SAVE MY SON!

As narrated by my sister, Joshika Gupta:
A month ago Multu, our cat had her first litter of three kittens: Chashmish, Brown and White. Chashmish, the eldest of the litter has a black coat with white circles around its eyes giving him a goggled look. He is the fearless and most affectionate of the litter. He was the first of the lot to approach and befriend his Grandmother, Meow; Uncle Totu and two canine grandmothers: Pixie, a black Pomeranian and Winnie, a Golden Retriever. Every morning, he scampers into the kitchen to ask for his bowl of milk. One morning, my Mother asked my sister to check on Chashmish as he had not visited her in the kitchen for his bowl of milk. Joshika found him lying listlessly under her bed and refused to eat anything. She coaxed him to have milk which he vomited and dragged himself to his mother for comfort. A couple of times during the day, he did try milk and kitten food, only to retch it out and wreath in pain. Realising that Chashmish was suffering from a severe stomach infection, Joshika fed him with gripe water and glucose solution, but that too was not agreeable with his digestive system, but Joshika continued to give him ORS solution that she had got from the pharmacy in the neighbourhood. Multu, his mother, kept sniffing him and lying close to him, but, we wondered why she did not feed him milk. In pain, Chashmish even rushed to Winnie and curled up by her side seeking comfort from her.
In the evening, when Joshika thought Chashmish was sleeping, she left him on her bed and went to the kitchen to prepare tea, she heard a moaning sound coming from her bedroom, and she rushed into the room to find Multu moaning and grabbing Chashmish by his throat and practically throttling him. Joshika rushed to rescue Chashmish from his mother’s deadly grip and found that she was holding his practically cold and lifeless body in her hands. She looked at Multu, who continued to moan and once again try to grab the neck of her ailing son. Joshika, while trying to hold Multu away from her son, looked intently at the cat to find deep sorrow in her eyes, as if imploring to Joshika, ‘I cannot bear his pain, please save my son!’ That look in Multu’s eyes, touched the core of Joshika’s heart and she strengthened her resolve to give her best to save Chashmish. She picked him up and held him close to her heart and kept speaking gently to him. Multu remained by her side and refused to have her food. Suddenly, Chashmish’s body shook with convulsion and wretched morsels of fish he had had for the first time, the previous evening and seemed to stop breathing. Joshika, immediately wrapped him up in a cloth and cradled the tiny creature in her arms and continued to speak to him. She increased the frequency of feeding him with ORS solution and would place him beside Multu too, who would lick him and snuggle beside him.
In the wee h ours of the following morning, Chashmish opened his eyes that had regained their old sparkle and looked up at Joshika as if asking her to let him down from her arms. She placed him on the floor with Multu quickly taking her place beside her son. After taking a few wobbly steps, Chashmish stood for a while and with regained energy and confidence stepped into the kitchen to stand by the refrigerator for his bowl of milk.
According to Joshika, she learnt the art of delegation from Multu, the young mother cat.
This is dedicated to all my young friends.