitude’.
Despite her diva demeanour, Liyana says she’s positive Foxy is her happiest when there’s a crowd around as she loves receiving pets and playing with people who drop by the house.
Liyana recalls when her mother used to call Foxy ‘Rus’, the short form of the Malay word ‘kurus’ which means ‘thin’.
“It was due to how scrawny she looked when she was newly adopted. In fact, her bushy tail was bigger than the rest of her body,” Liyana says.
Foxy however blossomed from the willowy kitty she was a few years back into the lovely and luscious diva she is today.
“I honestly didn’t expect to feel so overwhelmed with the love I received from those cats back at the sanctuary,” Liyana says, adding that had she not made the decision to volunteer there, she would never have met the two furry ones who currently make her life much more colourful and certainly whole.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR PET: FMT Lifestyle readers are invited to send in pictures (landscape format) and a short video (if any) of their furry, scaly or feathery friends to [email protected]. Don’t forget to include details like your pet’s name, age, breed and a short story about them.