Jan 23, 2022

New dawn... new day... And the return of a prodigal!!!


My life in the new year has been like the comic video of Jagathy Sreekumar that was doing the rounds during the first five days of 2022...


I have a planner, I have a habit checklist printed out on an excel sheet, I have reminders on my phone, but when it is time produce something creative, such as a post on this blog, I fall back down, slouch, and then mutter, "I'll do it tomorrow."

Which is not to say that I have been completely idle: being a homemaker and a busy freelance copy editor precludes that.

So let me tell you that one of our new year gifts was not quite apparent at all. As you know, the itinerant cat population at Karthi fluctuates almost everyday (Please check my posts with the label 'Cats' to learn about the ongoing saga). As the local cats know, there is always a bowl full of food left out on our porch, not in plain sight, mind you, but behind a jaali, where a cat in the know can access it if they are courageous enough to climb our front steps. Many a time we have surprised strange cats who, according to the level of phlegm in their nature, have either sped away or casually strolled away after flicking a disdainful tail at our inquiries. Our current, somewhat regular cats, are Pirate and her children from several births, Tukey, Topi, and their elder brother Ellesmere (my original name for this cat was actually Ella, until I discovered, ahem, that he wasn't a she, so I borrowed a name from the Outlander series!)

In the second week of January, we noted a new, disreputable-looking tom cat that came in Tukey's company. Tukey is a half-grown tom cat and we wondered how he could have established a relationship with a strange tom cat. One thing we noticed was that this new cat was not at all afraid of us. He shared Tukey's food and lay placidly on our door mat. We tried shooing him away as we felt he would challenge Ellesmere (who is a fluffy, cuddly, darling who barely tolerates our going silly over him). But the new yellow and white cat didn't scare easily. Two days later, Ani called me to the porch, 

"Amma, I think this is Akrami!" 

I reached the porch to see the strange cat ensconced in his lap, making no effort to get down. 

"Ani!!! You should know better than to cuddle strange cats like that!!!" 

"But that's what I meant, Amma! I think it is Akrami. He didn't object at all when I put him on my lap. Would a strange cat let me do that? And look at his front feet, see, those marks look like the injuries he had when the dog attacked him!"

I took a closer look at the cat. He was marked all over with scars of battle and had patches of skin showing through his fur at different places. Especially notable was a slanting slash over one eye that acted as a single eyebrow giving him a sardonic expression. 

"I don't think it is Akrami. He has the same coloring, but it can't be him!"

The child who was the closest among us to Akrami wasn't so easily convinced. This is a picture of them taken back in 2016 or so...

He took pictures of the cat on my phone and brought them to me. 

"Amma, let us check Akrami's old pictures."

I delved into the Pictures folder on my computer and found old photos and videos, and there it was! The markings were uncannily the same!! The yellow on the new cat was a bit darker and he had clicked pictures of the new cat from only one side. So I asked him to click more to make a thorough check...

 





As you can see, he was pretty thorough this time, clicked from almost all angles! So we presented our findings in the family council. The council decided that he would have to undergo a battery of tests to see if it was indeed the old Akrami. Till he passed those tests, DH gave him a provisional name: Akrala. The 'la' stood for 'look-alike'. 

First we administered the Pirate test. We observed closely when Pirate came. She slapped him within the first five minutes! Akrala thus passed test number one. 

We got hot ulli vada from our favorite tea shop. We gave him pieces from a lukewarm one at first. He was not very interested. DH put it in the microwave for 30 seconds and tried again. This time, the cat eagerly fell on the vada and finished off all the pieces! Test number two was passed with flying colors!

He started lording it on our doormat, curling up on it comfortably. That was his favorite pose in his heydays and when Raj came up the front steps, he didn't even open his eyes... Akrala passed yet another test!

He started demanding food from us first thing in the morning, and no cat has been as importunate as that from us except Akrami. Voila, yet another test passed.

Yesterday, I was making dosas when I took a fresh one to the porch and dropped a piece in front of him. He ate it up, looked up at me and mewed. Just like he used to do while asking me for food! I dropped more pieces while DH took care of making the next few dosas. In my heart, I changed Akrala to Akrami in that instant!

Today, while we had our breakfast after giving him his, Akrami was lying on the doormat, pretending that he was lord of all he surveyed. On a whim, I called out, "Akramiiii". He turned his head majestically towards us. I repeated it when he turned away, and he again looked back at us. 

Yet another confirmation came this evening. We had saved chicken scraps from lunch for him. Ani gave them to him and we heard him going, "Nomm nomm nomm"!!!!! The very enjoying sounds he used to make when we gave him his favorite food!!!

No doubt there will be more tests and more confirmations. He has changed a lot. He isn't as chatty as he used to be. He is tougher. Then he used to cringe and go away when he was beaten by Pirate, but now, he growls back at her, and she seems to be in awe of her sire, not impudent as of old. He drove off Ellesmere when he came to visit us two days ago, but we are not complaining. DH scolded Pirate when she batted him on the head today because she didn't want to share breakfast with him!!! Just like old times! 

To think that if Ani had not been observant like he is... we would have missed our New Year gift!!!

Today, I heard DH making up the story of where Akrami has been for the past two years. It started with "Having eaten two pieces of chicken on Christmas day in 2019 and chatting with my family, I decided to sleep it off on the undercarriage of a lorry." To summarize, the next time Akrami opened his eyes, he was in the border town of Punalur and it took him two years and occasional glimpses and near misses till he made his way back to our home! I must tell DH to write it down some time. Might be a bestseller!

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