Mini and Maxi are friends again

Twin brothers Mini and Maxi have lately been fighting a lot. If one wants to sit somewhere, the other wants to displace him and sit in the same place. If one wants to enter their room, the other is in the doorway stopping him. But yesterday, they sat close together practically hugging each other.
The reason was black cat Nandu. He lives separately with his only friend, black Ashi, as he is very aggressive with the other cats. Yesterday he somehow got into their enclosure, and Mini and Maxi were terrified. He is twice their size. Since then, the two of them have made friends again.

Happy birthday--Mini and Maxi

This is Maxi as a baby.

Another picture of Maxi.

Here is Mini.
Two years old today. They had a special meal.

Sweetie's story--to be continued

Sweetie's story will be continued and published when it is complete--the first four parts can be read here as an introduction.

Sweetie's story--4

I hadn’t planned anything for the kitties future. I had presumed they would gradually wander off with Cookie, and I would feed them if they visited, just as I fed other cats. But of course, these were different as they were inside.
My small apartment had two decent sized rooms with a small front room that connected them. Outside on the terrace was the kitchen and bathing bathroom. It was the type of residence that used to be called a ‘barsati’, barsat meaning rain, built in a limited space at the top of a building. Cookie’s loud miaows at night were disturbing my sleep. She also used to jump on me. At this time I was writing my second book, revising the first for a new edition, and working part-time as an editor. But work was being hampered by my trying to take care of Cookie and the kittens. I left them one large room and the front room, and shut them out of my bedroom at night. Was Cookie upset? On 29 May she took all the kitties away, carrying each one. They were now quite large, and she had to lift her head up to get their feet of the ground. I tried to stop her but she wouldn’t listen. The heat was still tremendous, and she took half an hour carrying away each kitten, before coming back for the next. And then she returned without them and started yowling. Had she lost them all?
The next couple of months were a saga of kittens going away, coming back, getting lost etc. On the 30th Cookie brought back one kitten. Where were the rest? She came twice to feed it, and in the evening carried it away again. On 8th June, all were back. On the 10th, I left for another trip, returned on the 14th--no kitties again. 17th, one kitty was back. Now I think it is time to describe them, with the names I gave them later on. Snowy--a white boy, with long hair and a few black patches. Sweetie--white and pale grey; Goldy--with gold and grey patches on white, very pretty; Sugar, white with short hair and dark grey patches. Cookie was still carrying them around, but I ‘ll just describe one instance a couple of days later, when I had to rescue Sweetie.
To write this I looked up my diary for that year, which had all the dates and details of their comings and goings! The kitty who was back here on the 17th, was Snowy. Nineteenth night it began raining. I woke in the night and found one more kitty, Goldy, here. But two were still missing and it poured with rain. In the morning I could hear one kitty crying. I looked out but couldn’t see anything. Then Cookie arrived, heard it, and was off in a flash. Looking through the window I saw she had fished it out of a muddy drain--she was trying to pick it up when an old woman downstairs started chasing her with a stick. I quickly went down in the slush and drizzle but had to walk around two buildings to reach the back where they were. Sweetie, covered in wet mud looked miserable. Cookie, from a safe distance, was yelling at old woman who was waving a long stick at her. I grabbed wet and muddy Sweetie. Seeing her safe, Cookie vanished. Whenever in later years the old lady saw Sweetie in her carrier ready to travel with me, she would say--this is the same cat from that dirty drain?
By the time I reached upstairs, Cookie had brought Sugar back too. Sweetie was wiped, dried and wrapped in a shawl and went to sleep.

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].

