Monday, the 13th
of January, was a big day for my babies.
The first ordeal
they had to endure was the clipping of their claws. Most of them, though
protesting, were quite docile enough. Eva, who is usually very high spirited
and believes that scratching and biting are the most effective ways of displaying
affection, was surprisingly unprotesting. Sam was the one who dug in his heels,
figuratively speaking, and refused to let me do the job. In the end, I failed
to clip the claws of his right hand...sorry, paw. That one was clipped later at
night after his father returned.
I paid the price
for this a little later during their second ordeal of the day. Deworming. Eva,
again, proved surprisingly pliable. It never ceases to amaze the father of my
kits how she never fights back whenever I clip her nails or give her any
medicine. He, on the other hand, even without doing any of those things, has
arms that resemble a lion tamer’s—evidence of how much Eva loves to play with
her dad! Anyway, back to deworming. Pippin, who is still quite huge despite the
weight-loss programme in progress, needed the maximum number of doses. It isn’t
easy to get a cat to swallow a pill even when you take it by surprise. And
after the first dose—administering which was difficult enough—it just got more
difficult. Sam didn’t give me much trouble except the scratch on my palm that
is still looking rather reddish. The power of the unclipped claws of the right
paw! Frodo and Merry were pretty cool with the thing though not really
appreciative either. Merry didn’t throw up the pills and that was almost a
Christmas miracle. Pippin did throw up after the last dose but the pill didn’t
come out, so all was well.
The biggest event
was the third one, an incident so massive that it has no precedent in their
entire lives. Ok, that’s exaggeration but given their reactions, I might be
forgiven. My brother, their uncle, came to visit with his family. My nephew
Ayush is now old enough to crawl about. He’s also standing up, holding on to
things. He was super-excited on seeing his ‘elder brothers’ and could not wait
to get a hold of them. They, on the other hand, were terrified. They ran about
like the extras on the sets of a zombie movie, hiding under tables, chairs and
beds and in the bathroom. Frodo went under the bed within moments of Ayush’s
arrival and emerged only during mealtimes as long as he was there. He came out
one time in between but my sister-in-law was trying to get Ayush to sleep in
that room at the time and as soon as he saw Ayush, Frodo again ducked for
cover.
Merry proved to
be the bravest of the lot. Though he too decided that discretion is the better
part of valour, he did approach Ayush a few times from a distance. He ran away
as soon as Ayush tried to reach back but it was heartening to see the two of
them trying to make friends. He was also very helpful, as befits his position
as Alpha of the family. My sister-in-law was heating water in the microwave to make
Ayush’s Cerelac, and when the water was hot, the microwave beeped. Merry
immediately called out to inform her, in case she, being a stranger to the
household equipment, had not understood!
Pippin wasn’t as
brave but he did stick around. He has always been a little more prone to
hissing than the others. We can’t get over the memory of him hissing at us when
he first came to our home—this tiny, 3-inch kitten hissing furiously whenever
we tried to touch him. It was hilarious! He still resorts to hissing now and
then when he is scared or startled. He once hissed at the vet’s assistant who
is actually quite good at handling all sorts of animals. The poor boy hadn’t
done anything wrong but Pip is just fed up of being stuck with needles after
all the times he has had to go to the vet and that time he decided to express
how he felt about it all. The boy was suitably intimidated and refused to
handle Pip any more that day. Nothing to despair though. Pip’s been to the vet
again since then and hasn’t hissed again. The assistant can still handle him with
ease. Anyway, to come back to the current matter, Pip hissed at Ayush twice—once
as soon as Ayush approached him the first time, and once when the three white
cats were sitting in the kitchen and Ayush slowly crawled up to them and
reached out to touch Pip who was sitting on the chair. I think Ayush did touch
Pip though we couldn’t see very clearly. Pip hissed—less loudly than the first
time—and fled into the bathroom which, incidentally, became a sort of safe haven
for the boys that day. Almost all of them, with the exception of Frodo, took
shelter there at some point of time or the other.
Sam fared worse
than Pippin, as the video attached with this post will show. When Pip ran into
the bathroom, where Ayush could not follow, he turned to Sam who had been
sitting under the table. Sam fled through the house with Ayush in hot pursuit.
I think I’ll let you see the rest for yourself!
The two most hilarious
event of the evening were when Ayush was trying to explore the boys’ feeding
bowls and they came hurrying out, only to disperse almost immediately, and when
Ayush discovered the boys’ water bucket. This bucket is a result of a bad habit
of my boys. They love to drink from buckets! Despite being provided clean
drinking water, they would invariably drink from the buckets in the bathroom. Fed
up and concerned, we stopped storing water in the bathroom buckets and bought a
steel one for their drinking water. This bucket sits in a corner of the living
room and the boys drink from it. Ayush was so excited to discover this bucket
that he splashed his hand in it and started wiping the floor with it! We couldn’t
stop laughing. Unfortunately there’s no video footage of this.
Anyway, it was
quite an exciting day for everyone. And quite a memorable one too. My
sister-in-law has become quite friendly with the boys. She stroked some or the
other—I can’t remember whom—and he was quite happy. My brother went to say
goodbye to Eva and she was thrilled. She almost even purred for him. He was
thrilled too! Hopefully, there will be more actual interaction between everyone
once Ayush is a little older and Eva and the boys become friends. God alone
knows when that will be but one lives in hope...
