Reminiscences 12 - The Feline Instincts Poem by Unnikrishnan Sivasankara Menon

Fast Forward to 2020.



We built a house in my ancestral village shortly before my retirement. By that time our daughter had completed her B.Tech. and secured a job in Chennai's IT District. Chennai is a metropolis in India and the capital of the State of Tamilnad. This meant that, though the house was largely her design, she hardly had an occasion to live in it for more than a week at a time. So it was a blessing in disguise, when COVID-19 forced her employer to shut the office and allow the employees to work from home. After a few months' waiting, she traveled home to the village, albeit with the apprehension that her employer would call her back to Chennai soon. But, it was over a year before the Company decided to ask her back in Chennai.

Her position in the Company involved four or five meetings daily. Now, all of them were ‘on-line'. As everyone was working from home, meetings became interesting. They started to glean information about the families of each other. Quite often, some family members came on the screen to say 'hello'. Children were shy and just smiled. There were others who said 'hello' with a 'meow' or a 'bow-wow'. Her boss' Persian cat majestically looked at the screen with a grave countenance. Pets, we had none.

Just a few weeks into her life at home, one evening, while still at work, our daughter thought she heard a 'meow'. She dashed out to search where it came from, with me in tow. In the dusk, I could see a pair of glistening eyes at the far end of the backyard where a curry-vep tree stood. Her mother brought a little milk for it. She left the cup a little away from it and hastened back. One step at a time, the kitten approached the cup and lapped up its entire contents in no time. She felt that it was still hungry and brought another helping of milk. When the kitten was still licking at the empty cup, it started to drizzle. It did not run away now, when our daughter picked it up and brought it home. We named him 'Brownie', in deference to his colour. Soon he became a member of our household.

After about six months or so, in another wet evening, came the second guest. This one was a female kitten in a gray and white coat. She did not hesitate like Brownie, but dashed at the milk as soon as our daughter placed the cup before her. We called her Cherry. We arranged a second bed in Brownie‘s room and both were happy with the arrangements. Soon, she and Brownie became thick friends. We had some very pleasant mornings watching Cherry playing with Brownie's tail. They were very close to our daughter as it was she who usually fed them and put them to bed. They would pester her with a chorus of 'meow' when they were hungry and knock her on her legs when they were happy and content. They would sit beside her silently when she was at work or in a meeting.

One day, our daughter was feeling a light persistent head ache. While she was feeding her new pets, I noticed that Brownie preferred to stay away from her. Cherry had developed a mild cough and refused food. That night Brownie refused to sleep in their room. So we had to arrange another bedroom for him.

Cherry's illness aggravated by the next day as she had developed a stomach upset too. A lockdown was in force due to the second wave of COVID-19. When I described the state of Cherry over phone, the veterinary doctor expressed his concern that she might be infected with COVID-19.

'Do cats get infected too? ' I was skeptical.

The vet answered that a lion in the Hyderabad Zoo (India, the capital of the state Telengana) had died of COVID-19 a few days ago, though Cherry's was the first such case coming his way.

Now, we decided to undergo PCR test though none of us had any symptoms, but for my daughter's headache. She was tested positive. The doctor (not the Vet) prescribed her some antibiotics, paracetamol and vitamins. In three or four days, Cherry had recovered and our daughter's headache disappeared too. And surprisingly, Brownie was friends with her and Cherry again.

In one of the following mornings a news item in The Hindu daily attracted my attention. 'Dogs can detect COVID-19 infection with 90% accuracy'. Interesting, I thought.

All on a sudden, it dawned upon me: Perhaps cats can do that even better.