Kléo
Once again I saw you from the corner of my eye; swishing your tail, licking your paw. I turned around and you weren’t there anymore.
Once again I felt the weight of you, resting your tiny self next to me as I slept. I woke up to find it all a dream.
Once again I heard your small voice, insisting I open my door. Open I did, to find my hallway empty.
That’s your nature isn’t it, to flit about, slink in the shadows, explore your surroundings; camouflage your being?
You have camouflaged so well that we can’t find you any more!
We looked and looked. Called your name a thousand times.
Just like you chose to come to us, out of blue; you chose to leave us. Leaving us here to pick up our lives from those shattered pieces of heart lying on the floor.
I won’t ask you why. Coz I know you are true to your nature.
I will tell you what you did.
The helpless tiny being that you were when you came home; you shone through with your personality. You showed me what surviving is.
The way you held your ground when the older tabby hissed at you for days; you showed me how to stand up to adversity.
The manner in which you turned tables on the said tabby by chasing him into corners; you showed me how to change status quo.
You had the gumption of facing new people and things; so much that you would be beside the plumber or gardener or electrician when they would do their work.
You were so curious about everything I did; that you annoyed the daylights out of me by jumping onto kitchen counter, by getting your muddy paws all over my freshly mopped floor, by attacking my ankles when I would walk by, by walking all over my computer…
How much of a little Krishna you were; I realized only after you left, my darling shadow. Coz I feel that gaping hole in my being, the pain of which brings realization of how much I had begun to love you in this year and half.