29th April 2017

I found you in the back lane behind two Sundays ago,

Dumped, I'm guessing, because you were a girl 
Which, unless you were in the cat breeding business,

Was bad news to a cat owner in this part of the world

Just as being born a girl was bad news in India

Although for different reasons, dowry-related, mostly.

No matter.

You were about, what, three months old?

Good.

The moment I saw you, I said to myself, this one I'm keeping for myself.
Why?

Because every cat born in this household for the last ten, nay, twenty years

Either died of something, went missing or, in the case of the boys, left home

And you represented a new hope, a fresh start,

To rebuilding the cat family I once had

And lived for,

Mostly.

Eve,

That's what your name shall be,

For just as the biblical Eve was the mother of all of mankind,

So too shall you be the mother of the new generation of cats born into this family,

By the grace of Almighty God,
Amen.

On second thoughts, make that Hurricane Eve, 
In accordance with the way you enjoyed dashing about the place
With the strength and energy of a little hurricane.