Comu & ME

Armand & Comu 2004. (I was out at the pub.)

Comu (pronounce Cho-Moo) is my best friend and best listener. Comu had been with Shima long before I came into the picture. Comu's original name is COMEL given to him by Shaza. But Armand would call out Comu! Comu! before chasing him around the house, trying to sit on Comu like a cowboy and thats how Shaza's dream of a conventional cat with a conventional malay name shattered to pieces. Whereas Comel means cute, Comu probably means just-kill-me, or something. But no one should mind Armand. I mean, his favourite fruit jams are made by St Dalfours, and he calls them STD for short.

Comu is ancient, he's 17 years old, which, in human years is about 64 back in Europe (i.e., old) and 145 in Malaysia (i.e., why aren't you dead yet). All of Grandma Opah's cats die out at 7 tops, usually from dangerous social diseases, violent social activities, excessive social babies or too much durian seeds. Comu's dad, who serviced in WWII as a war postal worker, misplaced Comu's birth certificate, so I have always believed that Comu is a pure-bred just like myself cause he's got (some) class.

When Shima wanted to ship us home in the trunk of an airplane (where I didn't even get a window seat), she took us for a medical checkup at a fancy vet hospital. The pretty little doctor ran her hands through my luxurious fur, looked into my shiny marble eyes, turned back my sexy ear flaps, forced open my perfect jaw and picked at my glossy white teeth, stuck her pinkie up my hot behind and then, since she apparently didn't find what she was looking for, scanned me with a metal detector (do I look like a terrorist to you? apparently she did). By that time, she wasn't pretty to me anymore. Anyway, the following info came up on her computer screen:

MADELINE: PURE-BRED PERSION: DOB 17 SEPT 2001: ROYALTY see BIRTH CERT for proof.

You know what came up on Comu's?

#$@#!@ 1993 $%^&(

The vet said the German's no longer manufactured this kind of pet chip ID so her software can't read the contents of Comu's chip properly. We were lucky the scanner even detected it, cause it had slipped all the way to Comu's B.U.M equipment. The symbols probably meant ACHTUNG! GERMAN SPY  cause then the vet told shima --and I can remember this quite vividly -- "don't feed them for the next 24 hours....". Thanks a lot Comu.

saying goodbye to shima for a long trip home

When we were caged in the plane on our long trip back to malaysia (along with a stupid monkey, two peacocks and an unmoving human), I cried all the way and nearly forgot about peeing. Comu looked at me like I had gone mad. I don't know what else they cut off when they neutered him, but they should have saved some adrenaline pumping organs for survival mode.

I was so glad to see Jah's face when she picked us up. Jah peeked in on us through the metal bars of our burgundy plastic cage and was so proud to see I hadn't peed on the gray carpet lining. That's the first thing she told Shima on the phone, I heard her. To tell you the truth, I did feel like peeing once and a little bit more. But Comu gave me that look that said he'd kill me then and there, so I kept it in.

Comu doesn't talk much, so if he was human, he'd be the silent serious type, like the godfather character in the godfather, the old one, you know, who kills people by surprise. That's another thing about Comu too.. he's superbly loyal to Shima. If Shima moved in to the house next door, which she did once to my amazement, Comu would always come home to the house next door, whereas I would always end up at the old place and wondered why it was empty. Then head to the pub.

Just lost my train of thought there.. *pub* *pub* *pub*...