The
Cats and Nadia
Since childhood Nadia is
a poetess, singer, painter and a great animal lover! Her fascination towards
nature’s bounty, its sounds and spirit and the wonderful creatures was
deep. From observing and loving birds,
squirrels, monkeys, rabbits, peacocks and reading about them, her most favorite
animals as pets were cats and dogs! Although she never bought and adopted any
favorite high breed pet animal or bird, because she didn’t like caging them and
not many people in her family approve of rearing them. But there were many
instances she remembered well, having company and experiences of stray cats and
dogs living outside her house.
Image Courtesy: http://leahsthoughts.com/the-cats-in-the-cradle/
Her love for cats began
when she was five years old and living in Noida, Delhi with her family. It was
a terrible and biting cold winter night of December in Delhi, as her whole
family sat watching television at 8pm together in her parent’s room wrapped in
their woolens and blankets. Shortly when they had finished the dinner, a cat
came meowing stealthily and wanted food and shelter. Understanding its state
and plight it was allowed inside their room and they gave it a warm place to
sit and later fed it milk and small chicken pieces. Nadia remembered how it sat
down on mat in front weakly looking at television! Her father Mr. Zaidi gently
stroked it so as to make it comfortable and she was of friendly nature. After
that incident, it started frequenting their house while Nadia would playfully
and generously feed it milk. Initially, she felt scared but by cat’s friendly
and soft behavior, both slowly grew close and became good friends. As a kid,
she used to read story books, comics about fairies, demons and moral stories of
animals like Panchatantra and Aesop fables often like humans in a jungle setting.
One of her favorite story magazine is Champak totally about animals and humans,
which is colorful, funny and interesting. It also gives us moralistic message
about life. From that magazine she chose a name for this cat and named her
‘Masha’, sounding like billi mousi or
Aunt Cat in Hindi, as in Hindi nursery rhymes, simply so lovable!
Masha was a female stray
cat of simple grayish green color with black marks of normal size and a pretty
tail. And greenish eyes which sparkled at night, but she wasn’t dangerous.
Throughout the day Nadia loved to stroke it while drinking milk, playing and
snuggling anywhere. Whenever she called it lovingly, it would come gently
raising its tail and would sit with her as long as they could. It was not a
coward and troublesome creature unlike other cats. Slowly, it became part of
their daily lives and Nadia would even kiss and pat its back generously.
Though, Mr. Zaidi warned her to be careful so that it doesn’t get angry and
irritated. And she made a mistake one day!
During those days all people of her locality kept dogs as their pets
having nice names like Goldie, Hector and Bozo and would take them out for
morning and evening walks. Their breeds were high mostly Pomeranian, Labrador
and Golden retriever, Sheep and Bull Dogs. Seeing them, Nadia also nurtured
this desire of taking her pet out for a walk with strap, collar and handle. But
her parents avoided pets due to maintaining hygiene and cleanliness.
Image Courtesy: https://www.fotolia.com/cat2/40025045?k=milk
Feeling
lucky to have Masha as her pet cat then, she stupidly tried to tie a plastic
rope around its neck so as to take it out for a walk. Not realizing it was a
stray, she was effortlessly suffocating it when it bit her hand, thank God not
brutally, but still an injury of red mark of her teeth occurred on her palm! Immediately,
she was rushed to the hospital receiving injection and anti rabies vaccines
against cats, dogs and monkeys. Her wound was bandaged and she grew alright
within a few days. But now Nadia stayed away from Masha cat due to its mood and
danger. Meanwhile, it had given birth to few kittens but didn’t leave their
house. It had now become a menace to handle the cat and its kittens troubling
everyone in the kitchen for food all the time. Slowly, they were driven out while
growing up and Masha died later. After that Nadia never found such a good pet,
but befriended stray animals outside her house!
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