By Evangeline Muller and Shashank Hosagrahar
27 June 2016, Pune, India: It was raining that evening. As one of our office colleagues prepared to exit the main door for a commute to his house, an adorable fluff walked right in, looking not so fluffy (as he was drenched). He walked right in, steering himself into the kitchen. He looked very scruffy and hungry.
Though we were dreaming of owning a cat in the 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 were jumping too soon into this, we decided to wait it out for a few days to give the almost three-month old kitten a couple of 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. At present, he lives by the saying, once a fish eater, always a fish eater!
The hard part was 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). 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 his soft ‘cotton-candy’ paw tapping on our faces every morning, as he would attempt to wake us up. This talkative fluff ball loves chin scratches, head massages, and lots of fish. By the night, he cuddles until we are off to sleep and then he is back on the prowl, hunting for his toys and our feet occasionally. Pirelli is extremely loving, talkative, confident, and obedient. It has been 7 years and still counting. It is hard for us to imagine our life without him and even harder to knit it all in words.
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My hoomans
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shashank_hosagrahar