If he was still alive, he will be around 22 years old this year.
Today is the celebration of new Chinese New Year, with the fierce tiger as the zodiac sign of the year. According to this website, “the oldest and most important festival in China is the Spring Festival. Better known as the Chinese New Year, it is a time for celebration for millions of Chinese all over the world. The Spring Festival celebrates the Earth coming to life and the beginning of plowing and planting.”
Chinese tiger zodiac
CNY as it’s abbreviation is a unique celebration – it is one of those that are not specially tied down to any religion. It is about a culture of a race of people that follows a set of living code, and yet they are themselves diverse in religious and personal beliefs. CNY is one of the celebrations outside of Islam-influenced occasions that Muslims will not have problem celebrating it with friends and family.
I have never specifically celebrated CNY, apart from wishing some of my friends. There are no immediate family members that celebrated this joyous event for me to tag along with, or any close Chinese friends that I have visited for CNY before. I have not even celebrated the CNY open houses that our politicians like to brandied around – the one that we will see a lot of ugly Malaysians wasted good food because they can’t chew more than what they took on their plate.
But this year of Tiger is special for me. As stated in the opening remark, he will be around 22 years old this year if he is still around. That is such an old age for a cat, and it has been close to 12 years that I have missed him, but I can still remember him dearly.
Orange cat that reminds me of Tiger
His name was Tiger, and as the name implies, he was orange in colour. He was not as chubby and elegant (or irritating, depends on a person’s point of view) as Garfield, but he was one of the rare cat that had pure orange fur on all parts of his body, save for his bottom belly. We found him with his other siblings when I was around 2-3 years old back in Ampang Jaya, and we took three kittens for adoption – but only Tiger remained with us for such a long time.
I practically grew up with him during my primary school years, with lots of memories in between. My love for cats were nurtured by him – it was this strong male cat that somehow survived all the naughty things I did as a child. There are bits of memories of me and him that I could not forget until today, that will (hopefully) forever I will cherish.
For this Year of Tiger, I kick off this celebration in honour of Tiger, the domestic cat that was part of my life, and has contributed something that made me as who I am now.
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