Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Sweetie's story--3


And Sweetie is born!
The months passed, the seasons changed, and winter approached. Cookie started spending time inside, sleeping under the quilt on my bed in the early morning. Mister was no longer coming every day, and was somehow looking old. Then again it was spring and early summer, and in March I began to notice Cookie growing fatter. Pregnant? Surely she was too young. I had never had an indoor cat, I still had a lot to learn about cats. In a residential school where I had taught at one time, I took care of a cat I named Puchy. More on him later. And in this same Delhi residence I had a close bond with an orange male I named Chou. After a car accident, he did not survive.
I couldn’t keep Cookie inside all the time. She liked to wander and to hunt, and in addition I had to travel, and there was no one to look after any cat when I was away. Soon it was April 2003. On the 17th of April Cookie came to me meowing in a strange way. I opened the door to let her in, she ran under the bed, got onto a suitcase there, and very soon had four kittens. I peaked underneath and saw little wiggly tails. One of them was my Sweetie, but I hadn’t named her then, nor did I intend to keep her.
On the 20th I had to go on a trip I could not postpone. What was I to do with them? After a lot of anxiety and thought I decided it was best to leave them there. I requested R, my daily maid to feed Cookie cat food every day. She did not like cats, but reluctantly promised. Then I asked both her and my landlady who lived downstairs to ensure that one window was left open. That way Cookie could go out, come back whenever she liked, and the kitties would be safe inside. I was really worried that someone would shut the window and Cookie may not be able to enter, and the kitties would not survive, but that was the best I could do. By this time I had seen that there were four little ones.
I left on the 20th and returned after ten days. By some miracle, everything was fine. R had fed Cookie, because, she said, she was a mother, taking such good care of the little ones, that she felt compassionate towards her. My instructions had been followed and the window had been left open. All four kitties were safe under the bed. And wonderful Cookie had kept them and the whole area absolutely clean. There was not one spot or drop of anything.
They were all safe, but Cookie looked weak and thin, four kitties sucking were draining her strength, I planned to feed her more. And having them inside was becoming a problem, as Cookie would wander in and out and jump on me in the middle of the night. By 17th May, at one month old, they were just able to walk. The heat was rising, and it was already 43 C. I didn’t have an AC, there was a big cooler in the window, but I couldn’t use it as that was the window Cookie need to go in and out of. I bought a smaller one to keep inside the room. [a cooler is a device with a fan, matting, and a water tank that installed in a window cools very well in dry heat].

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