A temporary visitor
K S S Pillai
I have studiously avoided keeping domestic animals or pets. While in the village, I was advised to keep a cow, which, in addition to being a revered animal, would provide us with pure milk. I had politely turned down the suggestion. Then the virtues of keeping a pet, be it a dog, cat, or a parrot, was extolled, till realization dawned on my well-wishers that they were wasting their breath.
Not that I don’t like animals or birds. Neither do I have any reservations about their right to share our planet. The roadblock is my reluctance to shoulder an avoidable responsibility of looking after another living being properly. I am never cruel to stray animals like dogs and always drive away children aiming stones at them.
I do not stop the womenfolk from feeding them either. On their part, the resident dogs of our housing society do not take undue advantage of my humane approach to them. They wait patiently outside my gate at mealtime till they are fed. They express their gratitude by wagging their tails or making sounds that seem to be no different from saying ‘thank you.’
They roam freely in the society and take care not to dirty the premises or obstruct the movement of vehicles by taking a nap in the middle of the roads. They are never aggressive to the children of our society even when they are threatened with poised sticks, never bite the residents, and always discourage the entry of outsiders into the society.
As we rarely came across cats in our housing society, one day I was astonished to find a good-looking cat entering my home nonchalantly when I opened the main door, as though it was a member of the household. My views about pets being well-known, I could feel others watching me for my reaction. When it approached me without hesitation and rubbed its body with my legs repeatedly, meowing all the time, I could not help bending down and stroking it. Taking it as my approval of the guest, no one tried to drive it away.
The cat moved here and there for some time, even sat near me when I was watching television, and silently moved towards the kitchen when the aroma of cooking wafted from there. It sat at a respectable distance looking at the womenfolk preparing food and did not show any impatience to get something to eat. When some food was kept before it, it was eaten unhurriedly, like a well-behaved person.
At bedtime, I was told that the cat had gone out after having supper. Thinking that it might have left for good, the doors were closed for the night. However, I was surprised to see it sitting outside the door when I opened it in the morning. It meowed at me as if greeting with a ‘good morning’ and walked slowly inside as though it was the daily routine.
I saw the cat intermittently throughout the day. Sometimes it would sit on the floor beside me while I sat in my chair, rub against my legs now and then, and would soon be gone. It always left the house when it was time for bed, and never slept inside.
The routine must have continued for about six months. Then one morning, when I opened the door as usual, the cat was not there. Having become familiar with the patently waiting cat when I opened the door every morning, I was worried that something terrible might have happened to it but consoled myself that it would come later. But it never did. We searched the nearby areas and enquired of our neighbours about her, but no one had any satisfactory answer.
Though I did not admit it to anyone, it was as if a near one had suddenly left, leaving a permanent vacuum in my life.
(The author is a retired professor of English. A regular contributor to The Kashmir Vision, he can be contacted at: pillaikss@yahoo.in)
