Of late, you may have found your timeline and social media feeds being flooded with photographs of people posting selfies with their cute felines posing in lovely attires and even otherwise. On Facebook and Instagram, you will find pages dedicated to cats where they are no less than celebrities. On International Cat Day, we try to find out what makes these feline creatures so irresistible. Here’s chatting up a few cat owners:
Cocco will turn two on August 13. I adopted him, so it is a mixed breed of Persian and stray cat. What makes a cat an adorable pet is that they are very independent, of course they don’t love you like a dog but they do love you in a very different way. I love a cat’s purr — it is really soothing. Cats’ behaviour depends on the way you treat them. I love it when he replies to my parents or my meow with his meowing and he comes and sits near us asking us to pet him. It never annoys us, and I don’t bug him by dressing him up.
— Manasi Deshpande, marketing professional
I gifted our daughter a cute cat named Dumdum and they are best friends now, they are like siblings. We chose to bring home a cat instead of a dog because I find cats more playful, funny, lovely, cute and adorable. They are just amazing. They act like tiny babies and Dumdum treats me like his mom.
— Deepali Behera, homemaker
“Batman, over a year old now, is a regular breed and I found him in the market loitering as a kitten. He actually started following my daughter when she petted him. So we brought him home after a man nearby, who was looking after him, told us we could take him. He is extremely naughty and likes to knock things down in the middle of the night. His most adorable habit is standing up on two feet for a pet and chin scratch. However, his elder brother Simba, a 3.5 year old ginger cat, is mature and caring. We found Simba as a sick kitten who had been bitten by a dog. With continuous vet treatments and lots of tender loving care, he’s now a big boy. He is reserved and doesn’t really care much about anything, very different from his baby brother who is a total social butterfly. Simba adores Batman and takes care of his brother in the best of ways.”
— Fauzia Inamdar, IT professional
Cookie, a year and a half, is my sweetheart now. I adopted the pure bred white Persian cat as a newborn — people didn’t want her because she has a black spot on her head. Now, I have three cats — Fluffy and Puffy (two brothers), but Cookie is my first baby. I instantly fell in love with her white colour and the spot. I prefer cats over dogs because dogs get too big and require constant attention, but cats who pretty much take care of themselves are beautiful and silent companions Cookie didn’t leave my side when I was ill so the whole theory about cats not being loyal is rubbish. At night, when I’m ready for bed she will climb on me rub her face all over my hair and promptly fall asleep on me. Initially, I wanted to dress her up in cute clothes, but my friend showed me a documentary about how it irritates them hence I didn’t dress her up.
— Hafsa Shaikh, Hyatt Regency, gym,
assistant general manager
I have two cats — Klaus (Maine Coon breed) and Bella (a Persian cat). They are nine and four months, respectively. I often dress up Klaus in fancy clothes but not Bella because she doesn’t like dressing up, and do photoshoots with them. Klaus is the most intelligent cat I’ve ever met. He’s not only adorable but can sense when I’m feeling low and down. Once I was sad and all teary, and I don’t know how he sensed it. He came to me and started rubbing his head on my hand, somewhat his way of comforting me, I guess. Bella is my little devil. She’s so active and always running around, playing with my scarf. She follows me everywhere, even to the bathroom sometimes. But she is a cuddly sleeper. To be honest, I was never an animal lover. I used to stay away from animals when I was a kid. But once I took care of my cousin’s cat when I went to the USA and realised how loving and sweet he was. When I came back to India, I decided to have cats. Besides, I live in an apartment, so I can’t walk a dog around all the time. And you can train cats to stay inside. Unlike dogs, you don’t need to walk your cat.
— Jaza Qazi, student