Sweetie's story--2

Ma Fluffy arrived on the 5th day. The kitties rushed to greet her with little mews. She too gave them soft meows and licked them. She lay down to let them feed, and I put a bowl of food for her, and went inside, happy that she was back. I came out again when I heard some different, sharp meows. What was this? It was Fluffy meowing. She was walking away, looking over her shoulder, and telling them to follow. Six-week-old kittens can run and jump, but they aren’t very good at climbing. I hadn’t seen how she brought them, whether she had carried each one, or made them walk behind her.
The buildings where I lived were all connected, that is, one could walk from one roof to the next. After ten to fifteen buildings, side roads would provide a break in connectivity. My terrace had a low two-foot wall, with a small gap on one side. If the cats went through that gap, they could walk along an overhanging parapet and cross through to the next building, and with a little maneuvering could continue onwards.
When Fluffy called them, the kitties obediently began to follow her as she walked through the gap, onto the parapet. I leaned over the wall to see where they were going. They had crossed about two buildings when little grey kitty looked back and saw me. Turning around, she ran back at top speed to me. I put my hand down to her--did she want me to pick her up? But no--she patted my hand two or three times with her paw, looked intently at me, and then raced back again to join her family. It seemed to me she was saying, Thank you, and also, ‘I’ll see you again.’
For the next two months I did not see any of them. I heard they were living on the roof of a building further on for some time, and then that they had disappeared. Meanwhile Mister continued to visit. Though he never got any friendlier, I felt we shared a bond.
And then, suddenly, the little grey kitty, somewhat bigger now, was back! She was easily identifiable, as her right back leg was brown, something unusual in a grey tabby. At first I thought she was a boy, but after a while realized she was a girl. She was so smart, that I named her Smart Cookie or Cookie for short. Cookie now spent much of her time on my terrace. I fed her everyday, and she and Mister seemed to get on okay. Its not that they sat cuddled together, but he never hissed at her. He began to nap on the terrace at times, while she slept a short distance away.
Cookie was a great hunter. A few days after her return, she proudly showed me a little mouse that she had caught. It is always sad to see a dead creature, but Cookie began to celebrate what was probably her first catch with such exuberant joy, tossing it in the air and catching it again, that I could not help feeling happy for her.

Sweetie's story--1

Sweetie, a beautiful cat, was born on 17 April 2003, and died on 3 March 2016. There are plenty of stories about cats, and Sweetie wasn’t like Bob the Street Cat, or any of those other famous cats. She was a regular, ordinary cat, but extraordinary and special for me.
I’ll begin her story with her grandmother, an orange cat I named Fluffy. Living in Delhi on the second floor, I had a small terrace with some potted plants. Every day I fed any stray cats who came there. The cats in the area soon knew where to come for a safe place to hide, or for something to eat.
Mother cats generally abandon their kittens when they are around three months old. But obviously, they are still concerned about them, because the mothers would bring the kittens to my terrace and tell them they would always get food there, before they left them to their own devices.
Fluffy and Furry were both regular visitors, two look-alike females expecting kittens at the same time. I could distinguish between them as Furry was one shade paler. They had their kittens elsewhere, then returned after a few days, looking thin, and gobbling their food. But just a few days later, Furry stopped coming, and I did not see her again. In fact, in all those years I fed cats, very few came for more than a year. Did they move away somewhere, or did something happen to them? I do not know.
After about six weeks, Fluffy, who had been coming for food every day, brought her kittens too. There were three orange ones like her, and one grey tabby with a brown leg. She left them on the terrace and went away. That was surprising as it wasn’t the right time for her to abandon them. They still needed their mother. For the next four days the kittens did not leave my terrace. Had their mother told them to stay put? I fed them diluted milk, and they leapt and played and had a great time, though they were wrecking my plants.
The first day they were there, I was slightly nervous about Mister, one of the other visiting cats. Mister, a grey boy, was absolutely the largest cat I have ever seen. Tall and well-built, he did not need to be fed, but once he got to know that I was a cat-feeder, he came every day. He wouldn’t leave until he had got his bowl of milk and bread.
Mister wasn’t friendly. If I went anywhere near him, he would hiss ferociously. I had to leave his bowl a couple of feet away from him, and then back away. He would eat and drink, wash his face with his paw, and in his usual stately fashion, would then depart. What would Mister do to these motherless kittens? Well Mister did nothing. They were wary of him and didn’t go anywhere near his food, but once he had eaten, he almost seemed to like them. He stayed longer than usual on the terrace. One of the kittens even had the courage to creep up behind him and flick his tail. Mister, in his dignified way, ignored it, and left after a while.

Sweetie—landmarks of her life.

