My little sister brought home a very little cat about a week ago ,I am not an animal lover at all and my past experiences (including the crocodile's one) proves that ,but this cat was very cute ,about one month or two months old ,strangely for the past three or four days every day it comes to my bed and jumps to sleep beside me and never accepts to sleep anywhere else regardless of how hard they try to convince it to sleep beside their beds ,it always ran to my room.
Today moring I woke up at 10 AM exactly ,was feeling a little dizzy from uncomfortable sleeping and strange dreams I had but couldn't clearly remember ,I sat for a while in the bed trying to gather my thoughts and inject some energy in my veins to to be able to get up ,I had several problems at work during the past days and this resulted in my enthusing to go to work being decreased severely ,when I felt that time has come and now I really should get up I started my descending from the bed when I noticed somethin strange ,the little cat was lying on the edge of my bed ,looking peacefully but I felt there was something wrong ,I tried to concentrate to overcome all the remaining laziness inside me. To my utter shock the little cat was lying on her back ,not moving at all ,it's eyes were closed and it's tongue were popping out of her mouth in a strange and odd scene. Suddenly I realized that there's something spooky is going on ,there were no breathing signs coming from the cat ,it's chest weren't moving ,I touched the body to feel any warmth and there were none ,no heart beating also at all.
I kept staring for the cat for several minutes ,unsure how to proceed ,I guess it's not an easy thing to wake up after a series of nasty dreams to find dead animal lying in your own bed ,and especially a very little animal like that ,I have always been strong when it's about death ,I watched several persons dying infront of my eyes ,I was standing during seveal burials of friends & relatives and I have survived three deadly car crashes where death was very near to me ,I have even survived a bombing during the gulf war when our dear friend Saddam Hussein launched one of his Rocekets on Riyadh city and blew up a residential building which was very very near to our home there and I still remember the vibrating floor under my feet and the shuddering walls behind my back ,but this time it's very different ,to have some dead(being) in your own bed.
I entered a very dark mood and thought for a moment about not going to work but I knew I couldn't since I am currently the sole person responsible for the department I work in ,beside that my stupid manager will not be very cooperative in such matter and it may develop into a violent fight over the internet wires! ,I gathered my self and tried not to look at my bed while I was dressing ,and went to work with dark cloud over my head.
The day was very heavy ,I avoided talking to any one at the work and we usually don't talk a lot for several reasons I will tell you about later ,but at the mid of the day and during a casual conversations with one of my work's peers I told him about what happened ,by the time of telling that I was feeling a little relaxed and was starting to forget the haunting image of the dead cat ,but my work's colleague astonished me with his response ,atually I was ready to accept any thing from him ,either it was sarcasm ,sympathy or even complete silence ,but what he said was really out of my expectations.
He asked me a question (You don't pray regulary ,do you?) , I said(what this has to do about the cat's death?!) ,he continued simply saying that this is certainly a sign (or warning) from God aimed to me!! ,when I asked him to make things a little more clear he told me (I think God wanted to show you how The Angel of Death was very close to you!!).
I really couldn't believe that these words were said by a young & decent man like my colleague(we shall call him A) ,I told him that I am not a blasphemed ,I am just an ordinary human being that may lacks the regular commitment in doing his prayers ,why would God threaten me like that? ,what is this crap you are saying? ,why you try to make it like an old Indian movie?!
A was stunned from my response ,I guess his tiny mind made him think that I will say something like (sob7an 2alah ,you are right) or something like that ,he surprised me again with another retarded theory ,he said (don't you know that the married man who is not praying should be separated from his wife till he start praying!!!!!!!!!!) ,at this stage I was no longer able to take more of this crap but I maintained my coolness as much as I can ,I remembered the famous Egyptian Philosophy professor (Nasr Hamed Abu Zed) when something like that happened to hi m only because he was writing and thinking in some ways that some religious people thought were offensing to Islam and so they declared him a blasphemed!.
I told A calmly that this is nonsense and there's nothing like that in Islam ,and for God's sake this was a little cat ,what it has to do with all that ,and if this was a sign should it have been one of my brothers sleeping in the other room?
On the other hand this death made me think of how cruel we are on another side ,we used to hear about countless deaths every day all over the world ,we read about them on the newspapers while eating breakfast or watching them in the news after dinner ,all to us just numbers ,we feel temporarily sorry for them ,we may even shed a small tear or say a prayer but as soon as we get up from the table or switch the channel to get updated with the latest hot videoclips on Melody Hits every thing is forgotten ,and all that remains is vague memory in the back of our heads ,even in a near tragic accident like the one happened in Mohandeseen Cairo last week you still feel distant and safe in your warmth ,but when it's near you ,when you smell death near you ,engulfing someone or some being you have known for real ,you start to feel sorry...Very real sorry indeed.
Notice:While I was writing this a break news came from Iraq about a suicide bombing during a funeral!! ,Hey A...I guess The Angel of Death was very ready this time you stupid fellow!
