ANOTHER ENCOUNTER

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

 

20/X/2025

 

Well-well-well, if you think you can’t be surprised, believe me you can be shocked. That is what happened when I opened the door to the rooftop. There were signs of a duel, a fight, some chase, a winner and a loser. There were no blood stains though.

 

The first thing you see are two troughs with floating plants. Feathers were strewn all over. I could make out that those belonged to a dove, as they come for a drink daily. Was it Lovey or Dovey? One of them could have been on someone’s plate.

 

I crossed my heart with a hope that the bird would have flown away with minor injuries. They know there is a cat with her litter on the roof. Cutie and her mom have made our roof their abode. There was no doubt in my mind that Mom was the culprit.

 

Imagine, you have an exclusive chair to rest. A safe environment, where no one disturbs you. Full safety and security as no one visits the roof from the neighbours side. Plus, you have enough drain pipes to hide. Your playground is vast. Four roofs conjoined, with obstacles and ‘toys’ to play around. What else can one dream of!

 

As usual, I was expecting Cutie doing monkey tricks like yesterday. What surprised me was the presence of ‘Beauty’. This kitten was quite different from both mom and cutie. It resembled a wild cat, the father we had met in the garden yesterday. A scary looking alpha male, dark grey, with spots and stripes, always on a lookout for ‘girl cats’.

 

Moment, I saw the kittens, I broke into a smile. Momentarily, I forgot about the shikar they could have done and got absorbed in their “Khel Khilari” programme which they were engrossed in intensely.

 

From somewhere, they had found a piece of cloth which became a toy. Turning and twisting, pawing, and gnawing, nibbling, and biting, rolling, and dragging, pushing, and pulling with all their strength to gain possession of the treasure they had found till one would get hold and the other would pounce to snatch it back.

 

All this while, Mom sat in a corner, at the mouth of the drain pipe watching over her siblings learn tricks of the trade and grow stronger. During their play, one of the kittens would feel hungry and rush to mom. Mom would lick it with all her motherly instinct and spread her belly, while the other one kept busy with the cloth. Roles would reverse and drinking mom’s milk and playing went in parallel.

 

Mom had her eyes fixed on me. She knew that I might be a potential danger which she was cautious about. I was armed with my camera and taking photos in the fading evening light of this trio, Mom, Cutie, and Beauty.

 

I got down to watering the pots and other chores of the garden. Within a blink of an eye, the family disappeared. Where did they go?

 

I continued with what I was doing and glanced over the ledge. There they were. They had found a drain which takes rain water down which had a little gap. Both “badmashes” by now had invented a new game of hide and seek.

 

Mom stood near the outdoor AC unit supervising them, lest they fall into a drain hole. She kept murmuring in her cat language to them continuously. She was warning them to get out of that drain and come out before she scolded them.

 

A purr and a mew were enough for the kittens to follow moms instructions and directions. I thought that these guys were on their way to our roof. By now, they know the layout well. They are familiar with every nook and cranny and can evaporate into thin air in a second.

 

Feeding on Mom’s milk, little play, a small fight, hiding behind the AC and pawing mom’s tail, pinning each other down, biting each other's tummies and their game continued.

 

Then Mom must have felt hungry. After having spent a lot of time with the naughty fellows, she walked over to our roof and went down on the other side. One aunty feeds her milk and another uncle feeds doodh-roti. She too needs energy to feed the ‘two monkeys’, if I may call them so.

 

Cutie and Beauty knew that mom had left. Probably, mom would have told them in a mew. Both of them went and sat next to the drain pipe, their favourite hiding place. This time when our eyes met, both of them quietly crawled in to stay there safe till mom returned.

 

Mom could not be that hungry if she had caught a dove, but you never know.

 

https://youtu.be/-W1-AdUTrJY

 

Was she able to kill a dove? I wonder!!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND & A HAPPY DIWALI

©® NOEL ELLIS