During my childhood, I had been a happy -go-lucky one, who was ignorant about the things going around her. I lived in a world of my own and there had been never a boring moment. (Touchwood!)
One winter night, we, a family of four were having dinner, watching some golden oldie Hindi movie, eating roti for dinner. (For a South Indian family, we ate roti on a daily basis, more than idli sambar) My palette for food was selective in those days and the top billing was given to my preference of food and our daily food menu was based on my whim and fancy. Being the youngest has it’s perks!
Anyway, as we finished our dinner and sat down to watch the rest of the movie, during a brief silent moment in the movie, I heard “meow” and a definite scratch on our door to the verandah. I ignored it.
As the scratches became more frequent and the meowing became more apparent, I alerted my parents. My dad opened the door. I was half expecting a cat fight, turns out it was not! Two tiny kittens rushed inside the hall, through the open door, one was thin while the other looked well fed. (I suspect the fat one never let the thin kitty have his share of food!) Both the kittens were as white as snow.
The winter night air had been too cold for them and that is the reason they became our guests. My parents fed the kitties the left over roti and milk, which they had for their hearts content. For a brief period both of them used our teepoy as their bunk bed, after dinner, to rest. (Teepoy = coffee table!)
Using the teepoy as their bunk bed!
By a mutual agreement, I and my sister decided to adopt one kitten each, for ourselves, the thin and the more active one being mine! Once the kittens had their dinner, they started to play with us, till it was our time for bed.
By the time we woke up early in the morning, the kitty cats were already awake and about. One of them had lept onto my bed too. I was as excited about a pet as George from The Famous Five series by Enid Blyton!
Both me and my sister made our beds and got ready for our school. I didn’t want to leave my kitty home and but went to school with a heavy heart. My sister had named her kitty as snowy. (I am unable to recall what I named my kitten as! I don’t even remember their gender!)
I boasted about my new pet to my friends and eagerly waited for the clock to strike 4! (That’s when the last school bell rang, thanks to Thomas uncle who was always on time! We studied at Christian Missionary school, the best in those days.)
Anyway, as soon as I was home, I couldn’t find any trace of the mischievous kitties and I demanded an explanation from my parents. Turns out the twin kittens were the pets of our neighbour from another apartment. He came searching for them as soon I and my sister went to school. The said owner had left his door open and the naughty kittens ran out of the door, climbed the wall and walked all the way to our house!
The owner asked for his pets in the nearby apartments and found them with us and took them away immediately.
We were heart broken and that is how we became, pet parents for a day! (night, actually!)
P.S:
1. After many years, we had another pet, turns out we have very little luck when it comes to pet animals. That will be post for another day.
2. The chubbier kitten of the two looked like Snowy from Stuart Little, but without the grumpy face. This one looked almost dumb!
3. We always wanted bunk beds in our childhood but nope, we had separate beds and that was fun too!
4. I love how Kramer from Seinfeld comes up with the idea of a coffee table book which converts itself into a coffee table, genius!
5. As you must have guessed, I made the pic with what little editing I know. The kitty cat images and teepoy image is sourced from Google. I just edited them together.
Till the next post, ciao!
