Furry feline friends

Cats are cute, loving, clean, cuddlesome, arrogant, exasperating, ungrateful... If you ever had a cat as a pet, you will get the gist of what I am trying to say. We have two cats who have adopted us. Their mother just dropped them off in our backyard.

We hesitate to call them our pets — like we never chose them but they are slowly but surely becoming an intricate part of our lives. Goldu and Mottu saunter into our kitchen and meow away till they are fed. They're very fussy and choosy. One eats only soft food — only salmon flavour, please! You put chicken and he sniffs at it and walks away. He needs to be petted, sweet-talked, stroked — after which he eats making it very clear that he is doing you a favour.

The other wants both hard food and soft food. If you do not respond within the blink of his eye, his tail vigorously quivers, which we researched to find out meant extreme irritation. Huh! The cheek, or should I say, the tail!

They have this terrible habit of climbing the balconies of neighbours, and acting like they don't know how to get down. They meow and meow. Once late at night, we had to apologetically wake up the neighbours. We reached the balcony only for this chap to jump down and make his way back home while we were left at the balcony!

They love basking in the sun, eyes closed in deep mediation, ears responding to every sound. You would almost think they are solar-powered. And they sleep and sleep; when not sleeping, they are deep-cleaning themselves.

And just when we were getting used to this routine, they brought in their friend. She danced and pranced around them. We named her Bindu. We since discovered that Bindu is a he, the name stuck. And Bindu often walks right into our drawing room and lolls on the carpet as if he owns the place.

But all is forgiven when you venture out to walk and they greet you, rub against your feet and accompany you in your walk. They play around and have a very one-sided conversation. Adorable. Till they come next, meow for food, sniff at it and walk away. Huh! You want to spank their furry bottoms. Till they are not seen for a few hours and you worry; the family joins in the search, and then you spy them sitting on a ledge calmly watching you with deep disinterest.

Exasperating yet adorable friends.