Three Cats and a House

THREE CATS AND A HOUSE

Sweety relaxing Goan shtyle!

Sweety & Loony at their bonny best!

Sweety the heart & soul of my wife!

Loony the blue eyed one - also blue blooded!!!

Pinky comes to the rescue of Sweety!

Cozy siblings...

Tech Savvy?

SWEETY

It was October 2008, when we saw a cat relaxing on our scooter parked in front of our house and on approaching it exhibited a friendly demeanor. We gave it some biscuits and she readily accepted them. That was the first day and after that it became a regular visitor, but, was choosy when it came to snacking – bread buttered was the favorite followed by the choicest biscuits like Marie, Bourbon, Krackjack, etc. A week or so later we noticed about three tom-cats courting our friend and we realized that it was a queen-cat, a she! Come December, she starting acting peculiar, I say peculiar because we did not notice the baby bump or rather, the baby bump was not so noticeable! She was searching for a safe haven to lay her litter and we were prudes in a way and did not let her enter the house despite her indications favoring our house as a safe harbor. Little did we suspect the horror that would unfold – she landed up at our front door one fine morning and (we keep the door open) she lay in front of my wife a kitten head and started mewling and pointing at the head. She then headed out with head in her mouth and my wife followed out of curiosity. She took my wife to the place where she had laid her litter (our house is located on a one-acre orchard and the litter was under some shrubs behind our house) and my wife could notice lots of blood splattered around and we then understood that her litter had been attacked by stray dogs and the kittens eaten up by them. My wife could not stop crying and she did not eat any food for the next two days as she was feeling guilty about the whole affair.

LOONY

Growing up together!

A few months later in April 2009, our (the cat adopted us and she had become ours) queen cat (my wife named her Pinky) again with a baby bump started a recce of our house and this time around my elder daughter would not let my wife keep Pinky out and Pinky reciprocated her feelings by choosing our daughters’ bedroom for her next litter. And in the third week of April 2009 she gave birth to a pair of kittens, one bonny and the other a little weak. After the first fortnight, the kittens started exploring and also underwent a strict regimen of training for life – Pinky of course, being the instructor. Climbing walls, climbing trees, getting down from trees (against all beliefs), fighting for survival, hunting, selecting the best grass to help digestion, being aware/alert while sleeping, safe perches, etc, etc, were part of the curriculum. Three square meals of fish, milk, biscuits, bread/butter and rice (very much disliked by the kittens) were assured and that gave them the freedom to spend time on exploring and training all day long and sometimes well into the night. When we felt that the kittens could do without their mother’s milk, we had Pinky sterilized and her absence was for a few days. That was devastating on Loony who would not accept Pinky’s absence as much as Sweety did. We had the kittens go through with their shots and the vet told us that both were queens and our neighbor’s children named them Sweety (the bonny kitten) and Loony (the weaker one who had slightly deformed front paws and one blue eye). The kittens became our life and times and much more so for my wife who became so attached to them that we had to take them with us on all our out-station trips, whether to Karwar, Hyderabad or anywhere else! We learnt to understand their language and so did they learn to understand our language and the languages also included tonal expressions, body language and facial expressions!

When the kittens were a little over seven months old, we got them sterilized (neutered) and it was then to our surprise, the idiot of a vet made a sensational discovery – Sweety was a Tom-cat! Well, we did not change its name and it remained as dear to us as it was before we knew that it was a Tom! In the Animal Care Centre (PFA), Loony refused to eat anything and was pining for her mother whilst, Sweety learnt to be aggressive with the other cats. The good times continued into 2010 with the kittens growing by leaps and bounds and including us in many of their activities, as a matter of fact, they used to prod us into chasing them!  In June, Pinky, who was in the habit of sleeping outside, was attacked by a pack of stray dogs and despite her spirited fight, the dogs had ripped up her abdomen. Fortunately, both kittens were up on a mango tree and they were saved. We rushed Pinky to the vet (PFA) and left her in their care as she was required to be sutured and rested and kept away from the kittens as they had not stopped their habit of suckling their mother. However, the vet never kept us informed of Pinky’s progress and we deduced much later that she may have succumbed to her injuries.

After this incident, we became more possessive of the kittens and more protective too. We had mosquito proof nets on all our windows and Loony learnt how to peel them open from the Velcro strips and get out or come in while Sweety never did that, he always asked us to open the door for him! We found that however much we restrained them; they just had to go out during the night because of their hunting instincts. They liked chasing mice, lizards, butterflies, squirrels and catching any insect that took their fancy. In most cases they just wanted to play and they would prod the squirming mice to run so that they could start the chase again. They liked feeding on lizards, insects and frogs, especially Loony who was extremely agile and adept at catching them while Sweety was the lazy bones and preferred watching the action from a vantage point which was either high ground or a tree’s branch. My wife made a hammock for them and they used to enjoy relaxing together and snoozing in typical Goa style. They offered us an immense number of photo ops and our daughters were only too happy clicking away with the camera or mobiles or Handycam. We probably have hundreds upon hundreds of snaps. In October 2010 we commissioned a duplex house (made of steel angles and plywood) for the two kittens and they both enjoyed staying in it. The favorite game of Loony was football and we had plenty of small rubber balls for her to play with and, of course, she always wanted one of us to kick the ball first. Her artistry with the ball was a pleasure to watch and she became quite skilled at it, while Sweety, as usual, was his lazy self and used to look upon us with disdain.

There are too many memories and would probably take an entire book to fill up. My wife became an expert at cats with the help of the internet and discussions with others who had experienced the joys of having cats in their homes. The time we spent with the cats and our learnings have dispelled many myths about accepted norms for cat behavior. We could never be sufficiently thankful to Pinky for the bundles of joy that we were given. It seemed that we had four children rather than just our two daughters who were equally involved with the kittens. Above all, we learned of loving and caring for animals and my wife made sure that no animal, be it a cat, a bird or a cow, was ever turned away without being fed or taken care of if injured.

Our joy, however, was short-lived when in February 2011, Sweety disappeared one night and till date we do not know his whereabouts. We suspected that a bus-owner, who parks his buses in front of our house, may have caught him and left him God knows where. We tried getting information from the drivers but to no avail and there was no area in Vasco da Gama that we had not covered/searched. The possible reason could be that the cats were always trying to get inside the buses at night (as some of the bus windows used to be left open) and they may have scratched some seats, but we never got confirmation on this issue. My wife was the most devastated and for more than six months she was inconsolable. The neighbors added to the stress by telling frightful stories of cats meeting their nemesis at the paws of dogs as well as at the hands of humans in this area. The upside was that Loony now got all our attention and we relished her antics as she was the more playful of the two. Loony was given the choicest of fish and she in turn refused to eat certain types of fish. Her favorites were mackerel and sardines in that order. She was never left out of sight and even late at night (0100 to 0300) when she wanted to go out for hunting or to answer nature’s call, my wife always accompanied her, because we were scared that she may befall a fate similar to Pinky or Sweety.

Since February 2011, we never went out of station together for the sake of Loony and we grew more and more protective of her never letting her out of our sight. Then in October 2011, when my wife seemed to have got over the loss of Sweety, we started giving more freedom of movement to Loony. However, in the early morning hours of 14^th November, 2011, it happened! A pack of three stray dogs attacked Loony and despite many efforts to save her, she breathed her last in our arms.

I write this hoping that it would have a cathartic effect, but to no avail, as, the tears of sorrow will not stop!