Born 17 April 2003 in New Delhi, India—Cookie, a stray I used to feed came inside and had four kitties on a suitcase under my bed.
I kept a window open, and Cookie took care of them.
When they could walk and run I put them on the terrace, but they still came in at times.
In March 2004, Sweetie was missing for some days. I found her on the road trying to crawl back home. Her back legs were paralysed. On the same day her brother Snowy disappeared. They were good friends
I brought her upstairs and she became an indoor cat. I closed the window, and made her a small makeshift terrace enclosure. She was happy inside and slowly recovered.Before that she lost two premature kittens. She had hanging skin below her stomach, and a slight limp, otherwise could walk and soon could jump as before.
Minty joined us as an indoor cat on 10 September 2011—a kitten I just had to rescue. Despite my best efforts Sweetie never liked her, so I made sure Minty did not trouble her. Sweetie remained my constant companion, Minty in another room.
During these years we made frequent trips to Dehradun to visit my mother. We went by taxi, and though not a long distance, it took 7 or more hours because of the traffic. Sweetie was a very good girl on all these trips, uncomplainingly staying in one room with me on our visits there. With Minty as a second cat it was a problem, Minty had to stay in the bathroom. Of course, both did have a run around the house at times. In 2012 we made nine trips there. After my mother passed away, we moved to Dehradun.
Sweetie was depressed so I got a beautiful terrace enclosure made for her 10th birthday. It was attached to my bedroom, she could go in and out as she liked, and she loved it.[There are pictures of it in the post below]
Even in her final days, she sat there all day in the sun, with me sitting near her. She had stopped eating, but started again, then once again declined, though she ate a little bit even on the last day. She was weak but could still walk and jump on the chair or bed by herself
She usually slept in my bed, with her head on my shoulder and her paw on my arm, but for a few days she hadn’t been doing that. On 2nd night she went to sleep at the foot of the bed. Around 2 am she came up and put her head on my shoulder and paw on my arm. I held her close. At 4.30 am she gave two or three small coughs and then she was gone to the other world.
A small grave was dug for her in the back garden. My neighbour came and said some prayers, and read from the Guru Granth Sahib for twenty minutes. A deeply spiritual man, he said that a cat’s soul is no different from that of a human.
It was 3 March 2016.

Sweetie's very own enclosure

When we moved to Dehradun, almost three years ago, Sweetie was depressed. So for her 10th birthday, she got her very own terrace enclosure. She doesn't like other cats and no other cat is allowed there. The enclosure is attached to my bedroom, also her exclusive space, and she can go out and come in as she likes.She loves sitting outside, surveying the world beyond, and basking in the sun. But she is not too keen on the monkeys, who sometimes look in!
Some pics below:

Cat enclosure

The five outside cats, have a room to sleep in when it rains or is too cold or hot, and an outdoor enclosure where they spend the day.
An enclosure like this keeps them safe, at the same time they get to enjoy the outdoors.
Some pictures below:

Ashi--a little black girl

Ashi was being very affectionate this morning. Her way of being affectionate was to lie on her back, grab my hand with her paws, and give it a few licks. Could she possibly know that it is exactly one year since she came here? I was to keep her for a week or ten days, but here she is still!
She and Nandu are good friends, they are meant to live with the other outside kitties, but come in at times.
Ashi was found as a tiny kitten with her eyes still shut. She was rescued by two young men, engineering college students, who kept her in their hostel and reared her on milk fed through a dropper, and boiled eggs. She survived, but by the time she was two months old, they were not sure how to continue to take care of her. The hostel administration had got to know and wanted her out. They posted her picture on a local website, and got an offer of adoption—-but the person concerned would take her after about ten days. Meanwhile they were leaving for their Divali vacations. I offered her a temporary home. Ashi arrived on the evening of 21 October 2014, on a motorbike! She was held tightly by the young man seated behind, while the other drove the bike. She was shivering, scared and cold, but survived the journey safely, a distance of 15-20 km. Once here, she perked up and settled down for her temporary stay.
But no one adopted her, neither the person who had promised to, nor anyone else. So here she is still.
Ashi is a very friendly cat. She is not shy, and greets everyone, and does not fight with other cats. She doesn’t meow much, and has a very sweet soft voice.
She has some oddities though. Wires and woollens are not safe with her! She neatly chops wires in two, and can’t resist woollens. It takes her just a few unobserved minutes to chew her way through them.

Muffin is missing

Muffin has been gone for more than a month. She was born outside, daughter of Kairi,

granddaughter of Brindle,

and sister of Puffin and Nuffin.

