Keeping Cats

This is Django, though not as brave as is shown in the movie “Django unchained” but is as cute as the character of “Django” was brave in the movie. I have an interesting story of ‘Django’ to share with you people.

Around 2 years back, I spotted him sitting on the chair lying in my house garage. I hurled him to run away from the house, treating him as a street cat. I noticed that he did not behave in the way, stray cats normally do. Though, he moved out of the house but rather in somewhat dignified style. A few days later, I spotted him sitting at the doorstep of my relative’s house, who used to live in the same block few hundred metres away from my house. They people used to offer him milk on daily basis but were allergic of his entry inside their house.

In those days I was reading a book named “A Man called Ove” written by some Swedish. In the book along with the main theme of the story; story of a fragile cat was also running side by side. In that story the writer described the habits and routines of cats, and how did the cats behave in their daily routines. I learnt from the book that in mornings and evenings, cats love to enter the kitchen and demand for the food. You cannot keep them away from the kitchen entry. However, cats normally do not put their mouth in other foods but used to sit infront, and see you eating, as if their mouths are watering, too.

Sitting at the wall

Back to the story; when Django did not find any chances of entry into our relative’s house; he finally returned to our house and found more proximity towards the inside areas of the house. Still, he has to wait for at least a month, to get inside, but he was at least at liberty to use our garage and terrace to eat and sleep. Meanwhile, he has to fight his way into house territory with some other stray cats, who used to enter and exit the house lawn areas quite often at libery. Many nights I have to rush outside to help him against other cats.

With his cute gestures and loving nature, Django soon attracted the attention of my daughters. As, soon afterwards, they started to convince me to allow his entry inside the house; and finally ‘Django’ was allowed to roam freely, in side, as well. We have trained him to litter outside into the lawn and has also alternative arrangements inside the house, in case of rain or severe weather.

Django was certainly a pet cat abandoned by his previous masters. He has to struggle hard to get some space somewhere else. His fate was hanging in balance for quite some time. But with his consistency and sweet manners, he finally, find the place he deserves.

Initially, he was a cat with a long and beautiful tail, but due to his adventurous nature of running after the birds, he got his tail injured so badly that finally it had to be removed through an operation. Now a days he has a unique look unlike the one he holds with the tail. His tail was like this. 

Showing his love for me

Now ‘Django’ is the king of the house. He lives and sleeps wherever he likes. I still have a little discipline for him as he is not allowed to enter into dining room and cannot sleep at the TV  lounge sofas. For the rest of the house, he is free to do, whatever he wishes.

The takeaway of the story, I wish to share with you, is that, had I not read the book discussed earlier, ‘Django’ may have not entertained into our house. I developed a soft corner for the cats after reading that book. Imagine the unique ways books can influence our lives, and of course the life of an abandoned cat 🐱 seven seas apart.

Django has a very soothing effect in our house. My daughters, who normally kept busy into their studies, find it too much relaxation to play with Django during their study breaks. Django is a great stress reliever. Now I can better understand that how much important is to keep a pet in one’s house.

Our relatives, who were, initially, allergic from the ‘Django’ are now keeping two cats into their house, the ‘Mimi’ and the ‘chuchu’. They learnt from our experience and realised the importance of keeping pets; if not for them, at least for the sake of their children. Last night, when there ‘Mimi’ stepped out from inside of their house, the entire family was after her to bring her back inside the house and I was amused to watch all the effort they were putting to get the cat inside. Now they bring their cat’s food from the best stores of the town and clean their little boxes themselves, quite happily. Still there cats has no match to Django. Djangongo is something special. A cat full of expressions! The cutest cat of the world.

Resting

Going Organic

The inspiration for this lucrative hobby was like a dream hidden deep in the hearts and minds of the couple. Now it was high time for them to turn their dream in reality. They have most recently been shifted to their newly constructed home. They were an enthusiast couple 👫 to do all the beautiful things in the world 🌍.

Presently there were two ✌️ main challenges for the Qs to meet with; first to design the lawn 🌿in the most beautiful manner by installing the most luxurious grass and rare specie plants in it. Mr Q was more vocal by nature and used to take the advice of everyone he met at the road or in his Public Utility Office. Resultantly, the lawn was erected in a way that at least 3 plants were installed in the space of one. Their overenthusiasm turned the look of their lawn near a jungle.

