Life with Julie....

Julie survived and became active soon enough. My mother was wrong that she would not survive with out her mother. She turned up to be a wonderful pet at first for both of us and finally got to be all mine. No! I did not do anything drastic. It just happened naturally with natures call. After feeding her and after her body had observed all the nutrition it had to throw out rest of the waste.. which did not come out with good odor. My sister is very sensitive to stink and could not stand it even for the love of the cat. My mom was very strict that we had to clean up whatever mess Julie leaves behind. So the big question stood in front of us as to ‘who will clean up after the kitty?’ My sister puked when she tried but I could do it. So finally I told my sister she had failed in taking care of kitty because cleaning after the kitty poo is a part of care-taking. My sister was in a dilemma and knew she was losing her leadership position but she was helpless. We split our rights ( it was much easier than the Ambani split lol) on Julie into 80-20. I got to own 80% of Julie for cleaning the crap.

[A Note from grown up Farida here – It was very interesting habit of my sister of dividing and sharing everything. She was always so taken up by making it equal for everyone. Our bed which we shared had a line drawn in the centre and I was not supposed to cross it. If we were given two apples she would usually cut both of it into halves and we would share instead of having an apple each. That way she felt we could taste and see if both were equally crisp and good. It is hard to believe she was right. Many times the apples or anything thus divided had different taste. Finally when we both had breast cancer ..she in the left breast and me in the right I joked that it was continuation of what we always did … but that did not make her laugh.]

Initially I was worried that my studies would be affected negatively because of Julie but it actually affected me positively in every way.. other than my tiffs with grandma over the cat. Julie would curl up near my legs and give me company when I studied. I felt her company but no interruption at all. I could concentrate more clearly because she never allowed me to feel bored and made me relax.

My grandmother found Julie to be my weak spot and started taking advantage of this new found weakness in me. She always believed that we were at war and she had to win this at any cost. She tried to prove that she was to be obeyed no matter whether she was right or wrong.

At first she tried to tell Daddy that she is allergic to kitty hair but then my sister started wailing so loud the topic of chasing away Julie was dropped like a grenade whose pin has been pulled out. My sister even scared me to some extent … Phew!

But after our division over Julie, she was with me most of the time…and my grandma started picking on her.

It was Julie who broke everything broken around the house, it was Julie who ate every missing food in the house, it was Julie who dirtied everything in the house that was dirty… everyday Julie at least committed 8 grave sins and it was concluded by my grandma that she will accompany me to hell. I may have turned into a school dropout fearing Julie’s safety but my Mom fell in love with the kitty and so I could leave her in the cruel world of cruel grammas and go to school. My Mom fed her milk and other soft food initially and later on fed her fresh fish etc. When I was not around Julie would sit under my Moms stool in kitchen and be safe.

My dad never could like Julie and I think it was because of the negative reports he got as soon as he came home from work – worn out and tired.

The dear cat would curl up on our bed and she started staying there the whole night sleeping well cozily where as me and my sister lost sleep fearing we would hurt her. Gradually we got used to it and for once in my life I was not kicking everything and everyone around me in my sleep. Julie taught me to sleep still… [and I still sleep that way though Julie is no more with me].