By Evangeline Muller*
27 June 2016, Pune (MH): It was raining that evening. As one of our office colleagues prepared to exit our main door for a commute to his house, this adorable fluff walked right in, looking not so fluffy (as he was drenched). He walked right in steering himself towards the kitchen. He looked very scruffy and hungry!
Though we were still dreaming of owning a cat in distant future, it seemed like a godsend. Both of us were in between jobs at the time and obviously adopting a pet under such circumstances can never be on a sane person’s to-do list. Realizing that we are jumping too soon into this, we decided to wait it out for a few days to give the almost three-month kitten a few chances to go back. We let all the windows open and the balcony too was free access. However, the kitten had made up his mind to stay.
We immediately dove right into kitten training ourselves with whatever source we saw as our guru. Internet, vets/pet product stores, and some friends were a good place to start with. He would eat eggs and soya chunks with a lot of interest. As he grew older, he progressed to chicken only to lose interest. But once a fishie eater, always a fishie eater!
Now was the hard part to think of a name. But it turned out to be so simple. A tuxedo cat with skills to run and dodge on a tiled surface, earned him the name ‘Pirelli’ (inspired by the legendary and historic tyre manufacturer synonymous with grip and racing pedigree). Boy! You must watch him run on these slippery, vitrified tiles. He quickly accepted and associated with his name. Soon all his luggage and bowls were labelled and marked ‘Pirelli’.
Our day would start with greetings and head boops, and his soft ‘cotton-candy’ paw tap our faces every morning as he attempts to wake us up. This talkative fluff ball loves chin scratches, head massages, and lots of fishie. By the night, he cuddles until we’re off to sleep and then he is back on the prowl, hunting his toys and our feet occasionally. Pirelli is extremely loving, talkative, confident, and obedient. It’s been four years and still counting! It’s hard for us to imagine our life without him and even harder to knit it all in words.
*Author and her partner, Shashank, apart from being proud cat parents, run a kitchen aimed at providing authentic Karnataka experience in the heart of India (Mhow, MP) by the day and build tasteful custom motorcycles by the evening. Pirelli, has his own Instagram account @__pirelli__.