Guests at Home

The other day while I was working on my pc in my room upstairs, I found that the dust-bin had been knocked down and all the rubbish was scattered on the floor. A bit surprised as no one except me visits this study-room, I put the rubbish back into the dust bin. The next day I noticed the same thing. The rubbish was scattered everywhere. Surely someone rummaged through the dustbin in my absence in search of something, I concluded. But who could do that? It didn't seem to be the handiwork of a rat. It was beyond his capacity to knock down the dustbin. It had to be something bigger. I searched the room to find the culprit but could find nothing.

The next day the same thing happened for the third time. I was forced to don the garb of Sherlock Holmes and search the room following some of his observation tactics described in his stories. This time the culprit had left the clue. And the clue was the poop of the cat, awfully smelly of course. I started searching for the cat and instead found three kittens in a corner. How pretty and cute they were! They looked like cubs (Sinhbal). They got frightened the moment they saw me. Two started running away from me. One hid itself in the corner behind the door. When I opened the door, it snuggled in the corner and closed its eyes as if I won't be able to see him if it closed its eyes! The other took stairs but fell down half the way, not being used to stairs. I wanted to get rid of them but this fear and flurry aroused pity in me. I made a way for the kitten that had fallen down on the stairs but it could not climb up. It was too small and weak to learn that. At last I had to pick it up in order to put him amidst its siblings.

When my mom came to know about them, her first reaction was: "We can't keep them up there or anywhere else in the house. You know, the entire house will be smelly with their poop and who will keep cleaning up all the time?" She opened the gate to drive them away with their mother. We saw two dogs outside. I said, "See, these dogs are ready to pounce upon them if we drive them out at this time. And the kittens are so small that they won't be able to run to save themselves." Thus, the kittens were allowed to stay till they are old enough to fend for themselves. In the meantime I enjoy their company and increase my knowledge on "Catology". After nearly a month, both the mother cat and kittens have put their faith in me. Now they don't run away from me as they did on our first meeting.

What I really enjoy is their behaviour. How they see things, what they do all day, how the mother cat cares for her young ones and how she trains them at night. Once they awoke me at 3 am by jumping on my bed during one such training session. When I give them something to eat, the cat would allow the kittens to eat and would just stand by them so that they can have the food without any fear. It is always mother that can take the real care of the young ones. Why? Maybe because for a mother, the young one is a part of her body literally, wherein the father has played a very minor role. Perhaps that's why it's said that God made mothers because he cannot remain present everywhere and every time.