A pleasant Sunday was it. Time was around 1.30 PM. I and my mom had been to my grand parents’ home and were enjoying the movie Race 2 along with them. Everything seemed so perfect until my grandpa shouted my name. I ran from the living room to the main gate where he was standing. Thank God! Nothing had happened to him and was perfectly fine. A great relief in my mind. The screaming of my grandpa made us all run our minds into various not-so-good thoughts!
“What happened Appappa?” I asked with a serious tone. (I call my Grandpa as Appappa and Grandma as Ammamma.)
He replied “Where is Deeku? Have you seen her?” (Deeku is one of our cats. Deeku along with her sister Eenu and a brother Meenu are the children of our beloved cat ‘Chikni’.)
“No…” I replied with a not-so-serious tone. A not-so-serious tone of mine was because of the natural behavior of cats roaming here and there!
But, that sunday was something different! As I told before, it seemed so perfect but we never knew what was in stock for all of us.
“Phalgunn!!!!!” screamed our neighboring lady some minutes later. I ran out immediately once again with a feeling of terror in my mind. This time to my shock, Deeku was in the hands of that lady struggling for life!
“Aunt!! What happened?” I asked.
She replied “A stray dog had held Deeku in its mouth! Take her and give some milk and it’s emergency! She is really hurt!”
I was blank. Totally blank! My immediate reaction was to call my grandpa.
I screamed “Appappa! Come outside very fast! It’s emergency!” as if the whole world had fallen apart. He came running to see Deeku in that shocking state and immediately took her into his hands.
Deeku was struggling for her life but we did not keep quite! Immediately I took a piece of clean cloth and started cleaning her skin to see if any physical wounds had happened but nothing such could be found. My grandma brought a bowl of milk and fed her. But Deeku was in full shock and her mouth wide open and her head leaning downwards as if there was no strength at all in her body!
My Mom told me “Give Deeku ‘Easybreathe’ tonic. May be she is having a little problem to breathe. She is keeping her mouth wide open and struggling!”
Immediately I took out the tonic for easy breathing and a multi-vitamin syrup to feed her! I was fully tensed! My grandpa had made Deeku lie down on a clean piece of cloth by then. I took a disposable syringe and filled it with the syrup and poured it into Deeku’s mouth! But to my horror, the syrup did not go inside her mouth and there was no movement from this 2 months old darling! Her breathing had stopped. Mouth wide open, eyes full of pain with fear of death. She had breathed her last breath!
A brave young cute cat was lying dead in front of me!
Eenu and Meenu came near the body and saw it for a few minutes! Then came Chikni who sat in front of her daughter’s dead body with a sad face. We all say animals don’t get attached to relationships like human beings. But I have seen so many instances where animals are attached more than we human beings are. I could observe the pain in Chikni’s eyes for losing her daughter.
We then cremated Deeku in our garden area.
After 24 hours of this incident, Chikni was seen playing with her other two kittens Eenu and Meenu as if no Deeku existed! After all we can’t live our whole life being sad in the memories of our beloved people who have gone far away! This is life and it has to move on!
But what wonders me is – Was it Deeku’s mistake that she went out for a small walk or that the stray dog saw her and attacked? Finally a question to which I haven’t got any answer till today – Why do dogs attack cats?
PS: Dogs attack cats! But I have a darling dog called ‘Shwethu’ who play with our cats. She never attacks any cats! That’s how we have brought her up!
PHALGUNN MAHARISHI 