Mother on a Mission - Jungle Justice - Ethiopian Journey - Blog Post no - 66

Blackie with Pranav 

Panther’s anguish was unbearable. She was trying to talk. She was struggling to tell us something that was uncomprehendable. It was a mother’s desperate call for help.

Finally, the skies closed with an almighty last minute extra downpour. It was late evening. Outside the situation was bleak. Almost one foot of water in our garden. The path way to the main gate was slushy. Sodden grass lay flattened. It was slippery and walking was difficult. Oblivious of the wet conditions, Panther shot out and was gone in a flash. She was a Mother on a Mission -  To trace and bring home her tiny kittens.

Our family somehow made it to the road. The muddy roads were soaking wet. BDU’s English Professor was also out. I explained what had happened. Initially he took it as a joke but seeing our serious and earnest expressions, he swung into action. He called out ‘giligeli, giligeli (kitten in Amharic). He was also making clicking noises. The omnipresent urchin (small children) army of our Kable moved in to help. 

Soon our street was full of ‘giligeli’ battle cries. Some children did not know what they were searching for. But it was fun time for them. They walloped in the muddy water and some even collapsed into the small ponds and threw the muddy water at each other. It was as if R.K.Narayan’s Malgudi had magically transpired itself in front of us!

One kid put his hand into a small pond and gave out an all mighty yell. All the other searchers converged to the spot. Rapid Amharic conversation followed. I could decipher what they were saying. ‘The kid felt something soft in the wet mud’.  

We watched the kid grope around in the dark water. Our faces were ashen with anxiety and grief. He dramatically drew out something brown. We heaved a collective sigh of relief. It was a plastic bag full of kitchen waste that was callously dumped on the road.    

Patchy with Sahithi 

After a lengthy search we returned home with a heavy heart. The African night sneaked on us as sudden as ever. There was silence all around. Sometime later Panther dragged herself in. She was a pathetic sight to behold. Wet and shivering. She lost her will to live. 

Padma dried her. The usually lively Panther was now passive and resigned to her fate. That night’s dinner was sombre and faces were drawn.  It was as if there was a death in the family. 

Around 10:00 p.m. that night, Panther woke up with a screech that would have made a banshee proud. It was as loud as a siren. It shook us out of our slumber. Panther was scratching the kitchen door that exited to the backyard that had the Injira house. 

The minute we opened the kitchen door, Panther rushed to the Injira house and set up yodeling. Not knowing what was happening, we brought a torch and tried searching. There was nothing in the Injira house. Is it possible that the sudden loss of her kittens had made Panther mad? 

Panther was beside herself. In desperation she tried scaling the Injira wall. “There, there” Pranav screamed his lungs out. We shined the torch up to the roof. Sitting on the roof beam and shivering uncontrollably were two tiny, sorry looking and wet to the bone, kittens. 

It was a mystery how they got there. (Next day morning on inspection we found a tiny hole in the bamboo structure through which the kittens must have wiggled out and wiggled in). Somehow with lot of difficulty we could get the scared kittens off the roof beam.

The kittens were laid on our drawing room floor, shivering and mewing piteously. But Panther was not having any of it. She launched on the kittens and gave them an all mighty thrashing. There was no stopping her. She closed her front paws, slapped the kittens and boxed them to submission.

It was a punishment of a life time. Panther let out her pent up fury and it was an awesome display of jungle justice. ‘How dare you? How dare you? THOU SHALL NOT REPEAT IT AGAIN”. The message was driven in with brutal force.

After initial shock, the kittens whimpered into submission. They lay on their backs and took the punishment. After the brutal retribution, Panther snuggled them. She cleaned them thoroughly and sometimes the kittens cried out loud as her tongue would probe and take out something much to their discomfort.

Panther then fed them. Exhausted and frightened out of their wits after the wild adventure the kittens slept. Till date it is a mystery as to how the kittens survived the torrential rain and came back home safely.

After that day, the kittens were scared stiff of their laid back, gentle mother. No matter what they were doing or how naughty they were, one mew and a stern look from Panther would get them back to her. Humble, tail swooshing and submissive. Such was Panther’s power over her kittens.