Misc. 107: Whatever the question, Meow is the answer !!

 

The population at home is burgeoning.

It all started with one female cat, called a Queen according to the Wikipedia. Our son, the one with the cat fancy, named it Cleopatra. True to her name, Cleo is quite attractive; she is  kaleidoscopic in colour with a black dominance.  It is not known what queendom our Cleo lost but unbeknownst to us, she soon found her Caesar alright. When and where remains  a mystery. Let’s keep it that way.

Their union resulted in a litter, of which one white kitten was quite outstanding. This one had a 90 deg. bend in her tail, a kind of inverted “L”. Mother called her L board. But this all white kitten was officially named Nefertiti – “Nefer” in short.

(Nefer showing off its “L” board tail)

In due time Nefer attracted Athos – an ever hungry tom cat ready for food any time. Chivalry is not one of his virtues. He moves from bowl to food laden bowl with gusto elbowing out all others and does not bother to discriminate berween genders.

Seeing the company expanding an unknown neighbour kindly let in a white and grey kitten with a beutiful white face, with grey arranged around it in perfect symmetry.

 

Yes, she is the one

After languishing out in the verandah for about a week or so, this kitten found favour in the Master’s eyes and was allowed inside the house. Soon she became the family pet and was named Jelly Bean.

Among the games that Jelly became adept at, the board game of Carrom aquired popularity during the COVID lock-down period. Jelly quickly figured out that the goal is to pocket coins and discarded the Striker as an unneccassary intermediary.

 

 

Jelly Bean also loved Christmas for reasons which have nothing at all to do with the birth of Jesus Christ. What she looks forward to is the Christmas tree. The baubles hanging on the tree are an unending source of fascination for her and she is not satisfied until the tree is completely denuded of decorations. Here she goes……….

 

 

 

In time, another kindly neigbour not of the feline farm in our compound and surreptiously added a kitten that was well nigh moribund –  suffereing as she was from a fracture, hernia and malnutrition.

In due time, this miserable creature also found favour in the Mater’s eyes; with great care and compassion, he nursed her back to health, a feat commended by the Vets who cooperated in the venture.

Here are the two privileged housecats lounging peacefully on the bed:

At times they also run around chasing each other, with  “Tom and Jerry” role interchanging every few minutes. But on the whole, ever since the arrival of Cocao – with her ready caprice and gymnastics – Jelly has positioned herself as a sober aunt and observes  Cocao’s antics with approval or distaste (it is difficult to tell).

I should also mention that in the aftermath of my COVID attack  months ago, Jelly took care to abide by all social distancing norms and kept herself uninfected:

It took a while for the creature to shed her COVID inhibitions and reestablish friendly relations:

 

In the meanwhile, little Cocao has been showing keen interest in literacy. At every opportunity she goes after a pen and sometimes gets hold of a piece of paper as well. The rumour is that possibly she authored a book or two in her previous birth !!

But in the present cycle, I’d say she has a lot of distance to cover before she can catch up with her Singapore cousin who is diligently preparing herself  for higher studies:

However, Cocao is not all pen and paper. She frolicks around like crazy. But personally I feel it would do her good if she engages in some structured exercise like this one:

 

One of the things I should mention is that none of these cats drink milk. So the ironic Tamil proverb இந்த பூனையும் பால் குடிக்குமோ ? is rendered null and void.  Rather, they are brought up on a diet of gourmet Indian food and exotic Italian food, some of it designed to keep them lean.:

 

 

Also, with various factors like rate of impregnation being  > rate of neutering  and the jungle law of survival of the fittest coming into play- there are some really mean dogs around – the cat population in the compound is always in a state of flux. While Pepper and Ginger are still surviving, several like Proton, Neutron and Electron did not make it.

Sad

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