Chhotku potku.

I am missing Chhotu....today is her birthday. Chhotu was my kitty(she obviously grew up, and mothered many a kitties herself), she will always be a baby to me. Chhotu died in 2006, sometime after April, in Calcutta. I saw her last in April that year, when we went visiting. My brother had also come down, and God was she pampered! He used to sing whenever he saw her..."fat cat gant(bengali word) sat on the mat!"...ha ha and she would just purrrrrr away.
I remember the morning we were leaving, it was pretty early, I was very sad as Chhotu was nowhere around, and I just wanted to see her once. Miraculously from somewhere she emerged and started purring at my feet. It was hard to say goodbye, but I was happy that I could atleast see her before leaving.
Now everybody around me seems to think what's the big deal!!! It is actually a big deal for me...I have never lived my life without animals until now(which is pretty hard i confess). I am completely myself when I am with animals(and ofcourse when I am drunk). There's a special bond, a kind of Dr. Dolittle thing, only I don't hear them speak. But i understand them, I feel closer to them than fellow human beings, I swear. Most of the times I wish I was with animals than humans!
Coming back to Chhotu....I remember the day she was born. Her mom was in labor, I cleared up a shelf of my bookcase, and put her there telling her that she and her kitties will be just fine, turned off the light and came out of the room. Everything fell silent after half an hour, I peeped in with a lot of apprehension, and lo! there was one single kitty...white with black and brown spots. A single kitty is a rare happening as u know, usually there's a litter. So in my own little way I believed that she was meant for me. That was way back in 1997....July 9th....she was a cancerian:). One day she just fell off from the shelf...a little woolly ball of fur, I picked her up and put her next to me on the bed(some people will surely flinch at this point)....and she became my baby, as if her mom understood that too...she became pretty negligent in her motherly duties and the responsibility of feeding Chhotu with a dropper was largely left to me. Oh how I used to look forward to those moments. I had just got a job then and my parents had to go to Bombay for a month visiting my brother, I was asked to take leave for a month by my family as the very idea of me living alone in big bad Calcutta shocked them then. I didn't even mutter a word to my boss about a leave and told my family that I was not allowed to take one this early in the job...the very thought of leaving Chhotu, who was just a few months old then at the mercy of her negligent birth mom scared me. And so I stayed back....and what a great time we had....(I actually met my husband then, and poor guy, all he got to hear all the time was Chhotu did this today and that today).
I miss you baby....I am sure you are doing just great in the happy hunting grounds.