The Cat and the Squirrel

My morning walks are enlivened by the sight of squirrels running, chasing each other (cannot say whether in friendly competition or in rivalry), chomping nuts , climbing trees and simply moving from one place to another. Their speed is amazing; their jump is breathtaking. Neither Usain Bolt in 100mtrs dash nor Mike Powell in long jump can match the speed and stride of the squirrels. They have a running start at 12 miles / 18kms per hour and with absolute ease jump vertically about 4 feet / 6 kms.  What is astounding is they are non-stop runners till they retire to their habitat in the trees at the end of a day’s workout. I used to wonder if these nut crackers can ever be caught-given their speed, stamina and stability.

       My delight in squirrels was marred the other day when I saw a cat on the prowl. I have never been a cat lover as I recall Eliot’s unpleasant image of the cat as that

                                             which flatters  itself in the gutter

                                             slips out its tongue

                                                  and devours a morsel of rancid butter

    The cat is cunning, slimy, silent and somewhat untrustworthy and disloyal. In fact Montaigne said:” When I play with my cat, who knows whether she isn't amusing herself with me more than I am with her?” The cat has the sciurine ability to make a sudden leap after pretending to lie curled and asleep.  One day during my walk a small cat surfaced and in a peculiar way it moved ahead of me keeping a two feet distance. It was as though it was a mine sweeper clearing the land mines ahead of me. This became a daily routine and I tried to reorganize my pace-either to walk slow so as to remain away from the cat’s visibility or too fast to overtake it and in this, I failed as the cat was much faster and had a mathematical genius to maintain the distance at two feet. I slowly began to warm up to the cat and began to miss it when it did not show up.

     But I got the jolt of my life when one day I saw the cat suddenly leap up and with an eagle-like swoop catch a squirrel from behind and run towards a bush to have its breakfast. Maybe the squirrel had a momentary lapse of auditory concentration as it failed to register the silence of the cat’s paw. My first reaction was to throw a stone at the cat so that the jerk would let go the squirrel from its mouth. But the savior syndrome did not last for long as I questioned the correctness of my attempt to rescue the squirrel and deny the cat its breakfast. Neither the squirrel nor the cat had done any harm to me nor for that matter I missed the cat less and loved the squirrel more. It was a matter for the two to resolve not through reasoned arguments but by greater physical agility and skill. It may be argued that   cat had no right to enter the park which is the habitat of the squirrels as they rest on the trees. But the moot question is who has drawn the LOC and who has denied the cat the freedom to roam round the park.  The park is free for all to enter- that includes me, you, the squirrel and the cat. No doubt the squirrel had been blessed by Lord Ram for its efforts to pile up a stone heap across the ocean for Ram to cross over to Lanka. But that was in Treta Yug while we are now in Kali Yug which according to Hindu Cosmology grants maximum freedom with the least quality of life. The squirrel can no longer display its stripes of honour to gain immunity from the cat. I realized that a third party interference was not called for in this issue between the cat and the squirrel.

    I returned home with mixed emotions, sad about the squirrel and complacent about the right of the cat to have its breakfast. I sat down to read the Newspapers. The headlines screamed that Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistan PM had raised the K-issue with a delegation of US senators. I was relieved to learn that the US senators  had declined Nawaz’s call for intervention in Kashmir saying American policy on Kashmir "has not changed an iota" and it was left to the two sides to sort it out at time and pace and place of their choosing. I smiled to myself that in my limited way I had also endorsed bilateralism with regard to the issue relating to the cat and the squirrel.