Our Universe of Cats

How can something so small have an impact so great on our lives?

Our life with cats began in March 2012, with the arrival of Mia at home in Jakarta. This 4-month old frisky, wary little bundle soon became the centre of our universe, scratching her way through curtains, sofas and everything of visual value to create a fluffy warm space in our hearts. We lost her last month in Bangalore. Yes, international cat.

I wanted to write a blog post, then thought that the life of Mia, and the side stories of other cats that we encountered, deserve a page of their own. Wish I’d done it sooner. But…. no more tears… just reliving the happy memories of Mia being the queen of the jungle, princess-y with her demands, snooty with others of her species, and other amusing cat stories.

Souvik and I have had dogs as pets when we were younger. When we had this opportunity to adopt a kitten from a friend, we weren’t sure how easy or difficult it would be. It helped that Rofa, our housekeeper, declared that she would be fine to live with a cat but not a dog, and our decision was made.

The week that Joy and Ma were visiting, I made the trip to my friend’s house to bring home the little one. The first thing she did on being set down on the floor was to run off in fear, straight under the big cooking range, that had just enough space for a rat or a kitten to squeeze through. Yes, we’d dealt with a rat already. After the massive job of displacing the cooking range with all its tubing, and rescuing said kitten, we all seemed to settle down. We may have been discussing names for her, but when Ma suggested “Mia” it fit so well that we christened her already.

Once she had a name, Mia figured that she was the princess of the block, and set about designating her slave (Rofa), her beloved (Souvik), and the one-that-must-be-tolerated (Aarti).

Mia, the Hunter

Prowling in the ‘jungle’, snacking on dragonflies, digging for creepy crawlies.