Nala Chronicles

Nala- My soul companion, that dream cuddly catchild with big eyes that expresses complete
surrender and affection looking in to my eyes, and melts my heart.

 Never in million years I imagined that I would have a cat as a pet in my house. Divya is a fanatic of the book series Warriors. Its basically a soap opera of cats and cat clans. She got in to it deeply , though personally I do not like or think its worth it as a good series, but its her interest. This added to the fact that the after school care person she went to when she was in elementary school owned couple of cats attracted Divya towards felines. When Sandhya and Divya were at the stage asking for pets, Sandhya was fixated about adopting a dog while Divya dropped a bomb saying she wants only cats. This conflict helped me for a while to postpone adopting any kind of pet.

I grew up with dogs. Im familiar with them including the "bites", which I was comfortable with but cats...it was never considered a pet to begin with the way I was brought up. I even told Divya that they are mean , will not even look in to your eyes like dogs does. So there was absolutely zero chance of getting a cat if at all we get a pet. This was going on for a quite some years.

 During the summer of 6th grade holidays Divya was constantly pestering me about getting an instagram account as her peers were on it..talk about peer pressure. I was desperately looking for some distraction and out of the blue I just threw in this deal, that if I get a cat she should not ask for social media until she is in 11th grade. She accepted the deal with open arms..because she is smart. She just have to wait for 2-3 years to get a social media account but she still gets a cat which would live for another 10-12 years to come and she gets both. For me I just overcame the pestering on daily basis. I was just thinking for that moment. I took her to the SPCA that weekend to keep up the promise. I really did not think in to this too much.

While all this is going on there was only one sentence that came out of Mani nonchalantly "I have nothing to do with the cat or any animal coming in to this house" ..he was like that lizard on the wall just watching us. We spent like 2-3 hrs checking out all the cats. She went in to a cat room named Tatiana. She sat down on the floor at the same time the cat woke up from its nap , walked slowly and smoothly got in to Divyas lap and started grooming. Divya fell in love immediately. Tatiana became Nala At that point I had no clue about cats and its behaviors. The next day one of our friend who also owns cat gave me a book on cats. Quiet interesting. I was apprehensive for the first few weeks to even touch her..restricting Divya not to let Nala on her bed, or sofa , put away the litter and food in the garage. It was about the same time for Nala to get used the new place and get comfortable and secured and me to even make myself touch and stroke her. Cats are unique, different from dogs the way they express their affection. I had to learn about cats.

As months went by given I work from home I got to know her. She does have her own characteristics. Need to understand the stark difference between dog which is dependent on humans where as cats are independent, they come to humans only if they need something. Nala too was a perfect example of the quote "Dogs comes when you call them, but cats take the message and will get back to you". Given all this cats still have their own way with humans.

I feel they are child like but dogs I would compare to a hyper energetic demanding child Vs cats low demanding affectionate child. Nala has grown closer to me which Divya vehemently disagrees though. When ever I come in to the house Nala would come towards me, brush on me, circle me and lie down for me to pet her..few mts thats all then she would go to take care of her own business. But having a pet does surely calm me down..it infuses a warm feeling having Nala, talking to her and stroking her and just watching her sleep.

And lastly adding that the one "lizard on the wall" person is the one who enters the house literally calling out for Nala out of anyone at home. The first thing Mani does even before removing his shoes is to play with Nala with a piece of paper. Now Im not very sure if I will get a dog ..