World Traveler

Marius' 1st train

Marius has the misfortune to be the kitten that I picked up during this trip. Cosette was lucky and had her own home. Most people in the area knew her and most of them liked her as well. She traveled around a little bit with me on my bike, but the first time she actually traveled was when we left India for the US. Marius, on the other hand, has already had a lot of travel experience for such a young cat. Heck, he’s had a good bit of travel experience for any cat. And he’s remarkably chill about it all for such a little guy.

Sleeping in his basket before we got on the train

 

The first train was what really concerned me. We had 36 hours to be on the train with no real option for getting off of it. What he if freaked out? What if he got sick and made a mess all over everything? What if other passengers took issue with him and got mad that he was there? What if he made a lot of noise and refused to stop? There were so many things that could possibly go wrong.

Marius was a little displeased to begin with, due to the fact that he had to start out in his basket instead of on my lap. After a couple of minutes of disgruntled meowing, he settled down and fell asleep.

Then the trip got underway, and you should have seen the looks on the faces of everyone there when I pulled Marius out of his basket. He was still a little sleepy, but very happy to be out of his basket. He climbed onto my shoulder and snuggled in, staring at everything around us. People were pointing and taking pictures, and calling their friends over to be sure that they saw Marius. I just tried to act like it was perfectly normal :~)

And then I got to experience what friends have told me is typical of traveling with a child in India. Everyone wanted to hold Marius. It started while I was eating. Crazy little thing was trying to climb into my food. I had him under control, but some of the people sitting near me wanted to take him. I think it was just a convenient excuse for them to take Marius.



his first time going to someone else

First, a group of them took him for cuddles and gave him biscuits. He was still in my line of sight, but I kept checking to make sure they were holding his leash and whatnot. Didn’t want him stepping out the window.

Then people from other compartments realized that Marius was there. People came to take him to visit the people they were traveling with. I’m not sure how many biscuits that kitten ate over the next couple of hours.

I got a little nervous when we came to a stop and Marius was nowhere to be seen. Everyone just sort of laughed when I asked for him back, telling me that he was sleeping or eating or some such. But when we were stopped, I refused to just wait for them to decide to bring him back.

such a ladies' man

Pretty sure everyone thought I was mental when I went and insisted upon getting him back. But they handed him to me without any problem.

The rest of the evening sort of went this way. I’d have him a little while, then someone would take him for a bit. Then he’d come back to me, and people would line up to get pictures of the crazy white chick and her kitten. Marius handled it all like a pro. He was happiest when he got to sit with his Mommy (he’s a bit of a Mommy’s boy), but he was friendly toward everyone, and only pooped on one person’s belongings.

We were a little less of a novelty the next day, which was kind of nice. People were still friendly toward us, but in less of a staring at a circus side show manner. Marius slept most of the day (since he’d stayed awake the whole night) and played happily during the time that he was awake.

All told, our first train ride was a great experience for both of us. I’m hoping the next one goes as well. Or better.

He loves to take up way more than his fair share of the seat...
 

   

Curiousity didn't seem to do too much to him



Happy boy

Going a little psycho after waking up 

Sleeping on his banana pillow like a true world traveler.

 

Remember, Remember, the 3rd of September

Cosette now has a little brother to share this blog with. And I have a new favourite day of the year.

On the 3^rd of September (though I’m hoping you were able to guess that from the title of this blog), I was walking around Fort Kochi, thinking about Cosette and wishing I could be with her on the 1 year anniversary of the day I found her.

I explored the town some, did a little shopping, etc., etc. Actually, I don’t rightly recall just what I did. But as I walked down the road along the docks, I saw a tiny kitten who was darting out into traffic as though looking for someone to pick him up. What a shock, I picked him up, and instead of fighting me as many cats would, he spun around, trying to snuggle closer to me. I was pretty much smitten with him immediately.

I knew though that I wouldn’t be able to take him back to the guesthouse where I was staying. I was in a dorm room with other people, so there would be no way to hide the fact that I had a kitten. Especially as he demonstrated that he knew the best way to get my attention was to climb up and meow in my face.  
So I took him to the Mad Dogs’ Trust, an animal shelter across town. I got many strange looks, walking through the town with a kitten who kept meowing, and trying to climb up onto my shoulder. I finally reached the point where I simply did not react to the looks. Honestly, you reach a point after some time, where you just don’t even care anymore that you’re being stared at. You see it, but you stop being bothered. And I knew that my options were to either not be stared at too much (but probably be stared at some, just for being white) and leave the kitten behind, or take care of him and be stared at a lot. Staring didn’t really bother me when those were the options. Instead, I pretended that there was no one on the street but Marius and me. Though, for some reason, my mind did register the people who got huge smiles on their faces upon seeing us…

I left him for the night at the shelter, promising to be back the next morning to see him. The thing of it is, even then, I had no plans to take him home with me. I planned to leave him at the shelter. As it turned out, however, they were just preparing to close down, and any animals they couldn’t find homes for would be turned out onto the street. And Marius, being new, would have been low on the list of animals they would make an effort to find a home for. I contacted a couple of people, but neither could take another cat. For this reason, my plans changed, and I decided that, in spite of the hassle it would be, I would take Marius with me.
And this was the beginning. During the time we spent in Fort Kochi, Marius and I grew very attached to one another. He went all over town with me. We went for walks, went to restaurants, and even watched the sunset at the beach. He occasionally became frightened by people, or dogs, or loud vehicles, but eventually realized that if he was snuggled up to me, there was no reason to be afraid.
So once again, I have ended up with a friend who I love dearly though I never foresaw that we would meet. We’ll see how all of this ends up.