A lesson learnt from the RIP civet cat episode

Yesterday, there was a roadkill near our house. I wrote about it in yesterday’s blogpost – it was a civet cat (musang).

But there is more of a story than those few lines that I wrote in yesterday’s blogpost.

It was early in the morning that my husband came back suddenly from his morning taiqi and said there was a dead animal on the road and it looked like Mr Zurik.

I was shocked.

“It’s already dead’, he said.

But he told me it wasn’t Mr Zurik, though it looked like him from far.

It was a civet cat.

Are you sure it was a civet cat, I asked.

“Yes, the snout is longer, sharper and it’s bigger.”

He asked if I wanted to see, but I was too shaken to see a dead animal.

Apparently, the chief security guard came over, said, “Aiyo…musang” and carried off the dead body to be buried.

But Mr Zurik did not come for breakfast yesterday morning and I waited.

By mid-day, he still had not come.

You can’t help but worry. Was it really a civet cat? Where was Mr Zurik and why hadn’t he come for breakfast? Not that he turns up for every meal, and yes, sometimes, he even skips a whole day, but you cannot help but worry.

I think I must have asked my husband more than 5 times: Are you sure it’s a musang and not a cat?

“Yes, it was a musang,” he said.

The security guard said it was a musang, right? So it cannot be a cat, right?

Of course I felt sorry for the poor musang. After all, it’s the neighbourhood musang too. I’ve seen him around sometimes.

But where was Mr Zurik?

We went out for lunch and as we drove off, I couldn’t help but looked hard for Mr Zurik. This is his usual route to our house and that’s where the musang was found.

Mr Zurik, where are you?

I kept thinking of the day before where I had sprayed Mr Zurik with the water-gun because he was trying to pick a fight with Vincent and later, he tried to bully Willy and poor Willy was too afraid to eat. I had sprayed him with the water-gun a few times too.

And that was the last memory I had of Mr Zurik. And Mr Zurik’s, of me. Sobs…

What if I would never see Mr Zurik again?

I regretted spraying him with the water-gun and wished I hadn’t done it. I wish I could turn back the clock and undo it, but there’s no turning back in whatever we do. Once done, it’s done.

I kept thinking of Mr Zurik while we were out and hoped he was alright.

Fight or no fight, locking horns or whatever, please, Mr Zurik, please be safe.

When we came back after lunch….

…to my utter relief, Mr Zurik was sitting under the bench, as though he was waiting for me!

I cannot describe my sense of relief and happiness at this sight.

Hey Mr Zurik, sorry I sprayed you with the water-gun yesterday.

Here….eat up, please.

And he was back for breakfast and dinner today.

This was taken just half an hour ago.

I learnt a lesson from this episode. Although being sprayed with the water-gun is quite harmless, still, it’s not a pleasant experience. And even if our purpose is to discipline the animal/human and the action had been necessary (or so we think), and the intention was good, there is still a need (even if it’s for our own peace of mind), to make peace after the discipline session is over. And to make peace immediately too, because death is uncertain and you’ll never know when death comes and takes your loved one away (or takes us away!). If the former happens, we might have to live with the regret of not having made peace and we cannot turn back the clock. And that memory will be difficult to live with.

Nobody lives forever and everyone has to die one day. But we wouldn’t want the person to die with a bad memory of us, especially if the bad memory was caused by us.

So, as the saying goes, “kiss and make up before you go to bed”. No, not even before you go to bed, immediately, please.

Or, better still, make every moment memorably pleasant for everyone whom we encounter.

Life is short, so let’s make the moments count… as pleasantly as we can.