My Cat Teacher

 

In nature, nothing exist in vacuum. And so it was when our stray dog adopted by everyone in the building disappeared after a particularly deafening Diwali, her place was taken by a gorgeous ‘tortie’ kitten whom I decided to call Stripey whether she responded to the name or not.

In our area, many cats move from terrace to terrace because of the street dogs below. It was nighttime when I first saw Stripey going down the building staircase. Our eyes had met and she had stopped to look at me. And as simply, our friendship began. She came back every night as I left food for her outside our top floor house door. Soon, she started coming in the morning and afternoon as well.

Stripey was an adolescent when she made this building hers. She was loud and demanding, scratching me, my mom and scaring neighbours in her eagerness to get to her food. She also liked attention and would forever be rolling around our feet or lying down and stretching herself in front of us. This irritated me a lot as it reminded me of my behavior in my younger days. But Stripey was very clear about one thing – she never allowed any one to touch or pet her.

I watched her as she went through her first heat, how confused and in pain she was. She was scared of the attention from this rather gentlemanly male cat, but her instinct made her follow him to the next building. I prayed that she would not get pregnant, as she was still very young. Six months later, during her next heat, she promptly got pregnant.

I was travelling when she gave birth to two kittens in a neighbour’s courtyard. One was weak and died. Stripey became a doting mother to her surviving kitten. Within two days of my return, I heard her downstairs cajoling and encouraging the prettiest kitten to climb three flights of stairs to my door. She wanted to introduce her kitten to me. Needless to say, everyone was smitten.

Motherhood had transformed Stripey dramatically. From an attention seeking kitten, she became poised, patient and deeply attentive to the needs of her kitten. She left his side only when she wanted food. Gone were her hunger tantrums and she retracted her claws when we were around. She meowed once or twice to let us know she wanted food, waiting patiently, eating quickly and rushing back to her son. Cats are known to keep changing sites for their kittens’ safety every two weeks or so. Once, Stripey brought Moje (socks in hindi, as all four paws were white) to our doorstep for two nights before taking him away again. She had sensed in advance that the new site could be unsafe due to the upcoming Lohri celebrations.

One day, my ground floor neighbor called me frantically. Strpiey was badly hurt and she wanted to take her to a vet. I told her to wait and watch. The next morning Stripey came up to me with Moje in tow. She had hurt one of her hind legs and was limping. Strpiey was an agile and prolific hunter and constantly fighting with other cats in the area because of which she was almost always hurt. But this time, I could see her exposed bone and feel the pain in her eyes. I spoke softly to her, tentatively extending my hand to caress her head. This was the first time she allowed me to touch her. I brought an antiseptic and she allowed me to put that on her wound as well. As I watched her recover, she taught me so much about self-care, healing and motherhood. All she did was lick her wound and sleep in the sun allowing her body to heal itself. She did not eat, but would come down with Moje when he was hungry. Something shifted in our friendship during this time. She became more loving and trusting to let me rub her belly and lift her up.  

As Moje was growing up, her form of play with him kept changing with time. Initially it was just play to encourage movement and exploration, then it shifted to a lot of running around and allowing Moje to bite and play. Somewhere it became hiding and attacking as if stalking a prey. Stripey would jump like an Olympic pro in order to avoid his stealth and attack play. The in-between times were filled with a lot of licking and suckling. She would bring him to everyone’s door at particular times, so that he became familiar with feeding times and how to ask for food. When it was time for Moje to learn hunting, she would hunt pigeons, rats and bulbul, all in a day and leave the carcass in front of him. As he grew up, she sometimes feigned aggression to teach him boundaries and how to protect his territory. Unlike other cat moms, she was never competitive about food, always letting Moje eat first.    

In the fifty years of my life so far, no human mother has ever inspired me enough to feel that I should have become a mother. Watching Stripey’s evolution from a kitten to an effortless, matter-of-fact, and graceful mother with so much love for everyone, I suddenly felt a doubt, the first and the only time, if I missed something by not becoming a mother.

Moje is a shy, slow kitten with a barely audible voice. He, like me, is a slow bloomer and Stripey understood this. Cats drive away their kittens after 12-16 weeks to fend for themselves. But Stripey kept Moje with her for 22 weeks sometimes leaving him alone for days. And one fine day, instead of chasing Moje away, she left the building quietly never to return.