Skip to main content

Cats and Man

Kittu established his place at home too soon
The great philosopher Immanuel Kant said, "We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." I was seldom overwhelmed by love for animals. At best I would admire them from a distance. I loved watching certain animals for their ferocity and majesty. My heart would resonate with William Blake's admiration for the "fearful symmetry" of the tiger. I have often wondered with Blake whether the same creator made both the lamb and the tiger. But I could never bring myself to domesticate any animal. I never dreamt of keeping animal pets. 

 Nevertheless, a cat whom I named Kittu walked into my heart two years ago. He had been abandoned on the roadside near my house by someone who obviously had not cultivated the sensibility that the great philosopher suggested. Even before I realised what was happening, I fell in love with Kittu. When I had to be away from home overnight, I worried about Kittu's well-being. 
Kittu got closer and closer 

 Kittu is a great survivor. He learnt to navigate the rugged terrains dominated by rather cruel creatures called human beings. He escaped two attempts of poisoning: some neighbour who was probably annoyed by his frequent trespasses poisoned him. I got him the necessary medication both the times. Kittu was also attacked more than once with some sharp object. I nursed his wounds. 
Kittu could arrest my movement 

 Nowadays I make sure that Kittu is well-fed before I leave home for school and as soon as I return so that he won't have to sneak into any neighbour's kitchen. He gets his first dole of milk at 5.30 in the morning so that he will be hungry enough for his breakfast by the time I have to leave home. Kittu taught me to care for someone without any selfish motives. 

 Yesterday evening, as the sky was just turning dark, my attention was drawn by the loud cries of a small kitten from the same roadside where Kittu had been abandoned two years ago. This time it was a tiny creature that still required its mother's milk and warmth. As soon as it saw me, it came running to me, crying all the way. I gave it some milk. It didn't know how to drink it initially. It learnt slowly. But it couldn't drink much. It is learning now to drink milk. Hunger is a great teacher, I guess. 
Kittu is apparently not quite happy with the new arrival

 How could someone abandon a kitten so small? That question worries me. Couldn't the owner of this tiny creature wait for a few days more, until it would wean itself from its mother?

 Little kitten, who made thee? William Blake haunts me again. Did the same god who made human beings create you too?

Comments

  1. Deepa GopalOctober 27, 2019 at 2:02 PM

    Lovely post! You are good giving them home. I can now see when you mentioned that you see 'those poses' at home. I am always drawn towards animals except reptiles, a bit scared of them! As a kid I used to bring the stray cats and dogs home much to my amma's annoyance! Now I long to have one at home but it's quite not possible in this flat in Dubai!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 27, 2019 at 8:09 PM

      It's quite tough to keep pets if you live in a flat. My cats live in open air for most part of the day.

      I happened to watch the Malayalam movie Jellikettu this afternoon. It shows the savage side of man. My cats are benign creatures in comparison.

      Delete
  2. magiceyeOctober 28, 2019 at 6:13 AM

    Such a pleasure to read this post about the bonding between you and the cat/kitten. It is said that man adopts a dog but the cats adopt their caretaker. So you are the chosen one!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 28, 2019 at 7:08 AM

      I tend to believe that because the little creature follows me wherever i go.

      Delete
  3. Sunil DeepakOctober 29, 2019 at 9:56 AM

    Cats, dogs, ducks, rabbits ... a small opening in the heart is all they need and they know how to open it completely! I love both cats and dogs :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Yesterday

With students of Carmel Margaret, are you grieving / Over Goldengrove unleaving…? It was one of my first days in the eleventh class of Carmel Public School in Kerala, the last school of my teaching career. One girl, whose name was not Margaret, was in the class looking extremely melancholy. I had noticed her for a few days. I didn’t know how to put the matter over to her. I had already told the students that a smiling face was a rule in the English class. Since Margaret didn’t comply, I chose to drag Hopkins in. I replaced the name of Margaret with the girl’s actual name, however, when I quoted the lines. Margaret is a little girl in the Hopkins poem. Looking at autumn’s falling leaves, Margaret is saddened by the fact of life’s inevitable degeneration. The leaves have to turn yellow and eventually fall. And decay. The poet tells her that she has no choice but accept certain inevitabilities of life. Sorrow is our legacy, Margaret , I said to Margaret’s alter ego in my class. Let
25 comments
Read more

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
37 comments
Read more

William and the autumn of life

William and I were together only for one year, but our friendship has grown stronger year after year. The duration of that friendship is going to hit half a century. In the meanwhile both he and I changed many places. William was in Kerala when I was in Shillong. He was in Ireland when I was in Delhi. Now I am in Kerala where William is planning to migrate back. We were both novices of a religious congregation for one year at Kotagiri in Tamil Nadu. He was older than me by a few years and far more mature too. But we shared a cordial rapport which kept us in touch though we went in unexpected directions later. William’s conversations had the same pattern back then and now too. I’d call it Socratic. He questions a lot of things that you say with the intention of getting to the depth of the matter. The last conversation I had with him was when I decided to stop teaching. I mention this as an example of my conversations with William. “You are a good teacher. Why do you want to stop
15 comments
Read more

Thomas the Saint

AI-generated image His full name was Thomas Augustine. He was a Catholic priest. I knew him for a rather short period of my life. When I lived one whole year in the same institution with him, I was just 15 years old. I was a trainee for priesthood and he was many years my senior. We both lived in Don Bosco school and seminary at a place called Tirupattur in Tamil Nadu. He was in charge of a group of boys like me. Thomas had little to do with me directly as I was under the care of another in-charge. But his self-effacing ways and angelic smile drew me to him. He was a living saint all the years I knew him later. When he became a priest and was in charge of a section of a Don Bosco institution in Kochi, I met him again and his ways hadn’t changed an iota. You’d think he was a reincarnation of Jesus if you met him personally. You won’t be able to meet him anymore. He passed away a few years ago. One of the persons whom I won’t ever forget, can’t forget as long as the neurons continu
16 comments
Read more

Uriel the gargoyle-maker

Uriel was a multifaceted personality. He could stab with words, sting like Mike Tyson, and distort reality charmingly with the precision of a gifted cartoonist. He was sedate now and passionate the next moment. He could don the mantle of a carpenter, a plumber, or a mechanic, as situation demanded. He ran a school in Shillong in those days when I was there. That’s how I landed in the magic circle of his friendship. He made me a gargoyle. Gradually. When the refined side of human civilisation shaped magnificent castles and cathedrals, the darker side of the same homo sapiens gave birth to gargoyles. These grotesque shapes were erected on those beautiful works of architecture as if to prove that there is no human genius without a dash of perversion. In many parts of India, some such repulsive shape is placed in a prominent place of great edifices with the intention of warding off evil or, more commonly, the evil eye. I was Uriel’s gargoyle for warding off the evil eye from his sc
12 comments
Read more