Anecdotes-3

Asantha U. Attanayake

Semblance

We found a kitten by the road near our house. Dear god she was so tiny, barely fitted half of my husband’s palm. She must have just opened her eyes. And bang! On the road! God knows how anyone made up their mind to dump her like that!?! Going by the way we, the so-called Sinhalese Buddhists, are, this was not surprising at all, according to my husband. Yep. We listen to dhamma preaching 24×7 and get up to pirith chanting with loud speakers slapping on our ears in the morning all the while trapped in the Cave Age not knowing how to treat an innocent animal.

The little thing! We took her in. The doctor said she couldn’t be more than 2 weeks. She is black with a mixture of shades of orange and dark brown. They are called tortoise-shell. The black-brown-orange blend itself is a deadly magnet. The power of it is enough to draw some from continents to islands. Irresistible!

Well, our Thingy-Bingy is a disciplined cutie-pie. You know who she takes after? She doesn’t pee or poop everywhere. She has a sand tray for the night as we cannot take a chance to put her out with our yard patrol battalion of big cats, tree monitors and mongoose on duty 24×7. She is barely a mouthful to a mongoose. During the day, when she has nature calls, she runs to the door, meows and we know to open the door and run behand her to the corner of the compound.

Now 4-5 months into the history, we are in a fix thinking that one fine day she will decide to make us grandparents and drop 4-5 fur balls at our feet saying “Mommy, Daddy, thank you for taking care of me so well and here’s a gift for you!” (By the way, she calls us Mommy Daddy and not Amma and Appachchi as she is half American, half Sri Lankan.) Well, if that happens, it’s not going to be easy, I am telling you. Do you know how we travelled across the country pre-Corona times with her? She mostly travelled on my lap and sometimes in her cot, which was on the back seat with my husband carefully fastening the seat belt. She is a Rahula and we don’t need 4-5 more Rahulas to add more bonds to the suffering of this mortal human beingness.

Well, days went by with her adding more colour to our life. Once she had a tummy issue: constipation. We gave her fluid food and more water to no avail. She too tried hard but couldn’t do the job. She was obviously feeling very uncomfortable. We knew what she was going through and were very sad. It was the second bad day. With her still having the difficulty, we were contemplating on taking her to the doctor. However, in the evening, suddenly, she ran to the door and meowed in a peculiar way. With a start, my husband jumped to the door and opened it! She ran out. My husband followed suit. I waited at the door. Poor little darling! Only if she could do it this time at least! I was praying standing near the door when, from nowhere, my husband started giving a commentary!

“Yes, Thingy-Bingy is trying hard. She is making every attempt to do this and it seems it’s not easy for her. However, she is still trying. Yes! Yes! She is making a very successful effort this time. Yes, keep going little one! There, there! Finally! She is giving birth to a Sri Lankan! To a Sinhalese Buddhist, to be exact! Look at the colour! Even that is exactly the same!

Shit!