Some experiences in life make you wonder about us humans as a species and how different we can be from each other.
Recently I had a similar experience and thought I would share with you.
So to start with I want to say I have 2 beautiful cats – Billa & Pilla ( weird names ? I know). We adopted it a few weeks back from the animal shelter and we were very happy with them. Their quirkiness and goofiness can entertain you for hours. Plus compared to other pets they are relatively easy to take care of.
On 9th October an incident that happened with one of my cats showed me the best and worst side of humanity.
The Story
It started on 2nd Oct at 9:00 pm when it was time to feed the cats. As I started calling them, only one of them came to me. But he too meowed and kept circling near our dry balcony door. He generally does this to show his brother is on the other side of the door. As I opened the door, the dry balcony was empty.
As I tried closing the door, Billa kept curling under my leg. I was beginning to get irritated by his behavior when I started to hear faint and desperate cry. For a moment I thought it was coming from our other balcony so I went and checked to fin nothing. Those faint cries were only heard in the dry balcony.
That’s when I realized something’s wrong. The cries were getting more desperate. I went near the end of the dry balcony and looked down which was an empty duct that went dark and deep. The cries were more audible now. I flashed my mobile phone’s light and I could see Pilla’s eyes that shone. It had fallen from the balcony and landed on a roof of the 7th floor’s dry balcony.
SHIT JUST GOT REAL AND TERRIFYING!
The problem with our dry balcony was it was closed somewhere on the 2nd floor which means no one can climb from the bottom and as there was no kind of stairs, no one can climb down from our balcony. As my mind started racing hearing the desperate cries, I first looked for a rope. I didn’t have any. So I scrambled all the old clothes, tied them together and made a rope ( kind of). I slid it down the balcony in the hope that the cat might climb up. But that didn’t happen. My wife then suggested tying a bucket to the rope which would have cat food and slid it down. The smell could tempt the cat to enter the bucket. But sadly that too didn’t work.
As I reached the end of my wit, I first went on the 6th floor to see if I can access the dry balcony. I rang the bell but no one responded. I then went to the 8th floor and spoke to the family about the situation. Unfortunately, their dry balcony was covered completely with plywood and roof. But the lady- Priyanka was very helpful and she called few people to check for options. She then suggested me to call up the animal rescue who might help.
It was now 11:00 pm and I was unsure if anyone would come to help. The Cries were getting painful to hear.
Just then 2 people from my society Shamik & Shilpa came and analyzed the situation. One of them Shilpa immediately called his contact who knew someone from an animal rescue.
The animal rescue came at 12 pm. It was two teenagers who checked the situation and then decided to set a trap. But that too, unfortunately, didn’t work. The cat was genuinely terrified of the accident and just covered in the corner and didn’t move.
Finally the next morning one of the animal rescue guys went down with the help of rope and took the cat out.
We were finally relieved and so was the cat who fortunately was not harmed.
The best side of humanity
I was relieved and happy to see such kindness around and humbled by the same. Priyanka on the 7th floor who called up a lot of her contacts, Shilpa and Shamik from neighboring wing who came and then called the animal rescue team and most important ones the animal rescue team who do such selfless work day and night and came to my home at so late at night. Below mentioned is their website and would urge any and everyone to support them.
The worst side of humanity
As we were all happy and were finally getting back to our routine, I got a message from my flat owner
Hi Guru, You didn’t inform me that you got a pet.
We had adopted these cats recently and told him the same.
This was his response
Sorry Guru but due to some personal reason we don’t want the cat in our flat.
So I asked him what should I do? I can’t abandon the pets. To which he replied
I can’t suggest anything on this. But we don’t want cats in our flat.
Just to give you a background, my flat owner stays thousands of miles away in the U.S. But he still has an issue If his tenant adopts a pet. I was blown away by the exact opposite behavior of him compared to all others who were concerned and helped us rescue our pet. Even more surprising was he didn’t even ask me whether the pet was rescued or not. All he cared about was his flat should not have any pets. Even after being in the U.S which is one of the most developed and pet-friendly countries, due to some misplaced blind faith or something, he wants me to get rid of my pets.
I am still figuring out a solution which might be to move out of the flat but this 24 hour gave me a one of a kind experience.
We, Humans, are weird!
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http://www.gurushetty.com/gandhism-and-its-importance-in-2019/
