How to keep pets and cleanliness

My Dictator

French writer Anatole France was of the opinion that “Until one has loved an animal a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” I would have laughed at him until a few months back.

Animals were a strict no for me until a kitten walked into my life quite unexpectedly. I used to associate animals with filth and I was fastidious about cleanliness inside and around my home. Maggie was even more fastidious than me. So when Kittu came along we naturally kept him outside the house. We fed him regularly but he meant nothing more to us than an animal that had to be kept off our personal limits.

Eventually, however, we started buying the food which he liked keeping aside our own tastes. It was then that Maggie and I started realising that Kittu had become an integral part of our meagre family. He soon found his place inside the house. Within no time he became the master of the house. Both Maggie and I wondered how we learnt to tolerate his omnipresent dictatorship.

We could never drive him out simply because he had stolen our hearts. Instead of driving him out, I searched for ways of keeping the house clean while having a cat as a pet. I learnt to clean my sofas and chairs by sprinkling baking soda liberally on them and vacuum cleaning the furniture thoroughly after half an hour. I learnt to observe Kittu’s eating habits and to buy the food he loves. I visited the supermarket just for his sake. My friend in the village considers me mad. He doesn’t understand what the cat means to me.

The cat has taught me the meaning of love. My friend loves dogs because dogs are faithful. Dogs will die for you. Kittu enjoys all the attention I lavish on him and then he vanishes entirely for hours to return only when he needs me again for his food. Unlike a dog, he is not at all obedient. He doesn’t even let me clean him when he returns home. He has his own cleaning mechanism which he doesn’t like to be meddled with. He is a little dictator.

He is my alter ego, Maggie says. That’s quite true too. But that’s not why I love him. I love him because he has stirred certain depths of my soul. He has taught me the nuances of love. He has taught me to love him in spite of what he is. He may love me in return or he may not: that’s entirely his choice, I have no say in that whatever. And I love giving that liberty to him.

I learn to love by giving that liberty to the other person to be him-/herself. Love makes no demands. No conditions. Love gives. That’s all. Love endures the rest.

Is it possible to do the same with human beings? It is easy to deal with pets provided you are willing to spare enough time to clean up the mess they make occasionally. What about human beings?  Honestly, I have done the same with my students and got fantastic rewards. Human beings love you much more than cats and dogs when you let them be themselves. Help them be themselves. That is love: letting the other be, be him-/herself. Love is the process of awakening the soul: your own and the loved one’s.

PS. Written in response to a comment to my last post: Love