MY SAVIOR Part 2 (This one is for you M---oo) My first thought was that I was hungry. I was so hungry I could have eaten a horse (metaphorically speaking of course, who wants to eat horse when you can have soft nibbles of chicken meat). But I did not dare come out of under the crate because now there were people around. I think I might have starved myself to death there but then a miracle happened. God sent an angel to rescue me. You see, it is one of God’s ways that angels don’t always come with wings sewn to their sides as we tend to imagine. Their grace lies in the fact that they can appear in any shape or size or form. So you cannot really blame me when I say that I failed to recognize my angel or take to her kindly soul. She came in the form of a young girl with big, bright eyes. At least that is what I could see of her initially. She knelt near the crates, her body all twisted down, her running shoes all bent up in her sitting position, trying to see whether it was really a kitten she was espying under the crate. I could hear her soft breathing, and then she whispered, “Here kitty, here kitty, come on, come on out, now there’s a good kitty,” but I stuck still and quiet at my corner, playing invisible, just hoping and wishing that she would go away and leave me alone. That did not happen however. She kept on cajoling me to come out and even extended a hand inside the crate to see if she could get a handful of my body and pull me out. But I had had enough of being messed with and gave her a sharp bite at which she yowled and then retracted her arm and went away. I was sure that I had succeeded in driving her away. I was relieved and but still sitting proud and stuck under the crate, when she turned up again. This time she had brought a packet of dry cat food, that too my favorite, almost as if she knew. She threw in a few nuggets as far down as she could and then a kind of waiting game began. I would not take the bait I told myself, and made her wait, but then there’s only so much temptation that a cat can resist. After a few minutes when I was sure that no harm would befall me if I took just one teeny-weeny bite I began to nibble at the nugget closest to me. My hunger suddenly escalated and I was ravenous for more and began to eat the nibbles one by one. The girl threw in a few more pieces and then began to place them closer and closer to the outside. I was so focused on the appeasement of my hunger that I did not realize that I had gradually been lured out of my protected crate area. The minute that I was outside, the girl just scooped me up and bundled me into a small cat carrier and carried me off to her car. ”What now?” I thought to myself a little perplexed. There was nothing to do but wait and see. The girl had taken me with much hope to an animal shelter but alas they had no place for me there. The lady there was kindly enough but she had this to say, “I am so sorry but lately so many people have been leaving Dubai because of financial problems and they have abandoned their pets, cats and dogs, leaving us to care for them. All the enclosures are full and I just cannot take in even one more cat. I am so very sorry” she repeated. She was was still concerned however, so she added, “If you can somehow manage to keep the cat with you for two weeks we can put it up for adoption at a cat and dog show that is to be held in a fortnight or so. Only 2 weeks”. The lady was almost pleading as if she was the one who had rescued me. “Oh, dear, what do we do now, kitty?” the girl asked after coming out of the shelter, “Toby and Gunther will chew you alive if I keep you and you can’t possibly live inside this cubby hole for 2 weeks. Anyways, let us go home now and then we shall see what is to be done about you.” When we reached her home, I heard a female voice remarking with much consternation, “What! Another one?”. I could also hear two dogs barking wildly and I started wondering which new hell I had arrived at. The girl chided the leaping and excited dogs as she carried me inside. “Toby, Gunther, stop it. Leave the kitty alone!” but they were super excited to smell a cat and would not stop barking and leaping up around the cage. I could see their small greedy eyes, through the cage slats, could smell the aggression in their blood. I could hear the ‘No way! He is ours’ in their crazed barking. I thought I was completely done for this time though I took great pains to appear cool and composed. However, the girl took me into another room and sighing exasperatedly, firmly closed the door locking out the dogs. She then took me out and took a good look at my bedraggled self. “Poor kitty” she said, “You’ve had a bad time haven’t you?” She could see my torn out fur and scratch marks. “We shall take you to the vet” she said in her most gentle and assuring voice holding me close to her soft, sweet-smelling body. “But before that we need to feed you”. The gentle way in which this girl handled me, fed me and put me back in the carrier won me over completely. She had the touch is all that I can say in pure reverence, and she immediately won my trust. I put myself wholeheartedly in her caring hands. After that came the rounds to a cat groomer and a vet. The cat groomer trimmed my fur so that the loss of my fur did not show and she also gave me a good wash. It’s not as if I am a big fan of baths but this time around the warm water felt deliciously comforting to my aching body. She also clipped my nails after drying me out. I licked myself clean too and had never felt better. The vet inspected me, informed my angel that I was a boy. He gave me a couple of shots which I hardly felt and made out some identification and vaccination cards. Back to the car we went. The girl began making a couple of phone calls. I could hear her pleading, “Only 2 weeks. Look you won’t have to do anything. He’s clean. He’s litter trained. Yes, he was somebody’s pet probably, maybe he ran away or was abandoned, will try and find out. I’ve had him injected and I will get all his other stuff, okay? Yes, I understand. Your Mom doesn’t really care for animals. If your Mom comes back earlier I will make alternate arrangements. Good! Good! Thanks a ton. I’ll be there in a bit”. She then left me in the car and went shopping for a new food bowl for me, a litter box with a scoop, a new carry box, lots of food packets and a new collar. “Look kitty all this nice, new shiny stuff for you. Ok so now we are all set. Let’s hope she likes you, enough for 2 weeks at least, eh?” She then clicked a picture of me with her phone and said, “Maybe we can find your owners? Put pics of you at the animal shelters, papers and websites. Someone might be hunting for you high and low. Otherwise we shall put you up for adoption. But now you are going to stay for a while with a friend of mine, ok?” Soon enough I found myself in this new house. It was spacious and well lit up with clean and cool, tiled floors for me to tiptoe primly around. I was handed over to another girl who immediately fell in love with me. She kissed me, cuddled me and cooed in my ears. She took great pains to learn how to keep a cat because she said ‘it was her first time ever’. She fed me, spent time with me, diligently cleaned out my litter box every day and indulged me in every possible way. What a change that was from the bad treatment that had been meted out to me as a cast-alone in the evil world outside. I gradually, relaxed into a safe, secure and easy way of life and began to feel like I belonged to this house. The girl would cuddle me and sometimes softly sigh, “I wish Mom will let me keep you.” I did not know when the fortnight passed but there was no news about my previous owners. The cat and dog show where I was to be put up for adoption, had been postponed indefinitely, and the girl’s mom had decided to prolong her stay abroad for another week. The girl made no fuss about having to keep me on for more than the stipulated period so I too happily stayed on and on. Frankly, I had started looking up to this new girl as my friend and family. Finally, the mom turned up. She didn’t care for animals she said. “In our country human beings are living lives worse than that of animals. How can I adopt a cat when I have not done anything for a human soul? Wouldn’t that be a transgression, a kind of snobbery?” (to be continued)
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 06:21:06 +0000
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