Ninja is our first pet as a family (named by me because of my love for Japanese anime. He used to run on the side of my parents' bed, like a scene from The Matrix, when he was a baby and that was the most burst of energy he showed all his life). My mum saved him from a pet shop in the summer of 2003. He was living in his cubicle for 4 months with eczema and bold patches all over his body including his tail. Nobody had bought him like that. In a matter of weeks, we put Ninja back into great shape but he had lots of ups and downs in his life as he’s a breed cat and an albino. In his mid-life he had a near-death experience from which we saved him from with medical care and lots of love. But as he neared his 15 years of age he no longer could do us the favour of staying alive, and passed away peacefully on my mum’s lap one day. He was the kind of cat that wouldn’t do anybody any harm. I used to put his paws on my eyes, to never feel his claws. We heard him hiss maybe 5 times during his whole life. Dad used to call him Mercedes Benz of Cats and I used to call him My Princess (Snow White reference) because he was the gentlest cat.
Two years later, Alice came (again named by me because of my love for Alice in Wonderland). Ninja was alone in the house and needed a friend! But it wasn't an easy battle to get dad to accept the idea of a second cat. I cried like a baby in front of him to have her stay with us. Mum had chosen Ninja and I wanted to chose her. Alice was a no muss no fuss cat for all her life. We learnt that darker haired cats have a stronger immune system. She is another feline ‘character’ in our household. Bringing her in surely caused a competition back in the day. Now both Ninja and Alice would come into my bedroom to take a nap in the afternoon. They were inseparable. As much as Ninja was completely zen, Alice has her temper. When she’s bored of being petted she starts sounding like a thunder. I should have named her Thundercat. You name your pet one thing, but then in time you attune with them and come up with other names that capture their essence. So I made a melodic nickname for her, Sekerim (translated as Honey), with each syllable sung as Se (A4) ke (A5) rim (G5). As she aged she lost most of her sight, but she still rocks her sweet short meows. She’s a 14 year-old tiny lady now, with a new companion named Canavar.
Frenchie. Love of my life, my best friend, my sister, part of my body and soul, named after the bubblegum pink haired beauty school drop out Frenchie in Grease. When I moved to Istanbul after my many years in Tokyo, one night I had a dream I was rescuing a cat from falling in the sea while I was taking the ferry to cross Bosphorus. The next evening I found Frenchie in my neighbourhood, meowing so loud that I couldn’t just pass by. She was so tiny and flimsy. I sat in front of a building and started looking for her siblings or her mum. In need of attention from me, she hopped on my lap. I possibly couldn’t have taken a third cat in the house. It would mean we’d be 3 humans and 3 cats. But she ended up coming home with me. Our vet later told us if I hadn’t picked her up that evening she would have died because she had severe diarrhoea (possibly food poisoning) and she’s been famished and dehydrated. She stayed in quarantine for 10 days, vet told us she might not make it as her body was very weak. She beat death there, then moved on to become a temporary guest at my grandma’s place, for a further 2 weeks, to make sure she doesn’t transmit any diseases to Ninja and Alice. She had rickets so we fed her appropriate medicine for a year. When I moved to my own place (my grandma’s flat after she passed away, - how things are beautifully interwoven right?) I took Frenchie with me, and we formed a bond which I’d never imagined would be possible with another living being. I entrusted her with my Aunt when I moved to London in the summer of 2019.
Canavar is my mum’s prescription cat after we lost Ninja in the summer of 2018 (named by mum as Can, but that's a common Turkish name meaning ‘life’, so I call him Canavar, ‘monster’ in English, more suited to his character). A most opposed pet adoption by me for its timing. Mum found him on Facebook. It was our long held dream to own a British short hair one day, and apparently mum thought it’s now or never. But as Canavar grew up our vet pointed that he wasn’t a British short hair but a Nebelung. A Nebelung? We couldn’t even memorise and say it right, yet in the blink of an eye he became another member of our family. I don't quiet like Canavar, because since the day he joined our household he's been giving Alice a very hard time, violently attacking her every chance he gets. I just want Alice to be peaceful in her last years. It's a relief knowing she takes refuge next my dad in his telly room.
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