Feline Memories - 2

Rains to Kerala are like ice to Antartica. The monsoons set in as early as April and continue till almost October. Chinnu came to our house on a rainy night. If I remember correctly we had some holidays then. Around afternoon time we noticed an incessant mewing coming from the street at the back side of our house. For some time initially we did not give too much importance to it. In the evening we noticed that it was a small kitten. Someone had abandoned it. It was running to and fro on the street unaware of where to go, unable to fathom what was happening. My brother immediately wanted to bring it home. My mother was a bit reluctant initially as we lived in a compound of four houses guarded by a huge German shepherd dog of our house owner at night. Time progressed and the mewing continued. No body seemed to mind it. Finally my mother could not take it anymore and she asked my brother to go fetch it. My darling brother was around five to six years of age at that time and was an agile kid. A gutter ran along the street and its purpose was mainly to drain the rain water. My brother found the kitten in a crevice on the gutter wall. He managed to jump into the ditch and pull the kitten out.

Chinnu was a name my mother chose. He was black and white and the most handsome kitten I have seen so far. He had a white mark on a black forehead like a thilak and looked absolutely adorable. He looked his best in the morning when his pupils were fully dilated.

That night after he was brought home my mom rubbed him dry with a towel. We tried giving him some milk and put him in a blanket. He lay on the blanket cuddled and his shivers slowly subsided. He was too weak and did not drink much milk. He stayed like that for a whole day. We were not sure if he was going to make it. But after 24 hours our kitten slowly started coming around. From then on it was mischief unleashed.

Chinnu was a pampered cat of the first order. He would drink milk and eat idly and dosa but he never liked vegetables. Everyday before going to bed my mother would put away a glass of milk which would be given to him somewhere around 3 or 4 in the morning when my mom got up to go to the bathroom. In case we had dinner outside my mother would buy a pastry for our kitten from the local bakery.

Cats make a kind of vibrating noise that my mother refers to as durr-durr. And they would come between your feet and move close to your feet, rubbing their body against them. These two are display of love and affection for them; something similar to the wagging of tails and licking in dogs. Our Chinnu would often do that.

For the initial few days he stuck to our house and then started wandering a little bit. Once he ran out of the house when the neighbor’s dog was not on leash. We rushed to our verandah trying to stop but could not. The dog barked ferociously and charged at our kitten. But Chinnu was a brave warrior. With one deft move he gave the huge dog nearly twenty times his size one tight slap across the face. The dog was taken aback and before he could react Chinnu swiftly climbed the nearby tree. We soon had him in the safety of our home.

My mother used to stitch blouses on her sewing machine. Once he was seated at her lap while she did her stitching. The da-da-da movement of the needle was so fascinating to him that he tried catching it. Luckily my mother promptly pulled him away at the right moment or he would have put his tiny paw under the moving needle.

Chinnu’s favorite nap spot was inside the refrigerator. Well, not exactly inside but under the fridge amongst the wire components he used to find a warm cozy part where he used to sneak in and fall asleep. My brother was smart enough to pull him out of even that spot using his nimble fingers.

One bad thing about cats is the way in which they catch their prey. Unless they are extremely hungry they would not kill it instantly the way lions and tigers do on Discovery channel. They would sadistically play around with their prey; releasing them and then swiftly jumping to the other side and catching them before they escaped. This behavior would start early while they are still kittens and just get started with cockroaches and lizards. Quite similar to the way Tom harasses Jerry. But Calicut cats seldom catch mice or rats. Their main source of food is fish. We are strict vegetarians and a Brahmin family. But all our neighbors used to eat fish almost daily and the waste they discarded after cleaning and cutting the fish provided ample food to the cats. The fish vendors would also at times give them a treat.

Once Chinnu started wandering he started eating fish. He would go out for some time and return looking like a pregnant lady. Only his stomach would be fully bulged and he would have a funny walk, his body too heavy with the fish he had stuffed in. My mom would yell “Poyi kandathayum thinnuttu vanthiya.(Did you go eat some nonsense) Dont enter my kitchen”. As if he understood every word he would sit in one corner giving a look kids would give when caught doing some mischief. After licking himself clean he would be back to his durr durr and running around my mom’s legs.

During menstrual time I used to have bad pain and I would lie down curled up and Chinnu would lie next to me soft and cuddly and it used to be so nice to hug him.

We had a neighbor who was equally cat-crazy. Chinnu started spending half his time there and half at our home. After around a year after Chinnu came home my father got transferred to Erode. My brother and I wanted to take Chinnu with us. My grandmother considered it inauspicious to carry a cat. My mother’s worry was that he would not be able to adapt to that new town. Weather was different, it was a more barren area and above everything else there would be no supply of fish. My neighbor was anyways there for him and so we had to leave him behind.

One year later we went back for a visit. Generally it’s believed that cats are not as faithful as dogs. But believe it or not the moment we stepped into that neighbor’s house Chinnu came running from somewhere with his trademark durr-durr and rubbing against our legs. My mother was almost in tears. After a happy get together we left him again in his home town and returned.

We are not sure of the rest of Chinnu’s life story but the time he was at our home would stay in our hearts forever as beautiful memories. Those were not digital camera days and we have just a couple of hard copy pictures of him.

I don’t know how many of you all liked this topic but these are some of my memorable moments of childhood that I wanted to share.