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Hello Mouthshutters,
Hope you all had a very Happy Valentine's day!. Well, as I was going thro' my
old emails, found this one, the article that I wrote in the year 1999! I thought you
would be interested in reading it. I used to write a lot for the local News paper here.
This article was published in "The Telegram" newspaper. Here it goes.....
Feature Article -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A cat's tale of coping with change 10/13/99
By PRIYA THANGASAMY
She joined our household in 1988, when we were living in Saudi Arabia. We got her from our Canadian friend Mike Girwan, when he had to leave for Hong Kong to take up a new job.
Mike was looking for a good home to entrust his pet and when he learned we were eager cat lovers, he was very happy to leave her with us. She was just a few months old. From that time onwards, she has been with us, and is just like a member in the family. We named her Kitty and no doubt, she is the darling of our house.
Kitty has been through tough times. She saw the Gulf War with us. When we heard the siren warning us of Saddam Hussein's Scud missile attacks, Kitty - along with my husband, our two sons and myself - would rush in to take shelter in our bedroom. We all wore our gas masks and waited anxiously for the all-clear siren. By then, Kitty was secure inside a heavy blanket. Her co-operative behaviour during those fearful days was commendable.
I still remember the day she arrived and how she behaved. She jumped up and down many times, was a bit wild and a little hard to handle! She might have felt rather strange seeing our flat, after having been brought up in a big compound.
Kitty is fully black in colour with a small white patch on her belly, and has sparkling greenish yellow eyes. She captivated us all at first sight. I tell my son that when God created her, he might have run short of black paint at one point, because of the way she looks. In Saudi Arabia, Kitty liked to stay indoors always, and never dared to go out. She has always been a very domestic sort of cat. Whenever we went on vacation, we arranged with our Pakistani friend Basheer to take care of her in our absence.
When we decided to leave Saudi Arabia for good, we made arrangements for Kitty to be flown along with us to Canada. Every effort was taken to ensure that she was comfortable in the pet section.
Out to explore After her arrival in St. John's, her new abode, she slowly came out and enjoyed spending some time in the backyard. She had never before wanted to explore around the neighbourhood, but she began sneaking around.
She was quite thrilled to see the snow for the first time in her life. She admirably changed from a life in a very hot country to life in a very cold country.
On one fine day, we found our Kitty missing. It was 10 o'clock in the morning, and she didn't return following her usual sneak around the neighbourhood. We got alarmed and rang up the SPCA people, who took all the details of Kitty and asked for her photograph. We were all very upset, crying and praying for her safe return. We started searching for her everywhere and told our neighbour Mary about our missing child. It was 10 o'clock in the night then. Mary went back to her house and brought two flashlights to start searching near the bushes. Very sweet of my neighbour! She has always been like that.
As we were talking with Mary, in rushed our Kitty like lightning in the sky. What a relief. That was one of the happiest moments for us, to see our child back safe and sound. I thanked God through the tears in my eyes. Since this incident, we have been a bit careful when she wanders around.
Studies have proved that pets have a mysterious ability to heal emotional and physical ailments. I know this is true from my experience with Kitty. Everything is hers
There is an English proverb which says, "In a cat's eye, all things belong to cats." This is very true; in our house, everything is hers. She plays with things she likes, knocks everything down, kicks litter out of the box and pulls doors open. She likes being held and cuddled, especially by my husband.
Kitty is allergic to guests. When she hears the door bell ringing, she finds a place to hide immediately and reappears the next minute after the guests leave. Amazing, isn't it? My son, who is studying in New Brunswick, reminds me in his e-mails to feed her well before the guests arrive. Undoubtedly, she is the bond that glues our family together, with her unconditional love and we are very grateful to God for the gift of such a wonderful pet as Kitty. According to Albert Schweitzer, "There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life. They are music and cats." I totally agree with him.
Priya Thangasamy lives in St. John's.
