My son

I was turning in my sleep in the wee hours of dawn when I felt there was something heavy sitting on my right leg. I stuck my other leg out from under the blanket and it touched a soft, furry, warm thing. with the window in the background, I could make out an ovalish thing there. It was Mota, sleeping (and snoring) soundly. I got up and stroked his warm furry back, when he turned inside out showing his white belly and asking for belly rubs! That's how my day starts most of the time :-)

Mota's day starts early. He wakes up at dawn because that's their hunting time. Being a ball of fur he doesn't hunt but he still follows his habit. He'd roam around for a while and then from around 6 would start bugging us. Meowing at us, clawing the bed sheets, trampling all over us and chewing paper and plastic from the waste bin are his ways of getting us off the bed. He knows for certain that after 5-10 minutes of this behavior, one of us would invariably get up and say "C'mon Mota, let's give you something to eat."

The third drawer opens and out comes a can of delicious salmon or tuna or ocean whitefish. If it's salmon day he just can't control himself! When the food reaches his plate he rubs his head on our legs in appreciation. There he chomps away dreaming of the little fishies with eyes half closed. After breakfast, he meticulously uses his litter box and cleans himself thoroughly. When we come to breakfast, he usually potters about there or sits in front of the patio door watching the plants and green grass waving in the breeze. Sometimes he'll catch a glimpse of a birdie and get excited, but he realy doesn't get out and hunt.

If we are at home, he'll stick close to us. Chew papers and magazines, climb up on the back of the couch or just roll over for belly rubs. He goes crazy over stringy and feathery toys. Just tickle him with the feathery "blue bird" and he jumps into action. Crouching behind the sofa or even a pair of shoes, he'll keep watch and then spring at it like a mini-tiger. Arnab says, when God wanted to create tigers, He smoke-tested by making cats! Cats are just a scale reduced version of tigers :-) Another thing is the treat ball. Just put in some treats in the ball and Mota would patiently go on rolling it until all the treats have come out. He would push the ball with his head and control with the two front paws. It's amazing how he solves problems of the ball getting stuck, checking twice under cabinets for treats that might have rolled off...Domestic Shorthairs are intelligent!!

They can sleep soundly for 16 hours so on weekdays it really doesn't bother him much when we are away. He cuddles up on our bed or on his blanket and sleeps. The moment the garage door goes up in the evening, he runs downstairs. (I have seen this when I am at home and Arnab comes back from somewhere.) So, everytime we open the door, he's already there to greet us by rubbing his head. I love these moments!!

In the evenings, Mota and Arnab have their "guy time" when they watch WWE, wrestle with each other or Mota would carry on with "killing" the feathery bird. Sometimes he gets into the mood and play acts. There are "enemies" around whom he chases. Most of the time the "enemy" is a noisy plastic bag or a crumpled sheet of paper!!

It doesn't take much to amuse him but there are things he HATES. He hates me rubbing his fur with wipes because he thinks I am taking away his smell. The dental rinse is another such "bad thing". We have stopped clipping his nails at home because he started giving us a "bankrupt person" look and intentionally used our hall carpet as his litter-box. When we were cleaning up his bad deed, he was lying close by and craning his neck to see if we were doing it ok. So we get the vet's assistants to trim his claws, I don't care is he's mad at them! He takes care to sharpen his tiny clipped nails and scratches our ottomans and sofa regularly. Another scratching thing is out kitchen rug. We got him scratch posts but he couldn't care less for that!

I can't talk about Mota by not saying anything about Kedo. Kedo (actual name Peanut Butter) is our neighbor's cat. He is the biggest, fluffiest, bravest and friendliest cat I have ever seen and has a bottomless pit for a stomach. Here they are sitting face to face.

Kedo is not afraid of water or of fire (as he was sniffing our burning candles), nor is he bothered about rain (he comes with dripping wet fur sometimes) and last winter when there was not a soul out in the snow, we saw his paw marks right outside our patio door. Mota and Kedo have a love-hate relationship. I haven't yet figured out what exactly they think of each other. Kedo is a left-pawed cat and he has hit Mota quite a few times. His parents left him in the house for a week when they went on a vacation. Coming back, they saw the carpet scratched and shredded and all the blinds torn. Who can hold him back? He is independence personified (or rather cat-sonified) and I think is a worthy son of the "land of the free and home of the brave".

At around 10:30, Mota would come upstairs. Meow for a while and then jump up on our bed. Sometimes if he's a little late (maybe he was having a converstaion with Kedo downstairs) and we have turned off the lights, we'll see a pair of glowing orange eyes as he makes his way around and tries to find a place to settle down. Mostly that would be on my pillow close to my head. Sometimes he'd squeeze in between Arnab and me or would lie down near our feet. He feels safe near us and we feel incomplete without him in our lives. He's our furry son- Mota Mao!!

PS: We celebrated his 4th birthday in January, here's a pic!