ABOUT MAY!

It was the month of May, year 2015.This particular month back here in the Eastern corner of India ushers in a really weird weather. The day may start with a blazing sun and an azure sky and you might feel that “Damn! It is going to be really hot today!”…but as the time turns, suddenly, without a warning you might hear the Thunder Gods declaring to the denizens of their looming sudden and torrential onslaught.

And it was such a day…It had rained almost the whole of the evening and had been quite successful into turning the weather into an unbearably hot and sticky blanket. My spoilt-to-the core puppy, JD (though he is all of seven years now, he is still very much the baby of the house) was at his best fussy behaviour and had been refusing  to go for his per diem round of evening walk. After much of cajoling and bribing, this spoilt puppy of mine finally decided that he will bestow his greatest favour on me by finally agreeing ( though not necessarily happily) to accompany me on his walk. And so we did walk... the balmy weather certainly did not make it easy for me to convince JD to walk a few extra rounds.

As we ambled around, one pulling the leash and one vehemently resisting, all of a sudden, JD started to bark excitedly. His little tail suddenly started wagging so crazily that he could have put any hummingbird to shame; he was that excited. And that frankly surprised me because as far I knew that puppy of mine that was  not in tune with his character; I can easily vouch for his absolute lazy demeanour! Anyway, it was getting already dark with a few streaks of grey still pasted on the darkening yonder.   As I swept a quick glance across our  compound all I could see were rows and rows of potted plants neatly arranged by my mother, a gardening enthusiast, literally everywhere. I could still see JD yapping away at one particular spot near one of these rows of potted plants. At first, I asked him to stop; he was literally waking up the whole neighbourhood. But curious by now, I walked over to the spot just to perceive as to why and what made JD suddenly so keyed up…I mean, his behaviour was so erratic; he was yapping away at the highest possible decibel he could make, then like he had seen a ghostly specter he would stop for a few seconds, suddenly whine and then again start yapping. This time by now, I was literally frightened of our dear neighbour’s reaction because of the ruckus he was making.

And then, I heard the tiniest meaow you could ever imagine. Cocking my ears, I tried to listen in over the din this brat was making. And there it was, I heard it again. I did not wait for another moment to pass by and  I rushed to the spot and kneeled down. I tried to move a few leaves here and there and tried to peer into the un-revealing shadows. Suddenly, as if in a flash, out of these potted plants popped out a little kitten…It was probably just a few weeks old. It was a white snowy kitten and I could see that he was really, really thin…JD, as soon as he saw the little kitten, he immediately quietened down and he just sat there, as if he had suddenly attained his state of nirvana,  staring at the little kitten. The little kitten did not seem afraid of us and as I snapped my fingers to get its attention and called out to the kitten, this little kitten came running across to where we were rooted. I quickly looked around to see if the mommy cat was nearby but at that point of time I did not see any cat. I gently picked up the little kitten and I could see that he (and yes, the kitten was a he) had a few slashes around his little belly. I saw that the kitten was injured and not in a good condition and I had seen enough.

As usual, as I always do when in a crisis, I called (yelled really!) out for my mother and asked her to bring a mild antiseptic solution and a spot of food. In matter of minutes, a small group including my mother and the people who take care of our house had assembled near the kitten. As gently as I could, I wiped the little kitten with some of the solution and tried to feed him some food from a little bowl. But he was really weak and probably did not even had the strength to eat on his own… Then I tried to feed him a little milk with a little ball of cotton and was finally able to do so after trying unsuccessfully for a couple of times. As we were doing all of that, I did not really notice a little figure jump out from the tall hedge.

And then, as if out of nowhere, this little cat saunters towards us, treading carefully ,as if he or she was a little unsure of himself or herself. It suddenly struck me that it was probably the mother of the kitten and she might have been peeping at us from some, hidden vantage point. The little cat was practically a baby herself and absolutely malnourished…you could almost see her bones sticking out. I held out the bowl of food towards her.  She took a few  tentative steps and on reaching the food bowl,  she just started to gobble up the food…I was literally in tears seeing her condition and how hungry she was..

After having had her tummy filled, she looked at me and started rubbing her tiny head on my outstretched hands. JD, in the meantime, had been taken back indoors. I and our house-helper decided to make a little bed for these two kittens in one part of the old heritage( Assam-type as we call it down here) house which was actually my grandfather’s house. After doing so and gently placing the  little kitten there, I waited for a few minutes with bated breath…I did not know if the mommy cat would also come in or not…But  a few minutes later she did. Peering a little suspiciously, she finally got into the make-shift bed with her kitten. Taking the outmost care, I carefully petted her for a little  not wanting to scare her away, but she did not seem to mind the attention and she snuggled with her kitten and promptly dozed off. I kept checking these two for god-only-knows how many times throughout the night.  I silently cursed the weather who played truant as always during the month of May and kept raining incessantly the whole night and that  kept me worried about the kittens the whole time. Honestly, I just wanted to bring these two tiny kittens to my own room and I could have brought them in into our house but I knew JD would create a big scene if I do that. So for the time being, I shelved that plan.

So the very next day , cat-service started in full earnest and I started bring in their meals to their bed..This mommy cat, to my delight, would  get up whenever she would see me and would come over to me and purring away, would bump her head on my feet and I realized that she was loving all the attention that she was getting. I knew that she was a stray but despite knowing us for only a day just loved being held and cuddled. The saddest part was that despite our best efforts, the next afternoon, the little kitten passed away after a day of living with us…

I was frankly devastated and conjectured that the mother cat now would go away. The next morning I rushed to the area where I had made the kitty bed with her breakfast but I did not see her there. Panicking a little, I called out a number of times. Suddenly I could see the cat walking down the ledge of the old house…the mother cat had stayed back…

As time went by, she started venturing out from her designated area little by little , one step at a time…She started knowing the timings when I would bring in her meals…she started to know the people living in our household…she started coming into our house but would leave to go back to her own secluded corner. It took a few months but she finally decided that she wanted to live with us …and I was so happy. I named her “May”, the kitten who just decided to make us her family.

With time this crafty little kitten started revealing her true colours that she was indeed a very naughty little cat. JD being the timid puppy that he was, May suddenly became the boss of us all…she would sometimes beat the c**p out of JD, would always demand to be petted and cuddled first…poor JD’s bed became hers… and months later, she suddenly turned my room into a nursery, made me into a nanny and a surrogate mom to her new litter of kittens and unperturbed, she would just go out on dates with her boyfriends…But she brought in sunshine and laughter into our home… There are many stories about this naughty kitten and this was about how May came into our lives…

To May, may you always carry on with your antics and drive people around you crazy…