Something strange happens with me. It’s been a while that I am noticing this.
It started with a puppy
It started or so I think, when one night I heard a puppy crying. It was a cold night, with dense fog, the kinds that lets you fall back into bed, every time you think of stepping out.
I tried and tried to ignore the longing cry of that puppy, thinking maybe it’s a new born, and is crying for his mommy. A part of me was still curious to confirm my assumption.
So I kept my blanket aside, grab hold of my scarf, and came out of my balcony to look for the source of the cries. Somewhere in the dense fog I spotted a ragged drunk man kicking a small puppy. Fearing he might be too much for me to handle alone, I called my father, got rid of the man and saved the puppy.
A terrified little creature who trusted me after an hour or so and became close to me until I had to give him for adoption.
I wonder whether that kicked the turn of events.
then came a plump cat
A winter afternoon again, I saw a plump black cat lying curled on my freshly grown coriander basket. Horrified and angry, I tried to shoo him away. But he wouldn’t budge, he was basking in the sun. Everyday, at quite the same time, at the same spot, I found him. He never asked for food, never called out, never felt scared of my presence, he just lay there. And like that, he disappeared. When I discussed this with one of my family members, she said, “didn’t you see he was ill, he came here to die”.
……
Dipped in heavy reading one day, I was taken out of my fantasy land by my 8 year old Lhasa Apso. She has been barking consistently, and strangely towards a cardboard in the storeroom. I asked her to shut up repeatedly, but she was adamant. I trusted her too well to understand something is wrong then, for she was an intelligent creature.
After shifting aside the old pieces of cardboard and extra stuff, I found a sad little squirrel breathing heavily.
I had never held such a tiny little creature in my life. I was hesitant, afraid and had chills down my back. Somehow I used the same cardboard to slide it in and brought it out in the balcony. I prayed for god to revive him. I googled but couldn’t find the solution nor the problem. It seemed like a new born baby somehow got lost or hurt. Our house was on the 2nd floor and it was unlikely that she came here for a stroll. She might have been lost and god knows for how long she had been buried beneath the cardboard boxes.
My father suggested giving her a sip of aloe vera. It’s a miracle plant after all, who knows it might revive her. But it didn’t..
…..
I got married. This time I was living on a ground floor house. While working in the kitchen, that faced our front-yard garden I heard a cat crying. I kept my apron aside, slowed down the flame and moved out to find her. I could hear her voice but couldn’t decide where it came from. This was around the darker part of the evening. Somehow, I found a pair of eyes glittering behind the pot of my bougainvillea. It was a pitch black cat hidden in the darkness of the night. I rushed inside for a cup of hot milk and bread. As I called her, I saw she limped. It seemed so cruel for a kitten to be swaying her leg behind, to walk. As she moved towards the bowl of milk, I saw how hungry she had been. Even after she finished she kept crying, she seemed to be longing for her mother.
This routine continued for some days. She would come right when the day was dark enough to hide her, stayed for the night, cried all night long and disappeared before the morning came. Whosoever I told about her said he wouldn’t survive. Limping animals never survive. Or so might explain the reason of her final disappearance.
…..
And there was a pigeon, with a gush of white beneath his right wing, which inflated it to a level that it looked plump from one side and slim from the other. He too stayed. Ate and disappeared.
…
And now this. I had been nurturing her since she was such a small white kitten. Newly born, unable to walk, she accompanied her mother just as the black limper did, near the darker hours of the day.
It was a while since I had seen her. I thought maybe she found a new house for herself because she didn’t accompany her mother anymore.
Its as if, she had heard my longing for her. She came today. But not like she had left. She came with bruised eyes and a sicken body. She looks slim, afraid, calls to me when I call to her. Doesn’t eat, doesn’t play. Just sits tight, with a swelled body that means she is afraid.
I prepared a cardboard box for her, she slid inside to sit and relax. I don’t know what might have happened to her. She breathes shallow, with difficulty. I hope I could revive her or at least help this one survive!!
Cocooned in Curiosity 