THE RELUCTANT CAT - LOVER (?)

Cat -lover? Errrmm...lover is not quite the right word. Because, I certainly don't love cats, or for that matter, any pets at all. Hmmm....lets see a 'Feeder'?? Yes...it should be the Reluctant cat-feeder! Thats it....cos' thats what I'm precisely doing currently - albeit very reluctantly.

As already mentioned, I'm a big time no-no when it comes to pets. I dislike pets, yes, I do! Its perfectly normal, not to like pets too, you see. Our tribe exists as well. Now, before all animals lovers and peta people come chasing after me, let me clarify, that - although, I"m not a pet lover, I don"t mean them any harm, till of course, they leave me alone as I'd do the same. I never get in their way, so, would expect the same courtesy from them as well. And we'll all live happily ever after in our own 'separate' spaces.

Now, only if it happened that way, right? Every time on the road, I find all kinds of stray dogs wanting to fraaaanship me. And all kinds of cats coming and going from our compound, as though, it were their ancestral property, and not mine. Hmmph! One, once, even took the liberty to lay all its kittens in our attic. My mother tried to chase them away, but, as if they'd care to listen, no? Huh! I thought, now, if they've made it their home, they better fend for themselves too. So no feeding-sheeding from my side. I'd ignore their existance, and hopefully, they wouldn't encroach any further. But, does it ever happen the way I wish? Hell no!!!

So, two days back, one feline furball decided to give me the shock of my life. It crept into one room, the tenant of which has been away a month, through the ventilator via the terrace. Once coming inside, I guess, it is not been able to get out, so its 'meowing' the whole place down! It caught my attention no doubt ( although, I didn't see it, only heard its frantic meows), and I'm at my wits end wondering what to do. The boy who lives in the room won't be back for couple more days, and his room is locked from outside. So, I'm unable to free the cat. The cat too doesn't go back the way it came, so we both are stuck with each other.

Since, I didn't want it to die ( okay, I have that much heart you see, whew! ), I tried feeding it chappati and bread, but a google search informed me that, its the least thing it'd want to eat, cat being meat eaters... Now, I could do well without this unnecessary burden, and ignore it perhaps; because the cat, if it really wants, it can definitely try escape via the ventilator or window ( both are open ); but no, it just wants to try my patience, knowing fully well my dislike for them #grrr. So, it is staying put in the room. Humanity or is it Animanity, lol, made me google up more and even make a quick visit to to nearest pet-shop and get some cat-food for it. Phew!! Kya kya karna pad raha hai....who would've thought, I'd visit a pet shop, ever!! The very thought, makes my head spin :o Anyways, so I got few packets of cat-food and giving it every few hours, together, with some water+milk mixture. I don't know if its eating or not, because, I'm throwing the stuff either through the ventilator or pouring underneath the door.

The fact that it comes near the door meowing as soon as I prepare to feed, makes be believe it's been eating. So, although, its not something I'm enjoying doing - I have become the reluctant cat-lover err feeder :| go figure that!

Update : PANIC SETS IN - So, the third day or so, i.e today, after going through the same feeding pattern, both my mother and myself got spooked when inspite of knocking and mimicking its meows, the cat didn't respond. After a long time we heard a faint meow...but, it was so faint that we feared if it was unwell or perhaps dying. I'm not really used to feeding cats, so got alarmed if we did it the wrong way perhaps. So, whole day I made my mother try out different numbers of plumbers, carpenters and labourers we knew, if they could help break the lock. The cat's spooky silence got us really freaked, and towards evening we mananged to get someone to break open. Once the lock was open, was I furious or what! The cat lazily came out from underneath the bed, nicely yawning and stretching and all. So, it was not only alive; but hale and hearty, and really kick-ass as well. Damn, I so so regretted getting the poor boy's lock broken. The cat...the naughty, and really really mean cat to get us all panicked so much. We tried shooing it away, and, it just wouldn't go. It rubbed itself and was really unconcerned about the heart-attack it nearly gave us. It was a sight in itself...light brown-goldenish, elegant with slight whitish on the face and tip of its tail. Alas, it did go out of the compound in the end, but will it be back? I hope not! :3

Well..well..