Hello Everyone,

I have referred to my cats in my pervious blog - "Relationships - I", and thought might write about them more in details.
I have been with cats since my childhood, and have come across lots of varities. I have my childhood photos with them, and even my clothes, sweaters would have them on it. But then I was too small to understand them, used to I guess just play with them. Cats came to me very naturally, and I dont think I was scared of them. Even my grand parents, my uncles and auntys would have a cat at their home.
When I grew up and we shifted our place, I felt I should have a cat of my own, and so brought home a kitten, a tom cat. I never thought I should name it then, and so it grew up without a name. But that cat used to get up early by 6am in the morning, wake up my mom, ask for milk, and then sit by the radio, listen to the early morning bhajans and by 7am would be out of the house ! This went on for many years, and he was very punctual about this routine. He was like an alarm clock for my mom. He found a girl friend, and she too used to come to our house, and after some time she was with us, and gave birth to 3 kittens. Those were amazing, and I hardly know what happened to them. After a couple of years, when we moved to a far away place, I wished to take the cats alongwith, but parents said if you take the cat away then it dies in some time, and so I had to leave it there.
In the new place there was already a cat, she was beautiful with golden and white fur, and had a name too - Timmy. She was very soft cat, loving by nature, harmless one, and used to come to me when I used to call her by her name. Well I always wonder how do cats know their names, and thats still a surprise to me. Timmy had lot of fur, and soon she gave birth to 3 kittens, out of which my parents gave off 2 to a friend of theirs. I cried for 2 days, but couldnt get them back.
So I took lot of care of the 3rd one. My friends called her Dhavat as she used to run very fast. Dhavat did not have fur like her mom, but had white and golden fur like her mom. She was very bold and daring,. and used to scare away dogs too. While she was small she played with her mother's tail and played sort of hide and seek with her. It was very She gave birth to lots of kittens, dont remeber the count now, but our house was always busy with kittens, and I took it my responsibility to take care of all of them. I had made her a house, placed some warm old clothes for her to sit. She used to deliver the kittens there, and always wanted me to be there, as if she needed moral support. She was very graceful cat, and was a loving mom. She used to hold them in her hands like humans hold theirs and clean them off, despite the kittens trying to push her face away. She would take care of them from dogs when they started going out of the house. She had an unusual habit of going for a walk with my parernts in the night, which I have seen in only 2 of my cats.Once when she had gone out for a walk with my parents, she saw a dog chasing her little kitten. She sprang towards the dog, and bit him on his neck so badly that the dog started bleeding and ran off ! Apart from that she was a natural hunter, a good trainer, and always took care that her kittens knew how to survive on their own. She had a sofa reserved for her, and wouldnt like anyone sitting on her place. It was very hard for me when she died, and this part put a deep impact on me, as I had to burry her. Its been like this always, whenever a cat died, I had to burry it, had it died a natural death, or killed by dogs around, which included small kittens as well. But this has given me courage to face things like this when our dear ones pass away.
But Dhaavt gave birth to Manu, and while Dhavat was alive she was in the kind shelter of her mother. Manu too was very carning mom. But she was also intellegent. She knew that our milkman dropped the milk bags on the door step in the morning. So she used to wait for him and when he was gone, she used to peirce the bag with her nails and drink the milk. Ofcourse the rest of the milk would be spilled over and we had to buy new bag from the market. This went for a few days and after we realiesed this, we used to keep a bag at the door handle, and took care to get it in as soon as the milkman had rung the door bell. But she was smart enough for this as well. She used to wait till we got the milk in and put it on the kitchen table, and she used to do the same thing on the kitchen table. She was geneious !
By the time she had grown up we again were to shift to a near by locality. After shifting, the very same evening we could not  bear that our cat was not with us. So me and my mom went back to our place, and found Manu sitting by the window, scared of the hollow sound caused in the house by her meow as the house was empty. So we put her into a bag we had got and took her to the new place. Initially I was afraid that she would die or run away, so had kept all the doors and windows closed. But she setteled in the new house preety fast. She too gave birth to kittens, but only 3 of them, as she passed of in my absence due to food poisoning. My parents told me she was kind of looking for me, and was in my bed when she passed off. This too had a huge impact on my life, as she had gone with 2 beautiful kittens to take care of.(One of the kittens was killed by a tom cat when she was alive) They had just opened their eyes and had started to crawl out of their house. So it was a tough job feeding them, and cleaning them, and to bring them up. But cats naturally develop themselves once they are on their own, and start hunting for food even if there is no one to teach them. I named the 2 kittens - Kajal (not kajol) and Sonu. Kajal, when was small seemed to be chared black so named her that way. But now she has stripes on her like one on a python, totally different. Sonu was like her mother, white and golden, was very strong tom cat, but equally caring, a complete Gentleman. Sonu passed of couple of months back, he was 8yrs old. One distinct thing when their mother passed away - In my absence my day burried Manu, and while he was digging, Sonu was sitting there watching what all he was doing. It was very touching when parents told me this. He was in a sense true a brother, who took care of his sister and protected her. This behaviour was worth appreciating, and it was as if told by his mom to take care of his sister ! That was fantastic.

Well I can write a lot more about them, as I still have Kajal with me, who sleeps with me ( even after I got married hehehehe... ). Writing this blog has taken be down the memory lane of the emense affection and love I have got from my cats, the understanding that I developed with them and the world I have explored with them. It has really been a wonderful time, as they have taught me lots of lessons in life, and I cannot imagine my world without them. I will surely write about the next family ( of Kajal and Sonu) at some later time. Till then thanks for reading !