Written By Yashvi Jalan (Grade 9)
Snowy proudly entered the room with her tail wagging and crawled onto my lap. She had peculiar orange and white stripes all over her body. Her ears and whiskers were extraordinarily large. Her eyes were torrent black with a tinge of sap green. A few months ago, I found her lying on my doorstep. Almost instantly, I had decided to foster that cat.
For a few days, I had been suffering from insomnia. That night, I lay awake on my bed. Suddenly, I heard an odd sound coming from the study. Assuming it to be an intruder, I grabbed a bottle of pepper spray and a broom. As, I tiptoed down the hallway and swiftly turned the doorknob, I stood frozen. I could not anticipate the scene in front of me. Snowy was sitting on the intricated rocking chair, typing what seemed like an essay on my laptop. To my bewilderment, she was talking in an unfamiliar language to someone through a mysterious device. Instantly, I confronted her and demanded for an appropriate explanation. For a moment, she looked shocked and then jumped down from the rocking chair. With an incessant river of guilt pouring through her eyes, she unzipped herself and the cat body fell aloof. A cadet-blue, shapeless and one-eyed figure stood in front of my eyes.
Accompanied with a robotic voice, Snowy defined her true identity. She hailed from a planet far beyond the Earth. Life there revolved around nature and technology. However, the citizens there wanted to experience life on earth. So, a group of qualified professors and scientist along with Snowy transformed themselves into common animals and took refuge in the houses of some people. She then said that the tenure of their expedition was about to expire tomorrow and they would return to their original habitat soon.
That was a lot of information to process in one minute. A plethora of thoughts bombarded my mind. I was no longer disappointed with Snowy. Within these few months, I grew deeply attached with my alien cat and could not bear separation from her. However, I could not stop her from returning to her family. A tear rolled down my eye and Snowy crawled onto my lap. I held onto her for the entire night. The following morning, I woke up only to find out that she had disappeared forever. “There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.” – Albert Schweitzer
Featured Image Courtesy – Times of India