Anyway, our today’s topic is about their second passion i.e. going organic with the 🥚 🐣eggs and poultry meat production at their own new sweet 🏡 home. They were confident about raising hens at home that will meet not only their poultry needs, but fun for their kids, as well.
To start with the hobby Mr Q one day brought a few chicks from the local market. There was no cage at home. The chicks started roaming in the new house with full liberty throughing their little shit all around. Kids were so delighted and every day after returning from the school and before leaving for the school took the chicks into their laps and played. With the passage of time some of them were eaten by 🐈 cats, others were grabbed by lanky stray 🐕 dogs who can intrude into the house through the gap between the gate pillars and the gate itself. One of them any way succeeded in turning into a good looking hen, though I never heard about laying an🥚 egg by that hen, ever.

This early loss didn’t demolarise the couple. These chicks were just for kids enjoyment and the real plan has yet to be successfully accomplished. Half a dozen of the hens had already been promised to be gifted by Mr Q’s mama.

In order to host the gifted hens, a great need arose for arranging a cage for the income guests. So the couple decided to get a brand new cage manufactured from the best carpenter of the town. Now the question arose about the size and measurements for width length and high of the cage. So they decided to visit Mrs Q’s sister’s house whom chicks had already been transpired into full-grown hens and were laying sufficient eggs for their kitchen needs and this success story was again a challenge for the Qs. A valid question had already arisen for Qs; that why they were left behind in organic 🥚 eggs production despite a level playing field.

Without mentioning their intentions for hen raising project they entered the house pretending it as a routine visit. Mr Q, “wowed, eating a lot of organic eggs, alone”! ” Come on let’s have breakfast 🍞 with us. I’m going to Fri eggs as well.” Said Sister. During breakfast, the necessary information was passed along with the pros and cons of hen raising. As the spirits of the Qs were sky-high they listened to all the pros with interest but omitted the cons part.

Within a few days, an elegant double story cage was right in the house garage. In honour of the hen’s house, one of the Qs cars was moved out of the garage. The cage cost them $200 only. One chipboard cage has already been purchased for the earlier survived solitary hen. That cage along with chicks had cost them around $100 excluding feed.

Now the stage was all set for bringing hens from Mama’s countryside house. The entire family 👪 was quite eager to visit grandma’s house. Car was sent to the workshop for necessary maintenance and tuning. Some gifts we’re also arranged for the countryside family members. An aggregate amount of $ 200 was spent on this expedition including fuel cost.

The day arrived and the family Started their dream journey. ” You will see! Next month there will be as many organic eggs in the home as or our kitchen needs; even they may exceed our needs and we will be in a position to gift to our family and friends.” ” Why gift? sweetheart! don’t you think we are spending a lot of money on this endeavour? We will sell them in the market, dear.” Said Mrs Q. “Okay” 😔 Mr Q doesn’t want to argue prematurely.
The car now has started moving at a rapid pace. Mrs Q now feeling a little tired 😩 ; within few moments went into deep siesta and start dreaming. What he saw in her dream was plenty of colourful hens posting noises such as 🔊 — kuk, kuk, kuak, Kuk, kuk, kuk, kuak; like they were announcing that they have laid eggs. She saw that as soon as she reached in her mother-in-law’s house many hens came and sat into her lap. Her mother in law said to her that as many hens will sit in her lap those all will be gifted to them.

In short, they returned home 🏡with 6 hens and two ✌️roosters. The tally wasn’t bad at all. One was already back at home. As per careful calculations the net worth the gifted hens was around $100. When they opened the car Diggy all the hens had got freedom from the roops entangles against their eggs. Some were sitting on suitcase and bags. One was sitting on the pickle jar that was also gifted to them. Poultry shit was all around on the whole luggage. When they tried to shift them one hen flew directly to the face of Mr Q the other scratched the shoulder of Mrs Q. There was all the mess of flights and screams of hens all around the neighbourhood. It took a lot of effort to manage their placement into the double story cage. Two pots containing food and water were placed on each floor of the cage.

Tired 😩 of travelling the family soon went to sleep. During sleep, the entire family had their own dreams about the hens. Mrs Q was happy to see eggs and hens all around the house. All the fridge shelves were full. Finding no space hundreds were lying on the sofa which was broken when Mr Q sat on them mistakenly. A lot of young hens were running and flying through their home windows. Few took their flight towards the sky 🌈 and in few moments disappeared in the sky. Mr Q in his dream saw that each of their hens was laying two eggs per day; in twelve hourly intervals.

