March 07, 2009

The morning sun shone brightly, giving no sign of what was to come. I heard somebody open the door. I started moving towards it along with my five children. I knew it would be my mistress; it was breakfast time after all. Waiting anxiously to be fed with milk I stood close to the door.

Suddenly, the door swung open with a loud bang, and it wasn’t my mistress who opened it. I saw two men holding large sacks in their hands moving towards me. Petrified, I meowed loudly. My children ran to hide themselves under the cupboards lying in the room. The sack was thrown on me but I managed to rush out of the room. By now, the realisation dawned on me and I knew these people were out to catch my children and me. Scared out of my wits, I ran out of my so-called abode and rushed towards the roof of the room. The two beastly men were in the store now, trying to capture my children.

Tears welled up in my eyes as I thought about their fate. Crying for help, I jumped from one roof to the other calling other cats, begging for support. But no one came. I stood at the roof of my room, mourning and calling for my mistress but it was futile.

I had spent four years of my life as a wild cat. Then one day when I gave birth to five kittens in this room owned by humans I started being fed milk by them. They showed affection towards my children and me. Lady luck was with me. My life transformed. The cloth of darkness had been lifted the day these kittens were born and brightness filled my life.

Happily I moved around in the house, without worrying about being torched by anyone. For the first time in these four years I had trusted human beings. I would walk out of the room where I lived, leaving my children behind with the humans without any tension of them getting hurt. The girl who had started feeding my children and me had taught me that human beings weren’t cruel but loving creatures.

However, today this attack by the two men, and the sudden betrayal by the girl, shattered my trust. My soul was wounded. I cried for my children and blamed myself entirely for this situation. I shouldn’t have trusted these barbarous two-legged creatures. But how could they play with my emotions? How could they betray me like this? If they had to do so why did they come in my life? I had a lot of questions but no answers. My heart felt heavy like a rock. I felt choked.

Suddenly, my attention diverted to the two humans who came out of the room, which was once my abode with a sack in their hand. I could hear the despondent meows of my children coming from inside them. I paced after the men. I followed them till they went out of the house and threw the sack on the footpath. Once again I was homeless but this time with five children to look after. Once again I had the life of a wild cat. Walking towards my kittens my heart cried. Fate had played a painful trick with me.

“Sharla,” I could hear my mistress calling my name. I turned around as she said, “goodbye”. I didn’t meow. My silent eyes told her everything.