I thanked her and kept the bowl on the dinner table. The lid was slightly open, and I let it be that way. 

A few minutes later, an echoing noise of two meows, resonating with one another, hit my ears. The noises got louder, and tired. As I took the lid off, I saw two pairs of eyes, gleaming at me like a reflection of the night sky. I picked up one of them, and the cat chose me.

That’s how I found my first cat. The second one did not have such a fairytale story, as I had picked him up from a drain while he was being drenched in the rain. Hungry for days, I remember how small he was as he stood on his plate of food and inhaled all of it in seconds. Five years on, they’ve become inseparable family members.

It’s funny when I hear people have their own presumptions about cats, but it’s hardly ever true. One of those assumptions is that cats like fish bones or milk. The myth comes from the historical context when cats used to be kept around harbours to prevent pests and rats on the ships. They would give the cats leftover fish, which would often include heads and bones, leading to the myth that they’re a safe diet for them. However, not only do cats intentionally avoid bones, they quite often choke on them too. It’s tragic that stray cats are forced to chew bones in search of any last remaining remnants of fish, and it’s even more saddening that they have no one to help if they choke on them.

Another such misperception is that cats are moody and do not love their humans back. People will often compare cats to dogs, and say how wonderful dogs are for being anxiously attached and overly dependent on humans for attention. 

But a cat is none of those things. The love of a cat isn’t something you inherently obtain, but it’s much more earned than that of a dog. How does one obtain that love? That I have never found the answer to. Despite that, every now and then my cat will hop onto the bed and sit on top of me in a loaf, and that’s exactly when I’ll know how much he loafs me (bad pun).

Speak as much as you want about the advent of modernity, but I refuse to praise any technology until it can make me talk to my cat. But even without that, my cat does speak to me, in gestures that only I can figure out. When she blocks my way and rolls over back and forth until she’s essentially kneading herself like dough, I know it’s time for the daily grooming session. 

Or when I’m having dinner and she’ll sit beside me at the smell of chicken, looking up at me with bubbly eyes, asking for some. While I do laud myself at how well I understand her, I really can’t tell when she’s sick and needs a vet visit.

Cats are incredible at hiding when they’re in pain. It’s important to observe changes in your cat’s behaviour and to seek expert advice. It’s outrageous how people try home remedies on these innocent souls, negligently giving them human medicines. I was scrolling through Instagram this one time, and I came across a post of an absolute muffin of a cat, but he looked sick and distressed. 

The caption said, “My cat had a fever, so I gave him paracetamol, now he’s not moving much.” Such poisoning cases are common, especially in our country. On the brighter side, that post was AI, so I was upset the whole day over nothing. Cute cat though.

Sometimes I imagine what life would be like if I were a cat. Lying on my back all day with my belly towards the heavens, stretching and turning after a blissful meal of fish and cat food. Then having that occasional walk to the litter, and leaving one for the human to clean. 

Amidst all of that would be a tinge of anxiety in the air, the anticipation of an attack at any moment. The fear of being picked up against my will by my human, as he calls me weird names and makes peculiar noises that make no sense to me.

But then I imagine another side to the story, where the cat experience includes none of these. You walk around the streets all day, and a random good-for-nothing, mouth-breathing pedestrian kicks you for no reason except that his own life is full of misery, to his own blame most of the time. As your search for food through garbage bags ends with fish bones, you would really wish someone somewhere would adopt you.

This World Cat Day, I urge everyone to be kind, not only to cats, but to all innocent animals around us, who simply want to coexist in this city. I would also encourage people to feed another cat today, adopt another dog, and water another plant, because when we give to nature, she gives us tenfold back.