Muffin began living in the outside shelter when her kittens, Mini and Maxi were born, to shelter them from the big tom cat.
She liked to go out every day but would return at night.
A couple of months ago she went away for two weeks, came back and stayed for a week, and then left and didn't return. I am guessing she is okay, as she is a good hunter, but I haven't seen her.

The cat and the mosquito checker

As everyone in India knows, many people here don't particularly like cats. They are superstitious about them, and keeping cats as pets is a relatively new phenomenon. But just keeping a cat leads to a change in approach of all who come in contact with it. Sweetie met many people who visited my house--friends, electricians, plumbers, and several others. She hissed ferociously at some, scratched one or two, made friends occasionally[very rare--I actually employed a packer because Sweetie went and sat on their representative's lap]and ignored others.
Among the latter was the MCD mosquito checker, who arrives every monsoon in Delhi to check that there are no mosquitoes breeding in the water coolers [there are mosquito courts where one has to pay a fine if they find any!]. After checking, he puts some poisonous stuff in the water.
I wouldn't let him do this to one cooler, as I said my cat may get affected. Cat? He wanted to see it,and I showed him Sweetie asleep on the bed. 'You have a cat on your bed?', he couldn't get over it, but after that used to ask about her whenever he came.
One day the doorbell, rang, and there was S, the mosquito checker. 'You just came a couple of weeks ago', I said. 'It's not about that', he said, 'Have you lost a cat?' 'No', I replied. 'There's one in our office. It won't leave, please come and see', he said. I took a cat carrier with me, and we reached his office, just a two minute walk away. Sure enough, a large orange cat was sitting in a high-walled courtyard, where the workers were eating their home-packed lunch. 'I told them they should not harm it, but should feed it', said S. Orange cat was happily eating all the scraps of food that were being thrown to him. But now S and the others felt I should put him in the carrier and take him home! I tried to explain he wasn't my cat--he would go back to wherever he had come from. 'He can't jump these high walls', said S, so I agreed to take him. The carrier was placed on the ground, tempting food was put into it, and the cat soon put his nose and front paws in. An over-enthusiastic worker then gave him a push from the back. Cat hissed, snarled, turned around and was out of the carrier,still hissing, and as everyone moved back,he gave a smooth leap to the top of the high wall and disappeared. By the time we went out to see where he had gone, there was no sign of him.
I was sure he was okay, but I thought that not only S, but all the workers there, had become a little more cat-friendly.

An introduction to cats and cat care

[This is a somewhat basic introduction to keeping a cat, for the many in India who have never kept one and know little about cats. There will be more details in subsequent posts.]

Why adopt a cat?
Cats are fun, cuddly and playful.
They require less care than a dog, but make great companions.
They are very clean and usually don’t need baths—most cats lick themselves clean.
Cat companions are known to reduce stress and high blood pressure. Their purrs have a specific effect, of not only being very soothing, but of healing and strengthening bones! Scientific tests have proved this.

Where do I get a cat?
There are many cat breeds, just as there are breeds of dogs. But please do not buy an expensive Persian or other breed. Adopt a cat or kitten from a shelter, or take in a kitten from your garden, terrace, or anywhere you see one.

About cats
Cat nature

: Cats are shy and sensitive. They do not respond or become friendly immediately, but they will do so gradually. Be very patient and gradually you will be rewarded with a wonderful friend.

Purrs: a cat purrs when it feels comfortable or happy. A purr is a vibratory sound emanating from the throat, and can be soft or loud, depending on the cat. Sweetie purrs so softly I can hardly hear it, sometimes I can only make out she is purring by touching her throat. Minty is rather loud. The loudest cat purr recorded in the world is of a cat named Merlin. He is in the Guinness book of records.

Wagging tail: a cat wags its tail when it is angry. If you see the cat’s tail swishing from side to side, stay away. It may scratch if you approach. However, Minty is different. Her tail wags for no reason at all. I don’t know if there are other cats like her.

Food: Cats need non-vegetarian food. They cannot survive on vegetarian food. They can be fed packaged cat food, or home cooked food. Raw food is sometimes recommended, but in India it is safest to stick to well- cooked or packaged food. Milk is not a good food for cats, but dahi [curd or yoghurt] can be given.
How often should a cat be fed? Sweetie and Minty have their bowls full at all times, with dry cat food. They don’t gobble everything in one go, and nibble at different times. Sweetie likes to eat mainly at night, Minty, morning and evening. The outside lot usually eat everything they are fed immediately. Nandu and Ashi eat the most. They are all fed three times a day, but their last meal is between 4.30 and 6 pm, the next meal early morning.

