To sisters Anis Lam Abdullah and Adlinor, Merah was a smart cat.

Despite having her for just a year and her four kittens lately, the bond the sisters shared with Merah was special.

Adlinor, in a phone interview with The Malay Mail yesterday, said Merah shared her bed.

“Merah was smart for a cat. She understood my feelings. When I was sick, she sat next to me the whole time. As soon as I recovered, she would play with me. She even learnt to push a toy pram,” said nine-year-old Adlinor.

Her elder sister, Anis, 12, fondly remembers the time when Merah ‘gestured’ to her for a taste of durian.

“I was eating durian at that time. It was as though she asked for some. So I fed her a little, but she did not like the taste. Merah was a happy cat, and ‘manja’ (adorable) with people,” said Anis.

The sisters and their father, Aliff Lam Abdullah, took Merah and her four kittens to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in Jalan Kerja Ayer Lama in Ampang here on Oct 31 for adoption. Four days later, when they returned to check on the cats, they were told by a SPCA officer that all five cats had been put to sleep as no one wanted to adopt them.

Aliff claimed he was not informed by the officer-in-charge about the time frame for the cats to be put to sleep if no one adopted them.

He said if he had knew what would happen to the cats, they would have left the cats with friends.