yesterday we found a dead cat by the side of the busy road, 200m away from home. the cat's head was flattened and the body was stiff and hard by the time my maid and i decided to go and have a look..

dear hubby told me about it in the morning, saying that it looked like pumpkin, our highly-strung one and a half year old female cat. i didn't take much heed of it, thinking it was too far for our de-sexed cats to be wandering about. furthermore i had a lunch appointment to rush to that day..

by the time i got back around 7pm, my maid was telling me that pumpkin never came back for lunch and was not seen around the house all day long even towards dinner time. therefore as soon as my maid finished cooking dinner, both of us along with ikmal went for a short drive looking for any dead bodies along the busy road..

oh my, my heart started to pound.. coz the dead cat that we immediately found really looked like pumpkin..!! all the colour combinations, one black legging, white tummy, long tail.. all seemed to match..!! we tried to look for the little 'tahi lalat' on her small nose that could positively confirmed our worst nightmare.. but couldn't find it due to the bloodied nose and mouth. as we tried to hold back our tears, we decided there and then to bring home the body for burial..

once home, we put the stiff body at the porch for hubby to bury it once he comes home from work that night. i called melissa down from her room while wondering how she'd react, coz pumpkin was a favourite of hers...

introducing my little melissa..

Melissa is my ten & a half year old daughter who is still enjoying life as though she is still in her kindergarten days. She was the youngest of our two girls for seven years before our son Ikmal was born, therefore in looking back, i must have smothered her with plenty of baby-ish treatments for her to be still feeling baby-ish even at std5...!!

I was never concerned about this, infact i thought it was rather cute especially when she gets along marvellously with her three & a half year old boisterous brother. They'd run around the house screaming, shrieking and laughing, oblivious to their surroundings. They'd sing, jump up&down the sofas, play barbies, doll-houses, play-dohs, scribbling & drawing, swimming, watching playhouse disney on astro.. i was thinking.. what very good buddies they make, and what a good babysitter & teacher melissa is to her toddler brother..

I was a late bloomer too, i was telling myself..

She's very talented, her piano teacher was telling me. She hardly practiced at home especially when under pressure, yet scored high marks in her music exams. She draws and scribbles all the time since she was four.. her sketches of toys, dolls and cats all have uncanny little details resemblances of the actual items. She can finish painting her cats in a matter of minutes. She would be absorbed in her creative ventures for hours on end, and sometimes would include her brother into her private world, but with little conditions imposed onto the boisterous buddy..

So melissa is creative like her mum..

But her school-grades are not so excellent. Average B's alternating with C's have been making dear mum anxious whether she's doing all her best to encourage little creative melissa to perform well in her academic life. Dear mum was a straight-A student all her primary & secondary years, therefore although not strictly-enforced, her children are always encouraged to do well in school as well.

Melissa hardly read any story books. She'd buy books just so her collection of books by her bedside could complement her big sis huge collection of kids novels, the likes of harry potters, supernaturals, misadventures etc. Melissa would choose books with plenty of pictures over those thick volumes of words so cherished by her sister.. This dis-interest in reading is somehow reflected in her grades. Understanding the written words doesn't come easily and naturally, and admitting to this mis-understandings and confusions is not easy as well. She's very quiet and reserved, her school teacher tells us..

Am i expecting too much from my little girl...?? She's talented and creative in her quiet and child-like ways.. shouldn't that be enough blessings...??

This blog is my little daily or weekly notes to my little girl melissa.. i'm hoping that she'd take more interest in reading now that her mum has created this blog especially for her.. and in the process of reading what her mum writes about her, melissa can continue nurturing her creative talents while improving her communication, reading and writing skills.. if not to improve her grades, at least for her to take more interest in her academic subjects.

Dear mum hopes that eventually melissa herself would be the one writing and posting entries in this blog..