Bitter Almonds

My father’s cat, Trancy, decided to meet the light at the end of the tunnel early morning of December 28th, year 2011.

She took her unborn kittens with her.

Trancy was a two-year-old female felis catus with silky snow-white fur, dark sapphire eyes, and a quiet demeanor. She was not the healthiest of cats, nor was she the most beautiful—in fact, she was the least favorite of my cat-obsessed sister—but she was more than enough to be kept, for seldom do we see a stray as white as she.

She was brought to our family by our father, last April 2010 as a sickly kitten with no home, and apparently, no mother to rely on. She was initially met with scorn from my sister who felt that the arrival of a new pet would lessen the chances of her beloved cat, Panther—who ran away from home—ever returning to our doorsteps, and from my mother who did not want anymore cats than we already have. My father however insisted that we still take care of it, and even added that she would be his pet and should be treated with respect. The rest of us could not care less, but I specifically stated that I did not want anything to do with it and I would not clean or look after it.

It took time after my father returned overseas for her to become an accepted family member.

Her moniker came from the fictional character Alois Trancy from the Japanese anime Kuroshitsuji, courtesy of my above-mentioned sister; her hate for it was evident through the name she gave since she has always despised the character associated.

December 25th of the year 2010 when my uncle and I found a male stray kitten, with fur black as night and possessing emerald eyes. I immediately named him Phantom (although we sometimes call him Klaus for obvious reasons), from the character Ciel Phantomhive of the same anime. He would become my next favorite cat after Charlie, who died in an accident at the age of six (I still mourn his death). Phantom and Trancy would, in time, share the same roof when they were brought to my grandmother’s house, where she would later meet her fate. They would become best of friends.

I was never as close to Trancy as I am with our other cats, and I had always met her with indifference whenever she would climb on top of my lap. And as bitter as our welcome when she intruded on our lives, it was Fate’s verdict that her death would be harsh—

Trancy died of poison.