Cat Tales Revisited

Remember the cat story I shared last year? Well, I have no clue what happened to those cats but this time there is a fresh feline family to tell about, so here goes....

As we discovered towards the beginning of the lockdown, living the cat life during quarantine isn't easy. Especially if you choose to produce kittens in Corona times!

So one fine morning, I spotted our neighbourhood fat cat jumping into our backyard with something in its mouth. Naturally, given her catty instincts, I assumed it to be a juicy pigeon or a large rat. With the maids already in absentia due to the lockdown, I was horrified at the prospect of cleaning up after the fat cat. Cleaning up our own lunch leftovers was already enough for me! In a bid to scare her away, I went running right out into the backyard, screaming like a banshee for added effect. Only to see the fat cat jump walls deftly and disappear into an upstairs balcony. So far, so good. But soon she was back, crossing through the backyard again.

Meanwhile, hearing the earlier commotion, hubby had parked himself near the glass door to oversee fat cat's antics. So when she returned this time, and paused near our vegetable patch to tighten her hold on whatever she was carrying, hubby promptly switched on his camera. And what did we discover - fat cat was ferrying her kittens across!

Tiny bundles of fur, two black and two brown, were taken by turns to a new location. Apparently, cats have a tendency to change their location several times when they give birth; that is a strategy to keep the mewing, helpless kittens safe from predators.

After the transposition was done, all was quiet again. Now, as luck would have it or maybe by sheer design, fat cat landed with her kittens in the milk hoarder's balcony. All was well till the babblers and mynahs descended on the mango tree in the evening. Sitting on the topmost branches gave them a field view of the balcony, and the occasional mewing of the kittens confirmed their presence. The birds put up a spirited cacophony but fat cat being a smart mommy chased them all away.

A couple of days went by peacefully till the milk hoarder's son discovered the feline family sheltering in their balcony. His screams, followed by his mom's screams, forced fat cat to again change her family location. They are now, in all probability, housed in the yard of an empty house next door. As fat cat is seen daily ambling across our backyard, in search of food in these lockdown days. And that is the story of a cat in quarantine!