One of the drawbacks of shifting from our house
was that we had to leave Speedy behind.
As cat lovers know, cats are used to
places, and shifting them from their location is a dicey decision at the best
of times. There is always a ‘What if...?’
While our house is being re-built, my parents
moved into my brothers’ house next door while we have shifted to an apartment a
couple of blocks away. Our cat, Speedy, is an ‘outdoors’ cat and is used to
both the houses – ours and my brothers’. Also, my parents were anyway staying
in the house next door, and in any case, we go to check on the work done at
least twice a day. Hence, we decided to leave Speedy behind.
However, I don’t know who has taken this
decision more to heart – us, or Speedy.
Daily, I have to deal with the hurt that my
daughter feels that Speedy is not there whenever. (Another matter that I miss seeing
Speedy on the kitchen window every mornings).
But more interestingly, it is Speedy’s behaviour
that intrigues me.
For the past 6 years, Speedy has been the prim
and propah lady who did not like being touched or petted too much. Every
morning, she would sit in her favourite place on the ledge of the kitchen window,
and listen while I would talk to her, mewing occasionally to show her interest.
In the evenings, when I returned home from work, she would meet me about 50
meters away, and walk back to the house with me, her tail in the air like a flagpole.
But apart from some rare occasions, if I bent down to pat her, she would wait
for precisely 30 seconds or two strokes on her back, and then arch her back and
walk away, as if saying, “That’s enough”.
But now, every evening when I go to see the
house, Speedy clings to me like a baby. I have to stand for about 5 minutes
while she goes round and round my legs, mewing her complaints about leaving her
alone. Even my mother’s admonitions do not make her move. (She shares a
love-hate relation with my mother, and disappears the minute my mother comes
out). Rather, she curls more between my legs and purrs till I bend down and stroke
her back, her cheeks and between her ears. And interestingly, now it is me who
has to say, “Speedy, that’s enough”.
