I do not own any pet in this life, but if I were to own one, it would definitely be a cat. Those little lovely creatures dazzle me each time I come across them. Unfortunately for me, my wife objected to the idea right since our courtship days and I have since accepted my fate. However, that doesn't stop my heart from endearing to them whenever and anywhere I see them.
why do my wife hate them though?
To be honest, I tried several times to convince my wife about the idea of owning a cat and how harmless and lovely those animals are but all to no avail. One would think that she's had a really bad experience with cats; well, as a scientist that always work with evidence, the reasons she's given are not plausible enough for me and are mostly borne out of conspiracy theory.
Ailurophobia, elurophobia, gatophobia, or felinophobia as the fear of cats is known is usually tied to pseudoscientific beliefs. Among the Yoruba speaking tribe of Nigeria, cats are generally believed to be special animals so much so that they can be used to commit evils. Evil spirits are believed to have a special affinity for cats and they take over their bodies to perpetrate evils to humans. It was based on this belief that my wife's hatred for cats started. She always refer to a story of how she encountered a cat in the dark of the night and how she strongly felt that the cat was possessed. Since then, her hatred for cats has carefully nurtured.
Meet my new friend
OK, so, I just started observing my daily prayer in this mosque around my area. Not like the mosque is new but I never deemed it necessary to go and be praying there before now due to distance. Not until a neighbour friend of mine who just came back from abroad encouraged me to be going. I notice the cat always lurk around the entrance to the mosque. As usual, I felt attracted to him and would usually go to him and rub his head before entering the mosque and after exiting.
Gradually, I started looking forward to seeing him whenever I go for prayers. I usually do not see him during the day except during night and early morning prayers. The animal also seems to have started bonding with me because whenever I signal to him to come in to the mosque each time I'm done with prayer, he will always come around and start rubbing his body with my body.
Sometimes, when heading home, it would seems as if he wish to follow me home. Not like the cat has no owner, just that the owner does not seem to adore him as much I do. The owner, seeing that we both have formed a bond announced his willingness to give him up for adoption. I mentioned my new friend to my wife but as usual, she will not have any of it. It even looks like she has passed on the Ailurophobia gene to my son, a 2 year old toddler, because the day he followed me to the mosque and saw me fondling the cat, he almost fainted.
Who else knows how I can convince my family to let me adopt this cat? Meanwhile, enjoy more pictures of my new favourite friend.
