Blog - November 21, 2021

Day 21: The November Happiness Challenge 2021

Malikah was a very active and lovely cat during her time with us.

On a particular day, we stepped out to work, and left her food at a side of the living room, as we usually do. We also left her litter accessible, to avoid stories that touch. That’s the routine we follow daily so she’d be well taken care of before we return. We got in and the first thing We noticed was that she didn’t run to come greet us, this was weird but I assumed she was sleeping.

We then checked her food and found it untouched. Litter too was as neat as we left it. at this point, we knew something was off. We checked the rooms for her and didn’t see her ( we shut the doors before we left anyway). After searching for a long time, we had to admit to ourselves that she wasn’t in the house. We couldn’t really understand how she left, because we were sure we left her in. But then I remembered that the front door was left open when I stepped out so W would join me, and that might have been her moment of escape.

It was already late so we couldn’t start looking round in the estate. I was so anxious, and barely had any sleep. The next morning, we went round looking for any traces of her so we could rescue her if she was in danger or otherwise. We walked so much but our efforts were futile; there was no sign of our dear Malikah. Some of our neighbours even laughed at us and told us she had probably gone wild and would never return. That wasn’t encouraging.

We then saw a little girl who asked us if we were looking for a white cat and from the description she gave, we knew she was referring to Malikah. She said we should follow her to a house she saw Malikah entering, and we did. We asked the occupants of the house and they said she indeed came but only played with their own cats and they sent her away when it was late so she’d return to her home. Long story short, they didn’t know where she was at that moment but at least we had established that she indeed left our house and was somewhere within the estate.

For a week or thereabouts, we didn’t see our Malikah. I was very sad about it, but there was nothing I could do. I just prayed that God should direct her back home as soon as possible because we were told that the longer she stayed out, the higher the chances of her turning wild and even if we found her then, it wouldn’t be safe to let her come live with us as a domesticated pet.

One day, W went to pray at the mosque in the morning and returned home. He called out from the living room that I should guess who he found and I said what? Malikah? He said yes! You should have seen how overjoyed we both were.

He said he was returning home from the mosque after praying and then he just saw some fur inside a compound right adjacent the mosque. The gates in our estate are low so one can see the compounds, so this made it easy. He moved closer and confirmed that it was Malikah . He couldn’t go into the compound as that would be wrong and intrusive, so he decided to wait it out a bit and see if he could knock or something ( it was still very early ; it would be awkward to go disturb people that early)

Fortunately, the occupant of the building also prayed at the mosque so he stepped out and tried to enter. W ran to him and explained the situation. The man said he had been seeing the cat for some days but didn’t know where she came from. W then went into the compound and picked her, brought her home. She was looking so dirty and malnourished. Pretty sure she must have realized that the streets aren’t smiling. He gave her a very thorough bath with soap and disinfectants, we fed her ( God bless my baby’s kind heart) .

That was how we lost our Malikah for some days and got her back. I’ll pause here, but I promise to do a concluding post about how we eventually let her go.

Today, we are going to say a prayer for attainment of happiness. It is possible to be very happy many times in a day, even if the downtimes come. Happiness requires intentionality and efforts, and how best to get this than praying for God to ease the process? Please, pray right now silently or loudly, that God should grant you genuine happiness and he should make it lasting.

I hope you smile when you see my pictures

I’ll be back . OBA

Comments (3)

  1. Zulaykha

    November 22, 2021

    Malikah Malikah!! Why did you finally let her go? Can’t wait to see the concluding part🥰

  2. Toyin

    November 22, 2021

    Silent prayers are beautiful. Thank you!

  3. Eniola

    November 24, 2021

    I just said my silent prayer.
    Thank you.
    I await the concluding part on why you let her go.

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