A Cat and Dog Story

Last week I was in Coimbatore for a couple of days visiting my cousins. Since I was anyway there, I decided to pay a visit to a relative, a 71-year old lady who is living alone in Coimbatore.  I set out with my cousin Arun a.k.a  Anu (his pet name as known to the close family). 

Now, this lady is an animal lover. You visit her any time and you’re sure to find a battalion of cats and dogs keeping her company. Not so much of an animal lover myself, I make it a point to notify her in advance of my visits so that she can keep all her canines , felines and bovines (if any ) away. But Anu on the other hand likes animals and had once adopted two kittens of this aunty when he visited her with his wife.  Even this time, his wife asked him to get her a couple of kittens assuming that an endless supply of kittens was sure to be found with aunty.

On reaching there, the two of us were greeted happily by the septuagenarian. “Welcome Surya and  Arun ! So happy to see you after a long time”

After the initial pleasantries were exchanged, Anu’s first question to her was “ Aunty, no cats or dogs now? We would love to see them “ This he said, not just because he was fond of cats and dogs, but because he knew very well that I don’t get along too well with the animate world save with a flimsy few from the human species and with elephants from a distance. I like dogs on pictures and in movies, but that hardly counts to find me a place among animal lovers.

At this not-so-innocent probing from Anu, aunty’s eyes lit up and she said elatedly :    “Yes, yes, Arun. I have 1 dog and 2 cats at the moment. Normally they are here with me, but since  you were coming, I shut the doggie away in the adjacent room. Surya is not so fond of pets…eh?” She asked me with a hopeful smile which I reciprocated with equal warmth of course, but not the hope. 

She, nevertheless continued the stories of her many encounters and episodes with cats and dogs and she told us how she became the guardian of this orphaned dog who soon produced a litter of 8 pups. 

 

As much as she wanted to, she could not keep all the 8+1 dogs herself and hence decided to keep only one of the pups and leave the other 7 and their mom ( I didn’t bother to ask about the dad) at a charity home for dogs run by a lady. Soon she gave us a mini-biography of this benevolent soul and her 500 odd dogs.

 

I gave her a patient hearing all through her narrative. With all my apathy for animals, I do possess a heart sensitive enough to appreciate people who take care of homeless animals. If I was being civil and listening attentively with all the necessary “Oh !"s and “Really ?"s ,Anu was stealing the show with more appropriate questions thus proving to be a more active listener.

Suddenly aunty’s eyes lit up again and she nodded her head enthusiastically and said: “seeking attention…hear that?  They are so intelligent.” Initially, I didn’t understand what she was talking about, but soon realized that she was drawing our attention to the soft thudding sound emanating from the room her dog was locked in. 

My thoughts turned philosophical for a while. : How lucky the dogs are !! They make a thudding sound on the floor and they are certified “Intelligent”. Here I have two post graduate degrees and still battling my way to the first I of INTELLIGENCE. 

She continued her dog stories describing how good-looking her dog is : “fully white save for 2 symmetrical honey-brown stripes on either side. And oh… the eyes..Surya ….you must see...... like lined with Kajal… so pretty”. 

My pasted smile well on place, I kept nodding. Little did she know that I was not one to relent an inch even if she said her dog looks like Katrina Kaif….well, maybe I would if and only if it looked like George Clooney.

She then described one of her late cats who she said was pure white with 2 black coloured  perfect rings of 2.5cm radius on either side. She added philosophically : “nature has it’s own compasses, dividers and set square..am I not right Arun?” she asked to the skilled tool-engineer which my cousin happens to be. Anu was quick to consent . “ Yes..yes…aunty... you’ re absolutely right”, he said while I was raking my brains on where Nature might be using her setsquare.

Now comes the sensational part of the story. This pretty kitty of hers was apparently bitten to death by another dog which belonged to her maid. Aunty hypothesized that this was an act of premeditated, cold blooded felicide which the maid had planned and executed out of revenge on her mistress for not taking her dog to the charity home.  For a moment I was lost for words. Only punctuation marks came up in my mind.

????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????????  “ OMG … !!! What Imagination !! Or do such things actually happen?”. I just hope and pray that Ekta Kapoor does not come to hear of this , else we’ll have another soap opera aired for the next 10-15 years with cats and dogs as protagonists.

Caught in the intricate saga, my mind was finding it difficult to match pace when amidst the violently growing thudding sound (super intelligent dog, I must say), Anu came up with a relatively harmless question. “Aunty, how old is your dog?”

To this aunty responded reprimandingly, : “Shut up Anu,…… I am going to kick you.”

Both of us were astounded at this, not knowing what was happening. “Why this sudden change of demeanour?”, I wondered as instant flashes of the “Vidamaattai..??” scene from Manchithrataazhu crossed my mind. (For the non-malayalee readers of mine, Manichitrataazhu is the Malayalam movie, the  original and best version of the psycho-thriller which was later remade into many other languages including Chandramukhi in Tamil and Bhool Bhulaiyaa in Hindi).

In an instant Nagavally turned back to Ganga mode and continued with a smile… “She is very naughty and very impatient at times..” Then turned to the room containing the intelligent dog, and said lovingly “ Anu Darling, behave yourself…don’t be too naughty. You know we have guests.”

So that was what it was. The beautiful, intelligent dog of hers was named Anu. “Ha ! What could be better ..” I thought as I stole a glance at my cousin Anu, who at that instant looked like a cross between Jagathy Sreekumar, Johnny Lever and Jim Carrey   ( I know that is a biological impossibility, but that’s how he looked) and I was failing miserably in my attempts to maintain a Meena Kumari countenance.

Aunty then continued: “ Oh ! You were asking her age Arun, she is 1 year old now. Let Surya be here Arun. Do you want to go and see Anu?”

I saw this as my chance and hastily said with as much a neutral expression as I could manage: “Yes..yes…why not? I think you must go and see Anu.” To which Anu said “Ahem… may be next time aunty, It’s getting late."  "We must be heading back", he added taking a momentary glance at me.

I agreed happily as I was finding it hard to contain my laughter and was dying to pull his leg, once outside the house. As we bade our byes to aunty, she was overjoyed to see the sudden change in my attitude to dogs as I took my time going to Anu’s ( the dog’s I mean) room and cooed and petted her (from outside of course). “ Bbye.. Anu dear…. Chweetie doggy Anu…..” , I said louder than was necessary for the dog to hear   …much to the exasperation of her namesake standing outside. 

Outside the house, I saw that the Jagathy-Johnny-Jim had suddenly turned into Clint Eastwood- a totally expressionless man of few words who refused to even look at me all through the drive home while I kept smiling to myself. But the Clintism he could adorn only until we reached home where I poured out all the events of the visit to eager listeners which included his sister, pregnant wife and mother-in-law. They had a great laugh listening to how intelligent naughty Anu almost got kicked, and he had no choice but join the rest of us.

Picture Courtesy:

1.http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/r/reliance.asp

2.http://trackingteckels.com/2013/04/28/scouts-d-litter-arrives/

3.http://www.aeromental.net/2010/01/12/walking-famous-cartoon-dogs/