TAJ

Taj comes home tomorrow! While I was traveling to Kuwait and Spain recently, our cat Taj was being lovingly cared for by our daughter and granddaughter at their home in New York. It’s been a long three months and I am looking forward to having him back home. I know there will be a price to pay. He’s a spoiled little thing, and after being relegated to the basement at their house, having to deal with Bailey, their dog, and missing out on the daily dose of attention he gets while at home. ....well, he’ll have a thing or two to say to me when he returns. He lives, after all, an “only child existence” here with us and he isn’t afraid to push his weight around.
He and I are good buddies. Yes, I spoil him, but his faithful companionship has helped me through the tough lonely times when Chuck is either traveling out of the country on assignments without me, or has been working such long hours it feels as though he’s away. Animals require a commitment and Taj is someone I can talk to, fuss over and worry about. In return he offers his strange but loving demeanor. He came into our lives while we were living in India. The name seems more appropriate now, doesn’t it?
We lived in Jamnagar, in Gujarat India for 2 1/2 years. Our home there, which was company provided,  was newly built.  It was a large comfortable, 3 bedroom, 2 storied villa, only the second one completed in the new township where we lived. Construction was a way of life for several months.  As each morning dawned and  workers began displacing the rubble from one location to another, so moved the rats. Yes, that’s right, RATS!
In India, many deities take animal form and have a special place in Hindu mythology. In fact, the elephant headed Ganeesh is the best known and most widely worshipped deity by Hindu sects. So it came as only a mild surprise when I discovered there was a temple in Rajastan where people come to pay homage to, yes you guessed it, RATS. Not your typical run of the mill rat, these are holy rats called kabbas. Not to be irreverent here, but I have no idea whether it takes an exhaulted rat to be a kabba, or if all in the species are eligible. I mean no further irreverence when I say that despite their potential divine status, to me they remain germ laden rodents and I particularly dislike them especially in my home. So when they began to invade our new villa, I freaked. At first Chuck tried a catch and release program, after all, perhaps these were candidates for kabbadom and we tried to be humane. Then one fateful night I went to use the bathroom and found one LARGE rat sitting on the toilet. I have no recollection of how my body got out of the bathroom and back into the bed several feet away. Perhaps there was some divine intervention at work because I know my feet never touched the floor. That night amidst a lot of ranting and raving,   I made it clear that it would be the rats or me, but someone had to go. Chuck jumped into action and by morning we had workers sealing even the tiniest crack on the tile floor to combat the invasion.
Aha! A cat seemed the reasonable solution to keep the nasty critters, err I mean holy things at bay, and one day while at the market I saw this teeny tiny strange looking creature chewing on a leafy pineapple top. I knew he had to be mine. Fitting snugly in my palm, Taj found a new home that day and so began the friendship that continues now 9 years on. It would take some time for him to grow into his big ears and strange tail.   That expression, “a face only a mother would love” seems appropriate in this case. And we do. From those early days in India, Taj has been by our side as we have travelled on assignments. His “passport” has stamps from veterinarians around the world. I often joked that he needed his own frequent flyer program. He has a attitude about his status and isn’t afraid to let you know.
Yes, Taj leads a charmed life. Aside from once playing that age old game of cat and mouse, the only thing he hunts these days is a warm lap and a nice ear rub. I’m looking forward to having him home to give him just that.