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STRANGER GINGER! (DAY 3)

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SANGEETHA KAMATH

 


Huh?! What is Mama Yani up to? She's tottering on a step ladder and fumbling with a large suitcase! Carrreee….ful, Mama! There! Phew! She's safe and sound…and so is the suitcase!

What a large fella he is! Meow? Are we going on a holiday? Don't tell me we're relocating again…I'm going to howl so miserably that they won't let us step into an aircraft again, I'm telling you! Meow! Meowwww!! Heck! I'm being ignored again!

But Mama Yani’s face has lighted up like a million bulbs as she's talking nineteen to the dozen on the phone in the midst of her packing. 

Waaaaiitt a meowing minute! Why isn't she packing my things in the same suitcase? She has crammed my blankie, my bowl and my favourite plushie in a tote bag??? Me, a descendant of the cats of the royal lineage of Egypt treated like a peasant! What has the world come to? 

Finally! The conversation has ended and I'm being stashed into my carrier. We're leaving right away? What the meow! All my questions are left unanswered or maybe I couldn't care less to understand the human unintelligible lingo. Drat! Wish I could roll my eyes.

After trundling on the road with jerks and bumps we've arrived! Where are we? Mama Yani hands me over to a lady and again they're chatting nineteen to the dozen as she drops my tote bag on the counter, plants a kiss on my forehead and…leaves! 

Ohhhh nooo no noooo! Come back right meowwwww meowwww mammmaaa …

I'm carried away to another room with plenty of stacked roomy cages. With a whole coterie of cats, one in each glaring at my entry! 

Where am I?? 

My next door roomie tells me to stop whining and be a man…ermm a cat! It's a pet hostel, a temporary care center when your hooman has to go away. They might take me back home if I behave here, she tells me with a mischievous gleam in her eyes…

Oh what the meow! Now I have to deal with a snarky ‘queen’ for the next couple of days! Ginger cats spell trouble, they said! It's always a Ginger cat who lands you in a fix, they said! Rotten luck! I have to keep my distance from this elite princess. She looks well groomed and has a studded collar around her dainty neck. A pendant has her name embossed on it. 

As I try to read, she tosses her head and raises a well manicured paw..’FIFI’ she offers. 

I try to roll my eyes but I can only manage to give her a side eye. 

“I'm taken, Fifi! The love of my life, Gigi awaits me patiently. Don't you go getting any ideas.”

“Whoa! Stranger!…Ideas? About you? Meowwwwwhahaaha. Fat chance! “

The lady at the counter has returned with my bedtime stuff. My blanket and duck plushie. Oh how familiar they seem, my only comfort in this unusual place. It has a faint scent of home and Mama Yani. I will cuddle this plushie to sleep, although I'll miss snuggling into Mama Yani’s warm quilt.

I hope this Ginger goes to sleep too. 

****

I wake up with a start and look at my unfamiliar surroundings. Then it all comes  back to me…pet hostel. It is unusually quiet. Ginger is gone! So are the other cats! Terror! Panic….howwwwwllll….

A lady rushes in and in a pleasant voice cooes, “Hello Uttamuuu…you're up? It's breakfast time and later I'll take you to to the playpen where the rest of the cats are.”

So that's where Ginger is, the insufferable Fifi! 

****

Fifi seems to be in a very frisky mood and is running vigorously on the exercise wheel. Creme de la creme lifestyle…huhhh! 

As I look around, I spot a Calico looking lost. I walk over in the hopes of making friends and he immediately runs for cover ! My kinda fella! 

I remember the day I scooted and crouched under a sofa when Sangeetha wanted to facetime me. No amount of coaxing would bring me out. I see myself in the Calico now. Ah well! All is forgiven, I guess.

As I turn my attention to the only familiar and extrovert cat in the room, she catches my eye and gives me slow blinks! I walk away haughtily and swat at a punching bag. Worn, I clamber to the highest post on the cat tower and scan from the aerial view.

After a while, Fifi seems to be searching for me and has a puzzled look on her face. 

It's time for some fun. 

Crouching low, I see her craning her neck outside the door, behind the door, under the seats, between the toys…and giving up goes to a scratching post to de-stress. 

I leap on the ground near her. Caught unawares, she jumps back on all fours, hissing in a reflex. She comes charging at me in a mad rage and in the scuffle, her pendant breaks off from the collar. 

The caretakers rush to separate us and with an earful send us into detention back into our cages. But not before I manage to retrieve the pendant in my mouth. No more playtime for us for the rest of the day.

Back in the room, Fifi looks disgruntled and curls up to snooze under her quilt. Apologetic for my typical feline behavior ( should I be?) I meow softly at her, followed by a purr. But Fifi doesn't stir. She's in deep sleep in a trice. The exercise really does one good.

I still had her pendant which I tuck under my plushie and try to get some shut eye too. When I wake up, the cage next to me is empty again! Fifi is gone…to the playpen I hope. She's not to be blamed…she doesn't deserve the detention…It's good that her punishment is over.

But wait a meowing second! All her stuff is gone too. My heart leapt into my mouth…FIFI…FIFIIII…**sob sob…*

Upon hearing my caterwauling, all the caretakers come rushing in. I paw at the cage next door and they look at me sadly, stroking my head and fur.

Fifi’s owners had come to take her back since her stay here was over. 

The next two days were totally miserable before Mama Yani came back for me. I actually missed the ‘uppity ginger princess’. Did she miss me too? I realized with a sinking heart that I hadn't told her my name, neither had she asked me…! 

Well, I have her memento with me, a keepsake in the fond memory of FIFI...

***

Somewhere, a Ginger too was missing a grey Tabby cat whose name she hadn't asked, but had overheard the caretakers calling out to him as Uttamuuu...

©️ Sangeetha Kamath

Pic Courtesy: Narayani V Manapadam 


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