Meet Millie : The Feline IITian

 Author: Samyadeep

 

When I came back to Chennai in my second year after a long summer break in Kolkata, I was given a single room. It was a small and cozy room on the ground floor that would just about fit one single person and his belongings. My previous semester in IIT was spent with two amazing roommates who had never let me feel bored throughout my stay. However this time I was left all to myself. My roommates had been given rooms all the way up on the fourth floor. This was when I felt pangs of loneliness for the first time in IIT. I was now truly the only one responsible for myself. 

The ground floor was home to a lot of different creatures. The green field at the center of the hostel enclosed by our corridors was maintained by the hostel for us to play cricket or volleyball. 

An inquisitive deer watching a 22 year old human grind for midsems

However you could wake up one day and see a bevy of deer gently grazing the grass right outside your door. Some less welcome guests were the monkeys, who liked to snatch our food and play with the clothes hung out to dry. We were not particularly wont to keep our doors open lest a group of monkeys should come and raid our rooms for food and shampoo (this was a constant, maybe they are growing smarter, outgrowing the need to groom each other to become more self-reliant). There were scorpions and snakes as well, however I never had the misfortune of encountering them.

Millie's first visit

But if there's one animal that has conquered every eatery in every building, it is our cats. Our hostel was no different. You could expect a curious cat peeking into your room through the door if you had left it open long enough. Something like this happened in August of '22. It was a sultry afternoon and I had kept
the door slightly ajar. I saw a small head scanning the room for some potential afternoon snacks. She was a pregnant cat. A calico to be precise (A calico has three different pigments on her fur : white, grey and golden). I invited her in, made her sit on my chair, offered her some biscuits which she ate out of courtesy, and then let her sleep on the floor for some time. She left after she was done with her nap.  

Cats don't really crave chocolate during pregnancy

She came again after some days, looking for some more food. I saw her belly and decided that a pregnant
cat like her would need some extra food, and it was incumbent upon me,  an ardent cat lover, to give her something to eat. So I ran to the nearest restaurant and bought some chicken. Then I came back and fed her some, while having the rest myself. She had a hearty lunch and matched her meal with an equally impressive nap. 

Millie's Nursery

 

Two weeks later she gave birth to three kittens, one of which died shortly after birth. I raised the other two, one with golden and the other with grey spots on white fur, for the rest of the semester along with her. They were so small that they could fit on my palm, so I had to be extremely careful to not step on them when they ran around in my room playing with each other. Sometimes I wonder how I got anything done with three furballs running about my cozy little room.

 

 

Millie reminding me that I need a break

When I went home during the winter vacation (only for a week), they had grown a lot and had entered their rebellious teenage phase which was evident from their frequent fights with their mother. Since feline parents are usually less accommodating to ungrateful teenagers, when I returned I had found them living in different parts of the campus. The mother was still roaming around my room waiting for me to return. The kittens had forgotten me, they were busy trying discover themselves and the world outside the confines of four walls. 

 

 

 

The next few months I faced the most difficult winter of my life, the placement season. And thankfully I had my cat who always seemed to know when I needed her purring soul resting on my chest. And when I had to shift to a new hostel for my final semester, I thought that I had to part ways with her. But she followed me, after I led her to my new room with the help of some cat treats to keep her from getting distracted by an occasional insect along the way.She came to my new room and made the balcony overlooking the woods nearby her new home. I gave her a plastic chair to sit and watch birds from. On evenings, she quietly sits on her chair and looks out into the night sky contemplating the meaning of a cat's life.

Millie's office overlooking the woods

 

I named her Millie a month ago when I finally decided that I'd be taking her with me back to Kolkata, or wherever I go next. Millie was the only name she'd respond to, so I had no other choice. But now I am not too sure if it is possible. Millie is an IITian, more than she is my cat. Will it be fair (or even legal) for me to take her away from this beautiful place she has always called home? At some point the question arises 'Who needed the other more? Me or Millie?' and I would always say that I need her more. Millie is an excellent hunter and an absolute unit when it comes to defending her territory against the ambitions of other cats. She also has been an anchor for me through the toughest period of my life. I could not have completed my journey at IIT without her by my side. Now that I have weathered those storms, I can perhaps survive on my own, or so I think?   

That's one tough decision I am yet to make.