The cat story

My love for the felines was known to all my school friends and to the neighborhood where we stayed in Dombivli. My school friends came home to play with my cats and to eat the tasty food made by my aaji. 

We stayed on the first floor and the flat had two big balconies from where the cats could easily go out, take the stairs and come back home when they wished to. 

We had three generations of cats that we housed over a period of 15 years. And all my family members, my grandparents and my parents and me considered them a part of our family. I sometimes called us the Velankars Cat Maternity Home as we had to take care of the kittens regularly, every 4-6 months. A few kittens died when the male cats came to kill them. We could save a few, gave away a few to friends and left a few to far off places from where they could not return. 

When my grandfather died in June 1996, after a brief illness, the cat didn't have food for three days and sat down near the bed where he spent his last days. My grandmother talked to the cat for hours together in the kitchen and the people always wondered what's aaji upto??

Then the building where we stayed was up for repairs and the cat just vanished with no traces. We looked for her everywhere, waited for her, but she didn't return. With a heavy heart, the cat chapter was closed for me and I moved out to a new phase in my life. 

Cut to August 2022, we had gone to South Tyrol, I accidentally discovered that my son equally loves cats and is crazy for them. There was a cat and her kittens in the house where we stayed and he was busy the entire time with them, talking to them, bringing them up from the cellar and taking them back to the mother. I opened up to him about the cat chapter that was closed years ago and we discussed a lot about their nature, breed, colours etc. We even bought books about the cats and read them together. 

He then started spotting cats in the neighborhood where we stayed in Stutensee, Karlsruhe. And when we shifted to a new house nearby, his joy knew no bounds as there were at least 4-5 cats in that neighborhood which frequented the house where we were staying. The previous owners used to look after their neighbours cats and after they left, the cats came to check us out. They found a few old stuff, but most of it was new, we were new, the smell of the house was different. 

The first one to come check us out was Karl. He and his brother Rüdiger (in the picture) often visited the previous owners and this fellow came on a sunny day to chill out in the sun on the terrace. He now sits in the small garden sometimes when he wants some peace and no disturbance from others.

Then one fine day, this fellow turned up at the door. We don't know whom he belongs to. He doesn't have a band on the neck. We don't know his name, but I decided to call him Coffee. 

He is very adorable, has blue eyes, is chubby and constantly keeps on moving his tail with no break. He constantly moved and investigated every nook and corner. Then when he was satisfied, he did the inauguration of the new carpet that we recently bought, by sitting on it. He slept for half an hour or so and then left as if he never came there in the first place. That's how Cats are, it's in their DNA. They think they are God and we hoomans their servants. 

My son wants to bring one of the cats (Karl, Rüdiger, Coffee) home every day, give them milk or buy cat food from the market and feed them or just talk to them or watch them. My husband doesn't really like cats and we often let the cats sneak in when he is not around or is busy working on some other floor. 

Spending some time with the cats is fine for me. But I wouldn't let them in my bed or house them overnight. That's very clear, even my son knows that. He has started thinking about what should he name the cat that he will have in future when he has his own house. 

And I find it very amusing that the love for cats has been passed on to the fourth generation now.