Pet love

One day, we saw a cute white tomcat in a shop. We brought him home but he left after a couple of weeks. HT Café reader Deepa Iyer on cats.

My kids and I are extremely fond of animals. We go to great lengths to help them. One day, we saw a cute white tomcat in a shop. We brought him home but he left after a couple of weeks. My little son developed high fever. So, we got him a tiny gray kitten.

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Extended family
Soon, Chinnu became a member of our family. She fell sick after six months. It was a huge task to get her to take her medicines. She bounced back after a week. She got pregnant after a year and we decided not to give away the kittens when Chinnu would deliver.

We had to go out of town for two weeks. We left our cat with our neighbours. When we returned, we were shocked to hear from our neighbours that Chinnu had a bad fall and died.

Heart broken
Later we learnt that our building watchman had found Chinnu and was taking care of her. We took her to a vet. The doctor informed us that she had lost her kittens.

But Chinnu’s chances of survival too were bleak because her spinal cord had been damaged.

She wouldn’t be able to eat or move around. They advised us to leave her in the hospital. We cried. My children were heart-broken.

We missed Chinnu. I told my children that we would get another kitten but they refused to let anyone else take Chinnu’s place in their lives.

Deja vu
Three months passed. One morning, I was standing at the window. I saw a girl pass by with two kittens. She wanted to give them away. One of them seemed to be a replica of Chinnu — green coloured eyes and same fur colour. All of us were happy. It was as if Chinnu was back with us.