Caturday: I found missing photos of my lost cats.

During the past week, my old iPhone was giving me lots of problems. I kept losing my texts and the phone just stopped working intermittently. So, I had to consult with some kind staff at the phone shop and iStore at the shopping mall. I was informed that iPhone 6 would no longer have the software support by the end of this year. So, it would not work normally, the speed would be slower and it could unexpectedly shut down. I was horrified by the thought of losing all the data and applications I stored on my dear old iPhone. So, I had to consider buying a new iPhone. After a few discussions with the helpful vendor, I bought an iPhone 12 as there’s a reduction and paying in installments.

This new purchase led to new hurdle and problems of transferring all old data to the new phone. As I never bought extra storage on iCloud, I had not enough space for backing up old data to be uploaded to the new phone. The staff at iStore was quite surprised that he couldn’t find my iPhone on his computer. As a last resort, I had to pay for the service of transferring data at iStore. But he couldn’t help me. So, it took me three days to find a solution.

I decided to delete all my photos on the old iPhone 6; this took me a day as I had to delete several applications and files. Then I had to get back to the phone shop to ask for some assistance of using free Wi-Fi for backing up data. This process was quite educational as I learned new things about iPhone. I had to first update the iOS on both phones to the same version! This took almost an hour. Luckily the phone shop was calm and quiet with comfortable seatings.

Then I could backup data onto iCloud which took quite some time. I was willing to endure all the waiting time and sitting quietly in the phone shop; I tried to meditate and contemplate on the moment and reflect on unexpected changes in my life and bigger picture of world affairs. I tried my best to survive under limited resources and constraints; communication is still necessary so I had to invest in a new iPhone. I could get a cheaper one, iPhone 11. But one kind staff advised me that iPhone 11 would only be supported for less than three years, I would had the same problems I was having with my iPhone6 so I settled for iPhone 12.

After the okay on backing up to iCloud and starting the downloading data on to my new iPhone, I was told it would take about two weeks for the process to be completed. So, I had to put in a new SIM card on my iPhone 6 so that I could work on it for at least a month. I ended up with two iPhones and working on both phones while I tried to upload new applications and websites to iPhone11. This process is still ongoing as I didn’t have enough space in iCloud to copy everything from my iPhone6. The download from iCloud gave me back my lost photos of my cats taken almost four years ago. Luckily, I did my backup of recent photos.

These old cat photos gave me a big surprise and sadness at the same time. I didn’t have a backup of these old photos; this time I’ll make sure I have them for good. These were the photos of my first orange cat when she was two years old and her two daughters, Rosy and Jilly. They were all lost and gone since two to three years ago. I took them to the wrt to be neutered. Poor cats! They didn’t like the experience at all. I had to leave them at the vet for one week. I was very hoax when I could finally bring them home again.

Jilly ran away after she came home as she could no longer remember her three kittens and found the house a strange place. I couldn’t catch her as she ran off into nearby woods. I did hope she would come back for her dinner after she was recovered from her neutered experience. Sadly, she never returned thought I kept on looking out for her along the river nearby neighborhood. It was sad for the kittens to lose her mother. Luckily Rosy and grandma cat stayed on to keep them company. Rosy became a mother to the kittens. Kwan was very attached to Rosy.

Then one day, Rosy started disappearing for a few days. Suddenly she had this urge to explore far away places. She looked wild and skinny when she came back from her adventure. From three days’ adventure, her absence increased to seven days, two weeks, four weeks, six months and she never came back again. Whenever she came back, she would be very loving and crying out for attention. She was very undernourished so we had to fatten her up for a few days. Rosy always stayed around me; Kwan was very happy to see her aunty and would stay close to her. Joan was a bit aloof but he recognised Rosy.

While Rosy was gone on her expedition, I had to take the grown up kittens to be neutered at the vet. When I brought them home after one week, the grandmother cat started to keep a distance from the grown kittens. About six months later, she left me to stay at my neighbours’ big house. They looked after her very well and gave her mackerels everyday! I brought her back home twice, but she ran back to the next house again and again. In the end, I had to visit her there whenever I could find the time. However, she disappeared almost two years ago when a big stay cat started to take over her space in that house. We went on searching for her for months. I had to conclude that Jilly, Rosy and grandma had all died some time ago, otherwise we should have spotted them in the nearby woods and local village.

I had no idea that cats could get me so involved emotionally and upset to let them go. The smartest white kitten was getting really big and adventurous like Rosy; he did follow her on an adventure at least once. Then, one day he disappeared for two weeks so I went to search for him in the next village. The villager told me he was attacked by a pack of stray dogs; he had to bury my white cat in the woods where see the stray cats used as a meeting place.

So, I am left with two orange cats that behave just like children. Luckily, these are very nice and peaceful cats. They ran to hide whenever stray cats came in to eat the leftover food in the bowls. They don’t know how to fight as they are pacifist cats! But I wish I had taught them some Thai boxing for self-defense while they were young. I hope to be able to look after these orange cats for a long, long time.

Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.

Stay strong and cheerful.