Dear Ones, it is forty degrees centigrade in Delhi and it is hot. There is a heat shimmer and everyone is panting, humans and animals.

I think of myself as being a teacher of meditation, a counsellor, a healer and a psychologist. Note that I am saying think and not am. I have been humbled and by whom, my cats.

Mother Nature plays her games and tolerates no interference. I feed several cats and they are all from one family. Earlier I was feeding another family but they passed on. Now you must be wondering why this is happening. We have lots of un-neutered stray cats and dogs. Some have been abandoned and some are feral. One does not see this in the west but here they are wandering about with elan.

I love cats and have always had pets from childhood on. I stopped keeping cats as my last cat thought she was a dog as she was raised with dogs. She would accompany us on walks. She came to a sad end. She was killed by the stray dogs. It is a difficult task when one has fearless pets. So, I decided to feed mother cats, who were wandering about in our garden. Animals have a sixth sense; they know a bleeding heart. My dependents increased, fortunately I have a tolerant and kind husband who does not complain about the expense and caterwauling which goes on.

Always trouble in paradise

Now I come to the part which to me is unsolvable. The first rule for counselling is that the client should be enabled to look at the problem in a solvable manner. Initially I had made bunk beds for the cats from a stand which had shelves. Four could sleep on the shelves. I had lined the shelves with blankets and the first family would sleep comfortably in winter. I was very proud and I had given them names and they came when I called them. Well, there is always trouble in paradise…

A cat couple wandered into our garden. They had been abandoned and the male is a jet-black Bombay cat and the female is a Khao Manee (both imported from Thailand). Both beautiful and arrogant. My first family of cats was Indian, beautiful but nowhere like these two. We wondered who had abandoned them and my heart was breaking to see such highly pedigreed cats being abandoned.

They tried to come to my tiny balcony, which already had the bunk beds and there were terrible cat fights. I had to chuck the bunk beds and also the outcome was that this lot chased the original family away. Also in all this fracas, our fifteen-year-old dachshund passed away. He was a cat chaser and had maintained some order on the balcony as he would bark fiercely from behind closed doors and chase them away.

The dream of a cat commune

This couple whom I named Poppea and Shani established themselves as residents on my balcony and I was helpless. I fed them and they had kittens. I kept one of the kittens and she was named Lulu Lola. However, the dream of a cat commune was destroyed, when Lulu had kittens, Poppea tried to kill her and them. Well, we managed to maintain some law and order but it was out of our hands. I called a rescue service but they could not catch any of them.

We decided that Lulu would be our outside cat and that was it. However nature continues her cycle, Poppea has kittens again and she is hungry and angry. I would leave Meow for her and both Shani and Poppea would come together. Poor Lulu would come at a different time.

Today Lulu arrived and I put her brunch out and who should come but Poppea. She slapped Lulu. I do not know if you are aware that cats go for each other’s eyes, when they fight. Lulu has been hurt repeatedly, and I give her homeopathic medicines as I can only pat her. I cannot pick her up.

So where is there any maternal love in felines other than for their new born kittens. Once a cat reaches maturity, her mother abandons her and thinks of her as a rival. One will say that they are animals and they do not have the three gunas to distinguish and discriminate between good and evil.

Another interesting trait this family has is that they do not kill birds, mice or other tiny animals. They rely on garbage bins and humans keeping food out for them. They do not drink milk, only under duress. Each one of them has caught one animal, left it dead on my balcony to let me know that they are hunters.

I am just throwing my hands in despair and am asking Mother Goddess to resolve this perennial crisis. Why can they not live in harmony?

The cat who frightens the mice away is as good as the cat who eats them. – German Proverb

Last point, my balcony remains free of pigeons and therefore clean.

Aim Hrim Klim

Photo by James Park on Unsplash