Healing with Hana & JC
Ok, ok, I’m sorry; I thought I’d write this blog once a week, but well, yeah, somehow I’m here 24 hrs. late. Actually, yesterday was MAHALAYA, and as a Bengali, it was really a special day (IFYKYK) - busy and tiring, so even though I wrote it down on my board that SATURDAY — MEDIUM BLOG, at the end of the day I was just a Zombie waiting to hit the grave, I mean bed.
Anyway, here I am today, ready to share how the Cat Distribution System Got to our Family. I still remember that day; it feels so new. And she is literally here, continuously climbing on my laptop even while I am writing this, haha
We did not mind. Actually, her mother, her siblings, her father, her grandparents, and all the others- were, and many still are, literally our neighbourhood cats. Within these few houses, they would roam, live, eat, play, take shelter and all. She was born in one of our neighbours’ yards; sometimes her mom would take her into our garden too in those first few weeks.
It was pretty normal for them to get on our fences, yards and gardens, even front porches, verandas or terraces, but generally they never got inside the houses.
Something that struck me was — like how her mother never even tried to come inside and was very attached to another home next to us; before her death, she actually visited our home a few times. One day we found her sitting on my parents’ bed without making any noise; we did not even know how long she had been there until my mom finished evening prayer and went inside.
One of our neighbours has, like, a small veranda-cum-porch type of area, and many cats take shelter there because they had a corner bed kinda setup there for the cats, all the strays. They had, like, a few pet cats before too. But within that timeframe, multiple times, she just came in without making a sound. We would find her already inside the house, or trying to get in, and then we would let her go.
It still made me wonder: Did she sense something?… or……just coincidence? Is it like how many said She chose you, but then I got this baby from nearby but not our house, so how? Why?
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Let me come to the one where I get this itsy-bitsy baby.
Actually, one, just, like literally one month ago, one afternoon, from like around afternoon, I started hearing this kitten crying, and then she would stop and cry again and again and again. But when the time hit, like nearly nightfall, I got curious; I even heard the same cry for 3 days at multiple times by then — but always thought the mom visited and the baby stopped.
Is there something wrong? … So I got up and went downstairs, out on the road, and tried to search here and there, looking out for the kitten, trying to spot her weak cry, which took me near that same veranda ( I described before); I kid you not, this baby just came out through the grills and literally climbed onto my chest, putting her head on my shoulder.
Well, by then it was inevitable; so I just took her home. I was so sure that my mom would scream, but I was helpless there; you know. I came back with her inside, called my parents and, against all their protests, I was already searching for things to set her place inside. Then suddenly our house help spoke up — ‘Oh, isn’t this the lost kitten? Yeah, yeah, her mother is dead. Probably by accident, who knows? The kids have seen the body; it has been a few days’.
That’s it, I ran upstairs. I took out things from one of my old cardboard boxes; I got out some of my old kantha, one of my mom’s old nightgowns, old fabric leftovers, newspaper and made her a bed.
I was on ChatGPT, on Google, everywhere —earching for anything I could find. I found an old bottle, put some warm water in it, folded a small piece of cloth over it, put it near her inside that box, gave her that James ball, and here we are now.
I was so hellbent on making sure she survived. My mom told me they would only allow this for one night and all; also, she was so tired and weak, without food, the way I prayed and cried, and that entire night was so long for me. Oh, that was something.
Later it actually struck me — she came to us on the night of Janmashtami.
And I guess with this, my writing comes to an end for today. See you all later. Wishing you well. Good night.
