“Raining Cats and Dogs” – Ethiopian Journey – Blog Post – No 65.

Sahithi and behind her and beyond the window is the Injira House

Panther was a kitten when she adopted us. Within months we noticed changes in her. She became moody and was quite touchy. She would mop in the corners and continuously lick herself. She would tear off pieces of paper or any soft material and prepare a bed of sorts. She was often restless and had a forlorn look.

I googled and found out the reason. Panther was pregnant! Quite innocently I broke the news in front of the children. From then on our life became full of tension. Both the children were on pins and needles. They would stalk Panther around hoping that she would simply cough up cute kittens into their hands.

Worst of all, they wanted to tie Panther. Padma and me vetoed the idea. We did not want to shackle a free spirit. One day returning from the university, I saw both Pranav and Sahithi in the garden. They were crestfallen and close to tears. “what happened?” I asked “Panther simply disappeared” Sahithi replied with a heavy heart.

“So what” I said jauntily “she would return”. “Sometimes, I wonder how you became a teacher!” Sahithi said with clenched teeth “what if she delivers the kittens and comes back, all alone”. Even after a lengthy explanation both the kids were convinced that we did not take proper care of their    pet  and that she left us in a huff. I told them that Panther had gone to visit her relatives and that she would be back.

It was only after Panther returned that calm was restored in our house. The D (delivery) Day arrived in the night. The next day morning Padma woke me up rudely! I got up and goggled at her. “wake up, wake up, they have arrived”.

This commotion woke the children too. They shot off like mis-guided missiles. Immediately, I heard huge wails and sobbing sounds. I ran to the drawing room. I did not know what was happening! “Look Nanna” said Sahithi “Panther delivered rats instead of kittens! That too very ugly rats” she was totally devastated. 

New Born Kittens 

Looking on was the proud mother, Panther. She was unperturbed. Nestling against her side and feeding were three tiniest kittens! Almost the size of our little finger and they looked like small rats! Later when the children were not around, we picked up the kittens and examined them. They were very small and their eyes were tightly shut. If a finger was put near their mouth they would try to suck on it, greedily.

We told the skeptical children that they were kittens and not rats. I told them that they would grow slowly and that the eyes would open after twenty-one days. The waiting was too much for Sahithi. She would patiently sit near Panther and wait. But the kittens were oblivious of her presence. They would feed or sleep. Sahithi named the kittens. They became Snowy, Snowball and Snowbell. But a tragedy was about to strike!

Their eyes opened and they started to play with themselves. Sahithi would pick them up but they were too young. They always wanted to be with their mother. Pranav’s birthday was coming up and we put the kittens in a cardboard box and placed them at one end of the garden.

The next few days we were busy with Pranav’s birthday party planning, preparation of the items and the actual party itself. The party was a huge success.

The day after Pranav’s birthday, Sahithi broke the bad news. She told us that her kittens had simply disappeared into thin air. We searched the entire Kable. They were not to be found. Strangely Panther was not perturbed. She would disappear too and come back after some time.

Much later, we saw the three hooligans quite frequently. They would come and bask themselves on our garden wall. But they were completely wild and would run away if approached. It was a huge let-down for Sahithi. May be that was the reason why, Panther did not get them back to our house. She was astute enough to understand that her first litter was not very people friendly!

The cycle repeated six months later and Panther was expecting again.  This time we prepared a cardboard box bed and lined it with grass. Padma put some food and water. Panther was curious about her new nursing quarters. She went inside the box and settled down.

She gave out a series of purrs which sounded very much like ‘thank you, thank you, thank you’. Just to be safe, the cardboard box was placed in the Injira house. Our Injira house was a ramshackle hut made with bamboo. As Injira making was laborious and involved cooking Injira on wood based fire, most Ethiopians made Injira houses away in their backyard.

This time around Panther delivered two kittens. One was golden brown, with white and black patches and she became Patchy and the second kitten was black but had shades of grey. She became blackie. This set of kittens were friendly.

They were handled by us from a very young age and were totally fearless. They thought of us as their family. But they were incredibly naughty. They would hide behind doors and jump on unsuspecting passers-by. They would chase a ball continuously. They would happily sit in our lap and purr like a malfunctioning alarm clock that badly needed greasing! They would pounce on the broom stick and worry it just like Panther worries the rats.

Their naughtiness was about to get them into a great mess. One day the sky darkened. The atmosphere became ominously quiet. There was no wind blowing and it looked as if something sinister was about to happen.

The skies opened up. Rain in Ethiopia was fierce. We were enveloped with deafening noises. The power went off and it was eerie. We did not know from where the strange sounds were coming. Heavy down pour with hail stones! We opened the drawing room door and saw hailstones as big as table tennis balls. They were piling up in our garden.

Cutting through the sound were the Panther’s plaintive wails. We went into the Injira room. Panther was frantic with worry. There was anguish in her eyes. We peeped into the cardboard box. THE KITTENS HAD DISAPPEARED. I dare not look at Sahithi. It was heart breaking. To lose one set of kittens was bad enough but losing the second set was sheer disaster.

“Gosh” said a thunderstruck Padma “It’s raining cats and dogs”. It was as if she shot me with a shot gun. “ussssh” I said motioning her to be quiet. We were in a mess with two very irritated females (Panther and Sahithi) and Padma is referring to “Cats and dogs raining”. Both Panther and Sahithi would not take it lightly. They might even think that any minute, their precious kittens would come down as rain!

The next three hours were filled with anxiety and hope. Panther was beside herself. It was unbearable even to look at her. She would dash around the house and mew loudly. She wanted to venture outside but it was raining heavily.

(What happened next ?????, Can lightning strike at a place twice ????????, Would Sahithi and Panther be heartbroken twice over ?????????, read about it in my next blog post).