Mortimer the Cat

It is so easy when we see things to do as tasks so that we can complete them efficiently. We are good at that kind of stuff.

Mortimer the cat is dead. He might have been poisoned. We do not know.

 

Mortimer hung around the BIZ canteen, the BIZ School and SoC. Some people found him a nuisance. Some found him adorable, funny and clever.

Whether or not he was any of these was an issue. Because there were those who didn’t mind having him around but there were also those who just wanted to get rid of him.

Getting rid of something is easy enough. You take the most efficient approach. Fast, clean and no need for follow-ups.

After all, Mortimer is just a cat.

A cat who can’t tell us what a bunch of idiots we are for thinking the worst of them. A cat who can’t say “Stop, I don’t need this.”

A cat who is expandable. Like every animal that gets put on a plate.

An animal who is a loner and who minds its own business. What do we expect?  Furry cuddles and life-long devotion after we feed, pat and care for it?

When we do not know what a cat is all about, how about considering something simple like this –  a cat is a life.

Or in Mortimer’s case – not anymore.

Article by Wong Kah Wei (Hon Sui Sen Memorial Library), with contributions by Kho Su Yian (Hon Sui Sen Memorial Library) and CHB
Photos by Kho Su Yian

  1. Little Teapot

    Goodbye, dear boy. It was wonderful to have known you and held you, even if just for a while. Hope you are in a better place now.

  2. morbidhobbit

    this is very sad. yes, a cat is a life too.

  3. Sannya

    Dear poster,

    I used to keep this cat in my PGP room 2 years ago. One day I just found him playing around near GSA block, took him home and to my surprise, he stayed. No objection. No meowing trying to get out. I named him White Cat because among the black and grey ones in PGP back then. He was a cat like no other who was capable of kissing human. He liked to sleep on the pillow above my head. He liked to follow people around into the toilet and enjoyed drinking from there. He even knew to walk the staircase to my room and meowing to call me to open the door for him. I should have taken him with me when I moved to RVR. I should have taken him with me when I moved out of campus – though in both case it’d be illegal to keep him.

    Thanks the computing lab people who took care of him a whole year last year. I hope he died of old age. Otherwise I’ll curse the heartless person who killed him. Just last week I was still playing with him…

    Please notify me if you know where he is now or he has not been buried yet. I’d like to do something for him for the last time.

    More pictures of him can be found in my Facebook photo album:
    http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.418082723957.190467.827888957&type=3

  4. Little Teapot

    Thank you for the beautiful and touching comments. He was a wonderful cat, and very affectionate. He was mischievous, as he would keep slipping into the library lobby to lie on the rubber mat near the entrance, but he was never a pest. He would follow me relentlessly sometimes, even running after me if I hurried away. We all miss him very much.

    We are all very saddened by his death and there’s an NUS Cat Café Facebook page and a thread on what happened: https://www.facebook.com/groups/115091085211556/323411457712850/

    If nothing else, fellow cat lovers in NUS can rally to make the campus a safer place for these cats, and Mortimer/Daddy would not have lived his life in vain.

  5. Wei Ling

    It seems like just yesterday that White socks had given birth to him. It seems like just yesterday that Keven and I saw him at the road and tried to catch him. It seems like just yesterday that we found out in joy that he is doing well in Computing. It seems like just yesterday that we paid him a visit.

    It was heart breaking to find that he had gone. He had cross the rainbow bridge. Though I have not spent a great deal of time with him, I thought of him often and is sadden by his passing. He will be greatly missed.

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