Aunty D and her family had gone away for a few days and when they got back there was a surprise waiting for them. K had a room with a large window near his desk. Now this window had a large sill on the outside which extended on to the tiled roof of the deck below. K loved to keep his windows open, so, Aunty D had put up a wire netting to keep insects out.
When K when to his room and opened the curtains, he was greeted by a tiny mew. He looked again and there he saw in the crook between the net and a half open window was a fat white cat and three tiny kittens.
“Ma,” called K. “Come here quickly.” Aunty D came hurrying up and stopped when she saw the kittens.
“Oh my!” she said. “That window is stuck, and it is a nice cosy nook for those kittens. Looks like you have company when you study. You need to be really careful and not scare them off. No loud noises. No loud music Let them feel safe here.” And off she went to put out a saucer of water and some food for the mother cat.
And so, over the days the little kittens and the mother cat got used to K. In fact, the mother cat would often leave the kittens and go away when K was at his desk. As the kittens grew, they started to scamper about and play. One day K gently placed his finger on the wire net near the kittens, and they playfully swatted at it. Soon this became a game. K would place his finger at different spots on the netting and with a lot of mewing and tumbling, the kittens would try to swat his finger. The mother cat never let them do that when she was around, but the minute she was off, they would mew at him and call him to play even when he was studying. At night they would curl up together and sleep in the crook of the window.
One day, K was at his desk studying when he heard the kittens’ mew. He got up to play but as he neared the window they ran away. This happened a couple of times before K got puzzled. In the first place, the mew sounded different. Also, he could only see two kittens. Where was the third?
K decided to investigate. Every time he neared the window, the kittens ran away in the same direction, and the mewing became louder and louder and more frantic. K decided to go into the garden and see where they were going.
But even as he stepped out into the deck below, he figured out what was wrong. One of the tiles from the deck roof had fallen. The third kitten had slipped through the hole and was clinging precariously to the railing below, all the time mewing piteously. As K climbed up to rescue the little kitten, he saw the other two peering through the hole.
Now he understood what had happened. The two kittens had been calling him to help their brother. K gently carried the terrified kitten up and settled him near the window. By the time he returned to his room they were cuddled together, fast asleep, exhausted after all the excitement.
When the mother cat returned the mewing was loud and frenzied. K still believes that the kittens told her the whole story, because after that day she would let the kittens play with K even when she was around.
Soon the kittens grew up and wandered off. Occasionally, one would return to sleep in the crook of the window. No cat ever had kittens there again. K went away to college to study but still remembers the kittens on the windowsill.
Ripples Of Life and Time 