By virtue, nature has created a protective shield for everything existing on this earth. Defence is the basic reaction and instinct of all living beings. It could be from any situation or act we tend to protect ourselves from one another. At times we say certain things to defend ourselves, not realising the effect it has on others.
This thought hadn’t crossed my mind so frequently until this incident happened. It was not frightening, though, but least expected. It was much unexpected as my house is located in a busy street and hasn’t had such an incident from the time of our stay.
It was a breezy Sunday evening. The weather was cloudy and the rain god was in full swing to bless the mother earth. I was enjoying a hot cup of tea with the television on and merrily yapping. The window drapes were flowing along with the breeze.
Just at that moment, I felt there was something sitting on the window pane and trying to make its way inside the house. Before I could realize what happened, there was this mother cat clutching her newborn and jumped into the room it was in a hurry to hide her newborn and was running haywire inside the house. I was dumbstruck and didn’t know how to react. I could not even move from my place. In the desperation of hiding her newborn, the kitten slipped from her and was left to itself.It looked so helpless. Before we could move and pick the kitten, the mother cat came back, picked her little one and hid under the cot. All that we could hear is the meow.
We tried all means to get them out of that hidden place. But in vain. It would just not budge from her place. She was being protective in her manner and we were being defensive for ourselves. When all our efforts went in vain, we had to block all the chances of escape and get an external person who could tactfully gets the mother and the child out. This required enormous effort, patience, time, and courage.Courage, as we did not know what was going on the mother’s mind and her counter reaction towards the other person.
Finally, after the entire incident happened, we had a sigh of relief. We confirmed that the mother and the child were together. We thought it was all over. We were kind of so paranoid, that any meow would cause a sign of alarm.
The Dawn gave rise to another brighter day, but to our dismay, things started becoming more and more difficult. The mother cat did not forget the place. She was right there at daybreak looking for her little one. She kept running around the house, climbing the windows, banging each window pane and door, wanting to come in. We at the other end were covering ourselves.
This incident repeated for a few more days. At one point of time, we thought of letting her in to find her so-called little one (who does not exist in the house), it did not work out. In all those days, when she was looking for her baby, we could feel her desperation, a sense of fright, insecurity (of not finding her baby) and a sense of lost treasure. We were helpless.
The house had become a closed fort. No means of air or sunlight to creep in. We had to find a solution and open those closed doors. One fine day, we decided to cage ourselves. We were finally at peace.
Even in this sense of security, the thought of the mother and the baby still lingers on. We still do not know what happened. Not sure if she was united, or may be the memory of the hidden place got erased or she just left in despair…Maybe her search is still on. We are clueless…Or could be we moved on and so has SHE.
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