IIPTF PET FESTIVAL PUNE Vol 12 Issue No 10 October 2019 | Page 12

Pet of the Month
MEENU
- FURRENDS
PURR-EVER
By Gladys D’souza*
S
ome
blessings
transform
our lives for the best. 19th
November 2015 was the
luckiest day of my life. I remember
it very clearly. While returning home
from work my sister heard three
kittens crying near our building. She
felt sad for them and brought them
home. They were less than a week
old. Two of them were males and one
was a female. We decided to name
them Whitey, Blacky and Meenu
respectively.
We’ve had pet cats before but had
never taken care of kittens this
young without their mother. We
knew it would be challenging, but we
did our best and surrendered them in
God’s hand. We started feeding them
special formula milk through feeding
bottle. It was a learning process for us
but we still enjoyed it. We are so glad
to see that all three survived, and are
now hale and hearty cats.
Days turned to weeks and weeks to
months, time was fl ying and our
three musketeers were growing up
very fast. We were thrilled to see
them jump on the bed and run all
over the house chasing each other.
After the kittens reached the age of
three months, my friend wanted to
take two kittens for her daughters.
I felt very sad but took the tough
12
decision to give the boys away.
Meenu was missing her brothers and
so was I. We both hugged each other
and cried on our pillow till we fell
asleep. Since then Meenu has been
my best friend.
Meenu is a very playful cat but
she does not require costly toys
from shops. We can just give her a
crumpled piece of paper and she
is more than happy. She will jump
and play with it the whole day. She
loves to be fed by hand and if we
do not comply she rubs her body
against us till we oblige her. When
we created her Instagram account,
we expected only our close family
and friends to follow her. However,
we were pleasantly surprised with
the amount of love she received.
She now has above 11.5K followers. It
is nice to be connected with people
who are pet lovers. Now we have a
mini celebrity at our home and she
behaves like one too. She likes to
wear pretty accessories and pose
for pictures. Sometimes she throws
tantrums and also gets irritated like
a movie star. She has a charming and
playful aura around her.
Creature Companion | October 2019 • Vol. XII • Issue 10 • Noida
People often say that cats are mean
and indifferent but I beg to differ. She
loves me to the moon and shows it
by jumping on me and showering
me with purrs and kisses. She has
been my biggest support system
during the challenging times in my
life. She likes to cuddle at night and
sometimes I am pushed to the edge
of the bed. All in all, she is our small
bundle of joy, life and happiness. She
is truly a blessing and I am lucky to
have a friend like her in my life.
(With contributions from ME-
WOW furrriends-Selestine D’souza,
Prescilla D’Souza, Sheryl D’souza,
Shirley D’Souza and Diana D’souza.
You can follow Meenu on Instagram
@meenu_the_cat)
* Gladys D’souza is an ardent animal
lover. She loves knitting, gardening and
crochet work and is currently learning to
create compost from home waste.