The Longest Wait- 1st Part

I am the youngest in our family. My eldest sister is married with a daughter. Our dad left us for his heavenly abode many years ago. My second elder sister and mother have stayed in a rented home for three years since 2018. We had to shift to a new place as our rental duration expired. The construction of our building, which went into redevelopment, got delayed for various reasons. As a result, we had to look for a second rental house. The month was May 2022, and we had to evacuate the place by the 1st of June. The landlord refused to extend the stay duration, as he was practical and not emotional like the three of us.

My faith in God has been like clouds in the sky.

At times, full on with a broad smile on my face. But not a trace, especially during testing times. Call it my ardent faith or belief, but I blamed it on God for all the mishaps in my life. Somehow, I forgot to thank Him for all that He gave me. I firmly believed He could do everything, being a Supreme power. Then why does he make me go through difficult times?

Back in September 2021, on the 5th, we saw a cat near the sliding glass door of our window. It climbed up from the playground nearby to our first floor and swayed its tail in anticipation. My elder sister, the animal lover I am, immediately opened the door ajar to let me see it. My mom and I were not in favour of taking it inside. But she developed a quick affection for the cat and opened the window door a little more, feeding it with milk. I told her not to let her in. Already struggling with the grief of losing our pet dog, I refrained from getting close to any other animal.

Despite a no from my mom and myself,

She couldn’t hide the fondness she felt for the cat. She let her in. We soon discovered that it was pregnant. Mom was against keeping her for long as she might give birth to kittens in our house. Somehow, animals find our home safe and joyful. We have had the opportunity to serve animals in our home several times. But I ended up getting hurt and later spending days in grievance when the animals were no longer with us. I avoided keeping yet another pet to prevent the same hurt. Mom knows our sisters’ selfless nature and our concern for animals.

She wanted to avoid us getting hurt, but it was predestined that the cat would lay kittens in our home. On 10th October, she gave birth to four kittens. My sister and I were happy; needless to say, my sister was more overwhelmed. But later, it became difficult to manage as the kittens started growing up.

My sister used to go to work.

I had left my job the same year and was at home during those days. Ultimately, I was responsible for looking after the cat and her kittens. Within two months, the cat was pregnant again. It used to be with the kittens in the daytime and went out at night. As it was a stray cat, she couldn’t stay inside the house. And soon the day arrived. She delivered once again, now seven in number. I was dumbstruck. Terrified to the core, I started wondering how I would manage. Somehow, days passed, and our home was divided into two parts. One part for the first set of kittens. Other, for the next set.

Unwillingly, I started taking care of the cats, which are eleven in number now. My sister took care of them, too, but as she was working, more responsibility fell on me. I used to get annoyed at times, as taking care of eleven cats was becoming difficult with each passing day. I limited myself to just feeding them and making sure they were not hurt. Strictly avoiding getting emotionally involved, I took care of the cats unwillingly.

The cat used to climb to the ground and roam in the open.

These eleven kittens saw their mother but never tried to follow her. We thought they might go behind her in nature, but this never happened. They watched her and the others sitting in the window nook, but surprisingly, they never left our home.

In the group of eleven cats,

one named Divine caught my eye. I had chosen this name for him. His actions were unique. I used to admire how he cleaned himself after eating food. Not only this, but his pattern of mewing was also unique and sweet. I felt he was different from others. When other kittens used to play, he preferred sleeping in one corner of our kitchen. All loved playing with the toys I brought for them. But he used to enjoy his own company, playing with a small toy he found. When others ate, he used to sleep. Sometimes, I even used to call him angrily to have his food with others.

Nurturing eleven cats was taking a toll on my health. I fed them in intervals and made sure their places were clean. My life revolved only around these eleven cats. Though I used to get irritated at times, Divine brought a smile to my face every time I looked at him.

Among the eleven cats, Divine was timid.

He used to get scared more than others when visitors came. He went missing once when some repair work was going on. I was frightened he had gone somewhere without our notice. I searched for him everywhere and then went down our building corridors. But failed to find him. My tears were uncontrollable. Though mom and sister were sure he would hide in our house, I had lost my mind. Later, he was found hiding under our washing machine. My heart fell in its place. This happened not once but twice. He was terrified of visitors and would panic and try to hide in the safest place.

When we started looking for another house for rent in May 2022, the seven kittens were a few months old, and the four elder kittens were 8 months old. We needed a home where pets were allowed. After a vigorous hunt, my sister searched for a house around 200 km away from the present one. During the process of packing, the cat noticed that something was going to change. Animals have a sixth sense, truly.

I felt it should come with us.

But my sister and mom were against this as we would snatch away her original natural place. So, we decided to take only the eleven kittens with us. In spite of suggestions from my eldest sister and mother that it would be difficult to manage and that we better leave them in a fish market, my sister and I had made up our minds.

But during shifting, the kittens got extremely scared, especially Divine. Some hid themselves, and others we took care of. Our house was on 1st floor, and the window in the room they were kept had grills. So we were sure that all eleven kittens were safe. The noise of the shifting helpers and the dumping of the enormous boxes disturbed the kittens even more. After everything was shifted, we shifted the kittens by car in batches. Seven kittens came ahead with me. My elder sister was going to get the remaining four, including Divine.

She called me and informed me they were reluctant to get in the cage due to the fear and trauma they were already going through. Somehow, she managed to get them with the help of my niece. Finally, all eleven kittens were safely shifted to the new house.

We shifted on 1st June to our new rental place. On arrival, a new challenge awaited us.

To be continued/-

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https://blogbyhema.com/2021/04/22/they-were-passionately-in-love/