Short Story Pets – She too is a mom
Photo credit: hotblack from morguefile.com
I love cats. I don’t know what it is, any stray dog or cat; they develop an instant affection for me as soon as I look at them. When I was a teen, we were living in little village, where nobody ever cared for cats and dogs. As you know, most cats and dogs don’t belong to anybody; they just live on streets and steal food from homes. Especially cats are super smart, and have a wonderful taste: I admire how they stealthily enter the homes and savor the curds, milk or any dairy product the house has!
We were living on a farm and we had a big house with compound wall and a garden with big trees. I was a lone girl and I grew up with three brothers in our family. I wanted some good company and I found a dear friend in Lucy. Lucy was a majestic beauty: She was a white cat with brown spots and lengthy body and always was very clean.
Every morning as soon as the milkman brought milk, I would pour some in her saucer. She would drink it with closed eyes and lick the saucer clean with her thin pink tongue until the saucer is dry. Then she would lick her shoulders, paws and the entire body until everything is very clean and then she would come and thank me by lifting her tail high and rubbing her body to my feet.
Then she would go out and take her beauty nap in sun, stretched fully and resting her head on her fore arms. She used to look as an embodiment of peace and content. Nothing would move or disturb her from her tranquility.
But my brothers would challenge this. They would find a big stick and chase her. I don’t know what they did not like in her! ‘Hair’ they would say, “We hate cat hair and it is filthy”
She would then go outside and come back in the evening with a mouse or bird in her mouth. If she had something in her mouth she would growl and stare angrily until we leave her alone as though we would ask for a share or steel her food. “Hey, we are vegetarian”.
I loved her and I knew the feeling was mutual. We had many windows and doors to that house. After chasing the cat out the night watchman would close every single door and window at night. But by morning I would feel the warm heaviness by my side outside my mosquito net. Lucy would find some secret route to come in and sleep besides me. My brothers would argue that I opened the door and let her in. But no, I never did. She was a smart cat.
One day my mom said Lucy was pregnant. She was throwing up a lot and looked fat. My mom also developed some affection for Lucy. She would feed all her snack food to Lucy. She developed a liking for mom’s crispy muruku and pakoda – and all the fried stuff. One fine day Lucy gave birth to two tiny kittens on the attic in our kitchen.
I was at school and when I saw the kittens that evening I was surprised. Both were black in color and one had some white stripes. Oh they got their dad’s skin tone. I wished they were like their mom. Lucy was so attached to them. She would not lose their sight for a second and constantly watching them and growling at us whenever we went near them. She would feed them and sleep close to them, as they grew a little older they started crawling and then to walk and come in everybody’s way and scream when somebody stepped on them. They would find their way into my dad’s office room, my brothers’ room and everywhere and were getting on everybody’s nerves.
I had to feed three cats now and constantly listen to their meows, and save them from everybody. After a month or two our gardener Ramayya asked my mom if he can I take one of the kittens, his kids would like to play with her. My mom said yes and gave away one of the kittens.
That night we were awakened by some strange noise, like somebody was crying or sniffling or in-between. It was Lucy; she went from room to room, to kitchen attic, around the house, every inch of the garden, painfully groaning she searched and searched and she would call and cry for her baby in worried and heart wrenching wails. My mom and I, we were speechless. I tried to talk to Lucy. She listened to me and looked at me with those resentful, sad and hurt eyes and the sounds of her cries made us so guilty. My mom could not believe it, such strong emotions in a cat, and the motherly instinct in that little creature! Mom started crying too. “Oh god, please see that the kitten would come back”. We prayed.
We waited out the night and at the day brake we sent for the gardener and he brought the kitten back and placed it in front of Lucy. It was a sight to watch! She made all those loving growls in between licking her baby every bit and when the kitten finally started to suckle on her breast, Lucy closed her eyes and literally smiled and thanked us. And we all saw it.
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