Abrupt end to an unusual sibling relation!

Abrupt end to a sibling relation – Simbi eliminates Nala in a brutal encounter!

We brought two sibling kittens a year back. They grew together with all the love and fun.  Nala was more white and domesticated. Simbi is more black and with genetics of wild cat. While it was easier for Simbi to hunt preys (mouse, squirrel, bird etc.),  Nala was more or less fumbling.  Simbi treated Nala as an elder sister, was bringing her prey to Nala out of sheer love and loyalty.  Even while running around, we noticed that Nala used to hit her head with walls etc. we used to make fun of her as needing spectacles.  

As Nala was of more domesticated breed, she became very intimate with us, enjoyed sitting on our lap or sleeping in between our legs in the night.  Simbi earned our respect as she behaved like a warrior cat, her expression of love to her sibling and us was quite subtle yet quite firmer than Nala.

Then Nala became pregnant and gave birth to one male kitten which got adopted at the end of two months.  During these two months, Simbi had to stay away from the mother and the kitten, though she had her chance to show her acceptance and love to the new arrival.  In the cat world, mother and kitten get their privacy by default.  But, Simbi came close to the nursing kitten and mother in a cozy corner of the cupboard right in front of our presence, smelled both of them and hinted that she loved both.  But the mother was wary, always pawed her sister away.

At the end of two months, Simbi became pregnant. We had just then given away Nala’s kitten for adoption. By now, we had learned that cat’s pregnancy lasts for two months. We could now understand that the two siblings,  between two of them, will alternate and give birth to new kittens every two months.  A sense of panic set in for us.  Simbi gave rise to three kitten two months down the road, and Nala became pregnant again by then.

Simbi’s kitten were quite beautiful, but given our  panic, we wanted to make sure that they were  sent away for adoption before Nala delivers her babies again.  Simbi was more possessive about her kitten than Nala was, Nala din’t even attempt to go close to Simbi’s kitten. This made it more obvious to us that we can’t have both siblings bringing up their kitten in parallel. So, timing of adoption needed to be right for this purpose alone. Though our intention was to keep Simbi’s kitten for 60 days, an opportunity arose to give away all the three kitten within the interval of day 45 and we took the plunge. But, for next 15 days we could notice Simbi’s plight as a mother, and it was beyond our expectation. We too silently mourned about our stupidity of hastening the separation by about 15 days.

For some reason, Nala’s delivery went beyond 60 days, she gave birth at around 75^th day since our calculation, effectively leaving a gap of 30 days between the departure of Simbi’s kitten and arrival of her new three kitten. This gap of 30 days further highlighted our stupidity of rushing to let go Simbi’s kitten.

During the first month of babies, nursing of Nala’s new babies happened in a corner of cupboard. In the mean time, Simbi was busy attempting to get pregnant, everything was smooth in general.  Within a month, when Simbi became pregnant, we became more panicked. Within another twenty days afterwards, our veterinary doctor brother offered to sterilize both the sibling cats at our home.  We took the offer gladly.  Both cats got sterilized, and it was bit of a horror to watch two unborn kitten coming out of Simbi’s womb as part of the sterilization process.

 Post sterilization, life was as usual for Nala as she was enjoying her motherhood with three kitten, now grown to be of 45 plus days.  Simbi’s sterilization operation during her pregnancy somehow activated her mother hormones, she was attempting to come close to Nala’s kitten, we were bit worried whether kitten were in danger.  But in one maneuver, Simbi not only got hold of a kitten and started licking her convincing us not to worry.  Nala being more domesticated, accepted this move, the kitten now had two mothers, one biological and the other hormonal.  Kittens had more fun, they used to come to the biological mother for milk, but spent more time with Simbi for playing as Simbi was all craving and was going extra mile to lure them to play.  Nala was getting bit distressed, we used to help to patch up.

As the kittens crossed 60 days, we could give away one kitten for adoption.  The plight of missing kitten was equally shared by both the mothers, but it died down within two days, thanks to the other two kittens around.  But this time, Simbi grew more possessive, she started demanding to have more time with Nala’s kittens, the two sibling mothers started pawing each other gently to indicate the other to stay the hell out.  But, other times, they could be friendly around kittens. Our presence also helped them to hold the peace together.

