It had to happen- Part II

It’s easy to pass the buck. Especially when you have no witnesses or witnesses too young to be produced for cross examination. At best, we are collectively responsible for our large and happy family. However, if you were to scrutinize further and actually point out somebody who has been instrumental in bringing in most of our four legged members there are two serial offenders.

But even between the two, one of them stands out. Ma. She has been responsible for most of the adoptions. The stories she talks of while pinning the blame on Baba, if you notice, all boil down to a time when we were not born or just very young. And the only reason why Baba with a “less dominant plant personality” would bring in strays would be to impress the “more dominant dog personality” who has admitted that we would have sprawling rose garden if Baba had dominated. So there is your admission of guilt! I am not saying that Baba isn’t responsible; I am just saying that it’s unfair to pin the entire blame on him.

Right from the time we were kids, we have had the liberty to play with strays, take care of them in our own limited potential. When I was around 10-11 we made a trip to Nainital during our summer holidays. Joku our devoted outhouse dog had littered a while back and her pups were still small. As we drove away in our Maruti Omni, Joku came running after the car (something she used to do on a regular basis) and behind her followed three little puppies. We were so scared for the babies that we took them to Nainital on that trip! Now honestly, think! Can such a thing happen without the blessings of both parents?

My school friends will also certify that on occasions “Mrs Ganguly has a cat on her lap,” events also happened out of the blue. Those were days when we didn’t have cats and we were wary of them…cats being unknown quantities for us.

Coming to more recent times, till the year 2005 we had four dogs (people would gasp at the number 4!).  It’s true we fed strays but our in house mates were restricted. Once the cats made their entry (somewhere around that time), the brakes of the car failed.

We were at our wits end when the daughter of the ironing lady decided that bringing kittens to our house was a big game and started bringing kittens from all around the colony and dumping them at our doorstep. Back then we were very active about getting kittens adopted (houses other than ours) and we managed to do a fairly decent job, mainly tapping into a base which was rather unexploited…children from Ma’s school. And a stern warning from us scaring Manju about how the police would catch her if she continued displacing kittens brought the charade to a grinding halt.

Funnily enough though, the people who were most upset about kittens leaving the house once they came in were Spotty and Bacchi. Every time we started putting the kittens into boxes for transportation, they would get frantic.

Not being permanent in any place (we were living in rented apartments) I used to disapprove of feeding cats outside our window as it would make them dependent on us…and like I said, we were not permanent. But nobody listens to the youngest but one in the family. Every time the cats outside littered, the ones at home (jobless people) were expected to be out on the street guarding them, monitoring them. Calls pouring in from the ones who had a job asking about the current status every 5 minutes. By this time we had a sizeable population of 10-12 cats (apart from the 5 dogs we had). So one really didn’t know who to attend to. The ones outside or the ones inside. There was always a lot of stress involved specially with kittens; you had to protect them from both cars and dogs. And people like Ma wanted to eat their cake and have it too. They must be out of sight, but one must make sure they are safe! So entire days would go by trying to strike that unattainable balance. Another funny thing was that during festivals, we wanted to keep the animals inside to protect them from crackers, rowdy people. During that time we would try to bring in kittens and then the temptation would start creeping in. Ma would want to bring them in for longer and longer durations. It was a ritual. You knew you would be bringing them in anyway; it was just a matter of time.  It was then that I threw my hands up and put my foot down. If we were to bring them in, we could drop the act and just do it as soon as possible.

On one very unfortunate occasion, a kitten (not really zero size) had been sitting under the car in one of the lanes parallel to our house. And Ma and Nivedita wanted to bring it in. I kept protesting as there was no reason to rescue it as it was absolutely fine. It got knocked down the very next day. This has never been forgotten and thereon I decided that I am not going to say anything about bringing/not bringing anyone in. So, the spree began. The phrase ‘look what the cat’s brought in’ took on a slightly different form. It became ‘look who’s brought the cat in.’

Our regular window cats kept getting pregnant and I was constantly deployed to be the cat catcher (I am pretty good at it now).

To be honest, it was a real relief knowing that the kittens were safe and sound in the next room and one didn’t have to bother about their safety. Now that the pretence was over, when we finally shifted into our own house, we adopted the entire family of our two female window cats. We got all of them sterilized and gave them a wonderful foster home. Ours.

Ma loves working in opposites. If you refuse to give a dog a biscuit, she’ll sneak it out herself, but if she catches you sneaking out biscuits, she’ll scold you. Just enough, so that you do give the biscuits but you feel guilty about it. Emotional blackmail is a tool she often uses to get her work done (bring the four legged in).

As for our last adoption, Poki (Pokemon) was adopted by her from a place very close to her school. But she really needed adopting. Both her hind legs were paralysed and she was bleeding internally. The doctor gave her 15 days at most. Poki still drags herself but she is the naughtiest and the most spirited thing you could ever imagine. She will complete an entire year with us this August.

The second offender is Broti. She has brought in some of our most ill behaved specimens. The two topping the list are Maggie and Snap. Then she ‘rescued’ Jhandu, Nemo, Bertie, Shirley. But mind you, the rescue operations in case of Ma and Broti stop at bringing the four legged in. The rest of it has to be done by the jobless people sitting at home. Whereas their contribution is to love them and spoil them rotten.

Since Ma has been responsible for 15 adoptions (even though Broti’s 6 seem to be 16), I hereby pronounce her guilty!

 

Note: Chutka, Chutki, Blondie, Kutzn, Pixie, Toady, Toffeechu, Chess, BD, Delta, Moti Wendy, Vaiji, Chichi, Poki are the ones adopted by Ma