Pooffy
"I should like to "Sleep Like A Cat", with all the fur of time, with a tongue rough as flint, with the dry sex of fire; and after speaking to no one, stretch myself over the world, over roofs and landscapes, with a passionate desire to hunt the rats in my dreams."
The Cat Behind Sleep Like A Cat
Pooffy came into our lives during the rains in May 2006. He was my first pet. He was probably two months old and had been rescued from a flooded vegetable market by a friend’s mother. Having spent 2 weeks at their place before coming to ours, he was terribly scared probably feeling abandoned. Fort eh first few days, he would go hide in the farthest corner under beds and sofas. I would have to crawl on my tummy to get him out. He also had an upset tummy and strangely seemed to share my lactose intolerance.
But very soon he looked like this
Then this.
I think he had the most beautiful eyes! He loved to pose, to greet people at the door, to check all the shopping bags and literally everything that entered our door. He loved to sneak inside the closet and sleep in between clean soft garments. Whenever someone in the house would take ill he would insist on sleeping next to them till they were all better.
His favorite pastime was to sit on the marble sitting area in the balcony and look outside. He loved to mew at docile tolerant dogs in the neighborhood. He walked on a leash-a red one when outside. He hated friendly strangers but loved to walk in circles around people who later confessed to being terribly scared of cats! He also used to circle the inside of our house. He was a chicken lover. Boiled chicken was his weakness. A born hunter he would crouch under the window and try to catch sparrows. He had caught one sparrow (that flew away), countless lizards, roaches (he hated them after kitten hood and would just point them out), butterflies, grasshoppers and a squirrel (that was rescued by me later).
He loved to move his tush a little this way and that (like he was doing the twist) and chase me. He also used to play a game of tag where he would touch my leg with his paw and run expecting me to follow and then the other way round. He played with me and me alone! He would shake his tush the moment he would see me sitting up on my bed after waking up in the morning and would come bounding on to the bed to touch noses and wish me a good morning.
He would also wake me up on my mother’s insistence. At least he would try to. Half asleep I would hear mum say this:
“Poo. Go call XX. Its 10am and she is still sleeping.”
Then I would hear this loud mewing in my room. I would just turn over and sleep some more. Then I would hear a faint mewing. That would be Poo telling mum that he had tried and failed.
To which mum would say this:
“Poo don’t give up. Call her again after some time.” Believe you me he would! I swear!
Poo even traveled with us to Kerala, India. But he developed an infection inside his tail. It would break out into rashes and bleed sometimes. The vet managed to control it with creams and injections. But his tummy had always been a problem. From being a cat that hated to be cuddled and petted unless he had asked for it he would sit and want us to pet him. I remember petting him through the night as he lay beside me when his tail hurt.
On 19th December 2008, Pooffy passed away. He was just a little over 2 years old. He was buried in Karuna Kunj, West Bengal. I had written about it in my blog “Candid Talk” in a post titled “Karuna Kunj-A Home for Four Footed Friends”.
He died young but in some strange way he brought our family together. He made us laugh and cry. But mostly he taught us the lesson of love.
This song always reminds me of Poo..