The however awake early morning and came back to reality from their overnight fancies. Anyhow, they were expecting some eggs though not as many as was dreamt by Mrs Q.What they saw was all the feeding pots were upside down and water had flown in the garage all around. To there surprise there was not a single 🥚 in any floor of the cage. “I think the hens were tired”, said Mr Q. ” This may be due to change of place honey! You know even we humans could not sleep well if not at home. Once they will settle they surely will start laying eggs.” Mrs Q opined.

A week went by without an egg. Mr Q was a little worried about the performance of the hens. He took some outside advice and someone advised him to add millet to the existing food; that was mere whole wheat. They also instructed the maid to took all care about feed and water needs of the hens while they were out of the house for work.
A solitary egg was laid by the whole flock in the next week. The family are it in breakfast and lunch by adding a lot of onions and potatoes in it. During the next three-four days, Qs kept noting the health benefits, if any on their bodies. They felt nothing special, except very little improvement in the waspish and spunk behaviour of their youngest daughter. It was not clear that this improvement was due to that egg or the hens itself as she was now spending quite some time playing with the hens.
On the contrary at sister’s house; their hens were laying four to five eggs per day, as per their intelligence reports of the Qs. Their spy was, in fact, sister’s maid who always opened the door for them. They also peep into the hen feed bucket so that they can learn the secret of good egg yield. They, however, not bothered to ask about the feeding technics from them.

Another two-three months were elapsed and the hen’s egg yield not improved from two to three eggs per week. It hardly happened once or twice that the hens laid two eggs in a single day. They boasted this achievement at sister,s house by adding some imaginary numbers.

Throughout the winter months, the hens remained in their cage without a warm cover. They kept feeding them and caring about their cage cleanliness. They also some time opened the cage and their lawn was now a mess of dirt and hen shit. Their hopes in hens now had been started to fade away. Qs were now exhausted. The feed bill alone had exceeded $ 100.
They now have seriously realized that expert advice is necessary or they should forgo this business.

Ultimately, they came to the sister’s house. They were told to use proper hen feed that is available at the market and keep the cage covered with some warm cloth.They were amazed to listen about the market existence of any such feed. They purchased on the advice and after use of a few days, some improvement in egg yield has been witnessed.

It was almost the end of winter. To their dismay, a common viral hen disease spread and their hens started dying one after another. They got out of breath and decided to abandon the pursuit, at once.

Mr Q visited a well-known friend who was also maintaining a good flock of hens at his house and imposed the remaining hens on his head at a discounted price. The friend was left with no option than to accept the hens. With these infected hens addition his own flock got infected, and in a few days, his cage was empty of even a chick. When Mr Q visited for receiving some payment his friend told him the entire tale and showed his empty cage. Mr Q thereafter never dared remind about the hen’s sale proceeds.

One fine afternoon Mr& Mrs Q sat to calculate the profit& loss of their hen venture. They estimated an aggregate amount of $700 as the total cost of their hen raising passion. Total egg yield during the 6 months was estimated around four dozens. As per their market price they were worth $5. It was a net huge loss of $695.
Their first damage control attempt wasn’t worked at all. Now there left nothing except the hen’s memories and a cage. They were sceptical about the cage. They feared that sister may pic it from their home without paying a penny by forwarding the reason that the cage is of no use to them, anymore. In fact, the cage was the last thing that they can minimize their loss but they were troubled that how to dispose of it as no serious buyer was there who can purchase it. For the time being from saving it from sister, they proclaimed that instead of hens now they have decided to raise partridges.

I floated the idea of using the cage as a shoe rack but the Qs took this sincere advice as a joke. Mrs Q didn’t rest his mind and kept speculating about different disposal options.

One find day a wonderful idea struck her mind and she during the meeting with her Area Schools Head wafted the idea of keeping the love birds at her school premises to attract new admissions in nursary and playgroup classes. The Area Head first has a weird look at her then suddenly agreed with the proposal. ” Madam we have to purchase a cage for this purpose.” Said Mrs Q. ” Okay you can buy one within the budget of $100″ ‘replied Area Schools Head.
Next weekend Mrs&Mr Q painted the cage yellow and red. The cage was shifted to school even before it got dried.

Now they were at a net loss of $595.