Cat litter: Cat litter comes in packets, and is made of different substances, including betonite or more eco-friendly material. Fill some in a litter tray or a plastic basin, for the indoor cat’s bathroom. When the cat does something in it, that portion can be removed with a scoop, put in a plastic bag, and thrown away with the garbage. Cat litter is not available in many smaller cities and in other areas, and is also expensive. Alternatives are sand, wood shavings or dust, mud, or newspaper.

Remembering Sweetie’s visit to the vet

I just read an article about a rise in lost cats, because of their carriers breaking. I was reminded of when Sweetie’s carrier broke.
Sweetie is 12 years old, but her last visit to the vet was when she was six. This was in another city, and it was so traumatic [for me at least!] that I decided not to take her again.
The problem was not that Sweetie escaped, but that she refused to get out of her carrier. She retreated to the furthest point, and braced her feet in the corners, so that no one could pull her out. When neither I nor the vet’s assistants could budge her, they decided to unscrew the top of the carrier--but in the process the carrier broke! I had to hang on to her by her fur. We had come in a taxi, and getting her back home in a broken carrier was a real problem. The carrier was somehow tied up in string. Now Sweetie, when she wants can open some carriers, and even chew through them, and is so strong that no one can hold her. Fortunately I managed to get her home safely, and she has never been to the vet again, though one has visited her at home. After that, whenever we had to travel, she was on a harness and in a double carrier, that is, a smaller one inside a larger one. If one breaks or opens, there is a second carrier for safety.

Minty--in pictures

Cat--a poem by Jibananda Das

Again and again through the day
I meet a cat.
In the tree's shade, in the sun, in the crowding brown leaves.
After the success of a few fish bones
Or inside a skeleton of white earth
I find it, as absorbed in the purring
Of its heart as a bee.
Still it sharpens its claws on the gulmohar tree
And follows the sun all day long.

Now I see it and then it is gone,
Losing itself somewhere.
On the autumn evening I have watched it play,
Stroking the soft body of the saffron sun
With a white paw. Then it caught
The darkness in paws like small balls
And scattered it all over the earth.

----------------------------------------
I have been looking for poems on cats by Indian authors. Jibananda Das was a Bengali poet and writer[1899-1954]. I can't find the translator of the above version, and would appreciate it if someone could tell me.
Another version is below.


All day I inevitably encounter a cat here and there
In the shadow of trees or out in the sun, around
the pile of fallen leaves;
I catch sight of him, deeply engrossed like a bee,
with his own self
Embedded in the skeleton of white soil
Having successfully spotted some bones
of fishes somewhere;
But still, nevertheless, he scratches at the trunk
of the Krishnachura tree
All day he moves about stalking the sun.

Now he shows up here
The next moment he is lost somewhere.
I spot him in the autumn dusk playing around
As if, with his white paws, he is patting the supple body
of the saffron sun;
Then he nets up the tiny balls of darkness with his paw
And spreads them throughout the world.

Translated by Faizul Latif Chowdhury

A cat started the Mahabharata war!

A regional version of the Mahabharata in Kumaon, states that a cat caused the Mahabharata war. According to the story, the Kauravas and Pandavs lived in two adjacent places in Kumaon. The Pandavas had a cat named Lomasha, while the Kauravas had a chicken.
The moved to Hastinapura along with their pets--the Pandavas by this time had children, who were still babies. Lomasha was quite protective of them. One morning the Kauravas’ cock crowed loudly and awakened the little ones, who began to cry. Lomasha ran to protect them and killed the cock. The Kauravas attacked the Pandavas and the great war started!
I found this story in secondary literature--still looking for the original. If a cat was responsible for the beginning of the war, surely cats in India deserve more respect!
All through the Mahabharata the Pandavas are seen to be friendly with animals. Yudhishthira did not abandon his dog on the way to heaven; earlier too they had a dog who barked at Ekalavya. And in the pious cat story narrated earlier, that cat too is elsewhere called Lomasha.

Sweetie--through pictures