Her name comes from an ancient Indonesian technique of wax-resist dyeing applied to cloth (often characterized by splattered or colorful patterns). In her case, she is a tricolor cat with a splattered pattern on her fur—black, orange, and white.
She is not your typical purebred cat. Rather, she is a stray who has lived on our terrace since she was a kitten. (She has a cat house there :) and prefers to be outside).
During her early years, she would often shy away when we tried to pet her. But because we consistently gave her food, she eventually decided to trust us and adopt herself into our family.
We have never heard her hiss or claw anyone out of surprise, fear, or excitement. If someone accidentally steps on her foot, she only yelps and then asks for pets and treats afterward.
Her 2026 has been filled with sorrow. Last January, she gave birth to four stillborn kittens. It was a sorrowful January 2 for me and my cousin, and even more so for her, as she lost her babies and would often cry, as mother cats do.
Orange, the energetic cat, became her companion. Sadly, their time together was brief. Last week, Orange died in an accident.
Last Thursday, she was diagnosed with feline panleukopenia virus, a fatal virus for cats. We couldn’t let her story end like this, so we immediately took her to the vet. We wanted to give her a chance to fight for her life.
As of today, she is still confined. I know that with this type of virus, the peak is usually between the third and fifth day. I have lost a cat to it before. I had to adopt a cat that looks like the one I lost, just to recover or function.
My other cat, Albie, survived the virus after countless nights of me juggling work during the day and worrying about his condition in between. He was confined at home with me, and I would talk to him and pray for him. We even attended online Mass together while he was fighting the virus.
For Batik, we are feeling positive however we still continue to pray, even as we try to humbly accept whatever may happen. We visited her today to let her know that we are still here for her.
The vet noted that she is eating today (little by little). She was also meowing a lot and asking for pets 🥹.
I hope that someone might spare just ten seconds of their day to pray for her recovery. That’s all we ask for to boost our confidence for her healing.
Thank you for your time and prayers.
sorry for the blurry picture - we couldn’t get a full view of photo of her during her examination.
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