After 90 days, something happened which we could not anticipate.  Nala started going through a process of shunning her kittens, pushing them to the independence of adolescence.  For fifteen days or so, it was mixed emotions, sometimes allowing big kittens to suckle her nipples for milk, some other time giving them a paw asking to stay away.  Eventually, this pawing grew stronger to be a blow.  Naturally, the kitten found more solace with their hormonal mother Simbi, and this phenomenon brought quite a distance between the mothers. 

In the mean time, Simbi was becoming closer to the male kitten that is adolescent now, leaving us wondering as to all the hugs and kisses are more than motherly!   Nala grew more and more distant from her kittens; her feelings were almost like the two kittens joining Simbi against her.  Our presence helped to keep things going, but Nala became so distressed that she could not return to peace even around us, so she maintained a distance with us too while confirming all is fine between her and us in particular.

One night, all five cats were with us in the living room, occasional growling sound of Nala was targeted to  her kittens,  Simbi maintaining silence and distance from Nala, but Nala stayed angry and did not allow us to catch hold of her and pet her to normalcy.  It was around 11 pm in the night, I decided to let all the four cats go out as I had planned to work late night. My plan was to let them in before going to bed.

Interestingly, no sign of cats especially the kittens willing to return inside, which usually happens within 20 minutes of being outside.  I could hear a distant sound of two cats growling with each other. It sounded like two female cats as the sound was not as vicious as two male cats.  As the sound was distant, I didn’t worry about it thinking it as a usual territory war between two some other female stray cats in the neighborhood, but I wondered why I have not seen these two around our place.

At 1.30 pm or so, first the two kittens came inside crest fallen.  I wondered why no adult accompanying them back. Within five more minutes, Simbi returned. She was in a bad mood. She held the friendliest male kitten’s neck in her mouth, giving a growl to him saying he better behave with her going forward. The male kitten complied, the female kitten maintained distance.  Things looked quite strange. I went out and called for Nala to return, no sign of Nala. Nala had given a skip against returning previous night too,  so I thought that she will anyway return for the special fish food to be served in the morning.

Morning came but Nala didn’t come, my suspicion of something gone wrong grew.  I went around the neighborhood calling her, but all in vain.  Afternoon, my daughter returned from college, in her usual petting of Simbi, noticed some dried blood near her mouth. I thought it was something to do with her usual hunting.  My daughter and I went for extended search in the neighbourhood calling Nala all the way with our “Tchu Tchu Tchu” sound.  Some neighbors gave misleading positive evidence. But our search abruptly stopped when our next road neighbor told us that the BBMP folks took away a white dead cat this morning. We instantly knew it was Nala. While I am used to this mayhem in cat’s world, my daughter became further mourning.  I wondered whether Nala went down due to a fight with another cat or dog, but both sounded unlikely, as Nala would have come running to us in a losing situation as she was quite a coward. Things were not adding up.

A sense of horror arose when things added up after one hour. Blood in the mouth of Simbi, unusual Don like behavior with kitten previous night, distant two female cats fighting sound previous night, distressed look in the eyes of two kitten, and the history of behavior  of the two mothers, all put together it was obvious now that Nala called for a fight with Simbi, and this fight was unusual in the sense, it was a fight until death, Simbi had no option other than fighting to her strength, Simbi being more wild in nature, could finish Nala in no time with minor bruises for self.  Simbi didn’t mean to kill Nala, but she was forced to do so by Nala, as Nala turned her hormonal anger on her sibling who was warrior like. Nala paid a huge price. Interestingly, both the cats chose backside neighbor’s site and not our premises; it was as if a mark of respect and loyalty to us, the caretakers.

End of glorious era of Nala.

Goodbye Nala! 

With all the tears overflowing!!

Here is to one of your final poses to me! Thank you for being such an intimate friend! You will be always missed as the level of love and friendship you gave and took may never be surpassed in my life!!

Thanks to your departure, the chronicles of seat arrest comes to an abrupt stop or pause!

Chronicles of Seat Arrest!

Only way to repay for your majesty is to show it 100 times more in my remaining life ahead!