Checking if My Cats Have Returned

My life was marching on its comfortable path every day when some kittens showed up in my balcony. I would give milk to their mother, try to touch the kittens only when the mom was not there and keep smiling. The kittens grew fast and now they run and play. Only one thing hasn’t changed their mission to not come near me and my desire to hold the soft fur balls. It’s been almost perfect but perfect doesn’t last long. Things seem so perfect at times but then again in this world only change is permanent.

One day I see one of the kittens missing and my heart pounds, where could she go? A variety of questions were colliding in my consciousness. Did someone steal her from me? Or did her mother naturally took her away? Of course, I tried what I could but the question remains. I was sad for a while but then life couldn’t care less about the missing kitten and other duties had to be done and thus the life moved on. As I got engaged in my daily chores the ache in my heart and the revolting thoughts subsided and things felt normal. In the evening I went to check again and she was back, I couldn’t care any more where she had gone. All I knew was that she is with me right now.

Things kept moving smoothly for a while, I increased my frequency of checks lest someones steal her again from me, I stopped taking her for granted. Now again on one chilly evening, all of my kittens are missing and I don’t know where to find them. Would they ever come back? I cannot say. Will they remember me and my love? I don’t know. Will they care for me the same way I did for them? None of these questions can be answered. I would now go to the spot where the kittens were in the hope that they might come back but that never happens.

This not just a story about my kittens. It about relationships. This is about two lovers who are now distant, this is about a child who misses his father and this is about the mother who wails for her lost child. This is all of us. We have all loved and lost but we all have hope. True love is hopeful! We know things can change, it’s never too late. We are both the person and the kitten in different stories. In some of them we are left alone, while in others we leave for reasons only we understand.

And I still keep checking if my cats have returned.