JOIN USPitty was the most adorable kitten in the world whom we found wandering about near our house. Within seconds, she had charmed her way into all our hearts. Since she seemed to be abandoned/ orphaned, we allowed her to adopt us.
We already had two older kittens named Nitty and Gritty so we named the new arrival Pitty, to rhyme. We enco-uraged the cats to stay out in the garden and the car shed but Pitty was determi-ned to enter the house. Whenever anyone entered or left the house, she would zip in at top speed like a little rocket.
Once, I thought I had cleverly shut the door before she could get in when I began to hear scratching noises behind me. I burst out laughing when I saw her busily sharpening her claws on the doormat behind me. “Grab every opportunity and don’t lose any time over it,” seemed to be her mantra.
The day we found her, I put out food for Nitty and Gritty in their little tray and put some separately for her in a saucer but she smartly joined the others at their tray! Their amazed expressions were priceless. They couldn’t believe the temerity of the little pipsqueak. Imagine a tiny thing like her not at all scared of them strange bigger cats! But Pitty was fearless and was not at all intimidated by anyone bigger than her.
Unfortunately, this innocent fearlessness was her undoing. One evening, when the kittens were playing in the garden, a strange tomcat turned up to court Nitty and Gritty’s mother. The older kittens ran away to safety leaving Pitty to face the brute alone. Tomcats instinctively attack and/or kill kittens on sight. But poor Pitty, completely unaware of the tom’s evil intentions, stayed back cheerfully, ready to make friends. He attacked her savagely and though we rushed to her rescue and got her treated by the vet, the poor thing succumbed to her injuries after a few days.
During her short stay with us she had a happy time – plenty of good food and lots of cosy places to curl up in. But while she enjoyed the plenty, she also took life’s hard knocks in her stride. Losing her mother at a tender age, she learned to be independent the hard way. Not wasting time rueing the past, she enjoyed her present to the fullest.
She loved everyone and everyone loved her; she would follow people around chatting with them and taking great interest in what they were doing. Thus, she made friends with all the members of the family, including the gardener and the maid. Even my husband, a confirmed dog lover, discovered that there was space in his heart for this particular cat. Whenever he settled down in his favourite garden chair to peruse the paper, Pitty would appear from nowhere and climb on to his lap, making herself comfortable.
In a short span of two months, she (and we, along with her) learnt about love as well as hate, trust as well as betrayal, life as well as death.