Last year around this time, we mourned the passing of Sher Khan. One year on, we still have not got over his departure, but we remember him with love and gratitude. The day he died, just about everyone at Cattitude (the Trust we run in Chennai for cats in distress) was crying. The trustees, the shelter caretakers, our vet and our loyal volunteers. During a routine vet visit, Sher Khan just keeled over and died. With no indication that anything had been wrong, other than a scratchy ear.
He wasn’t young. He had been through a lot. And we were all waiting excitedly for him to see his new room at the shelter we are about to move the cats to. But Khan decided it was time to go. Two years ago before he died, he was rescued off the IIT campus with a leg full of maggots. His vets spent two months fighting to save his leg and then his life. Throughout his ordeal, he maintained his dignity, and I used to find his forbearance awesome.
Visitors would be pulled in by his sad eyes and would want to stroke him and ask me how he was doing. Then one day I got to bring him home to heal up. His delight at finding himself on a soft cloth, stroked and fussed over, was palpable, and slowly he began to relax and enjoy life, along with our other foster child Zen.
When the time came for Khan to join our shelter family, he was not happy. We thought he never would be and I despaired of ever seeing him “smile” but slowly and surely, Khan began to feel at home. Began to respond to his companions, show affection (particularly for Candy, the blind cat), began to feel completely at home. In the last three months of his life, we were informed of an unexpected phenomenon. Khan had started to PLAY! He would run around on his three legs, defend Candy from imagined harassment, and roll over playfully for his tummy or chin to be scratched. Maybe Khan needed to know complete contentment before he moved on.
Personally, my sense of loss goes deeper than I can say. Khan was my inspiration. He reminded me that if we hang in there, we can come through the toughest times. He showed me how to bear difficulty with fortitude. He honoured us with his eventual trust, and affection. Above all, he demonstrated, quite unequivocally, that his life had been worth saving a hundred times over, and more, three legs or not.
A life we are deeply grateful to have shared. Rest in peace, beloved friend. Till we all meet again some day.
Devika Mukerji Khazvini runs Cattitude, a shelter for cats. She loves all living things and passionately champions animals who can’t stand up to cruelty or just plain neglect.