Harmony
Jessica peeped in to the corner of her room where Tina – her Pomeranian was lying with the newborn puppies. Tina looked at her and wagged her tail. “Tina is lucky she has good owners to take care of her!” thought Jessica. She felt very sad when she remembered what she heard in the morning. Mrs. Fernando, her neighbour was telling her father about a cat which had got run-over by a vehicle. “She had no owner,” said Mrs. Fernando. “She was abandoned by the side of the road sometime back because she was a female!” “People who can’t be responsible should not adopt pets and make them suffer!” her father said, “If you don’t want your pet to breed, you should get them operated. It’s a simple procedure and there are places that do it free of charge. Throwing your pets to the road is not the solution!”
“That is true!” said Mrs. Fernando, nodding her head. She then sighed and said, “That cat had a kitten a few days back.” Jessica was shocked. “Aunty, where is the kitten?” she asked. “It was in our shed all these days, but yesterday my son saw the cat carrying it in her mouth and
taking it away. Cats sometimes change places like that, you know.
So now we don’t know where the kitten is!” replied Mrs. Fernando. Jessica felt very sad.
That afternoon Jessica went to the garage to find an old piece of cloth for the puppies. Then she heard a faint sound. At first she couldn’t figure out what it was. So she went near an old cardboard box at the corner of the garage, where the sound came from. She couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw a tiny kitten in it. His eyes were still closed, just like Tina’s newborn puppies. Jessica ran to her neighbour’s house and brought
Mrs. Fernando over. After a closer look at the kitten, she nodded her head and said, “Yes darling, this is that kitten!” Then she sighed and said “I don’t think he’ll survive without his mother, how sad!”
Jessica ran into her house and dragged her father to the garage. “Can we keep him Dada?” she asked her father. “He’s too tiny, Jessica!” her father replied. “But Dada, we can make some milk and give him,” said Jessica eagerly.
“He can’t drink on his own. Besides the kind of milk we drink may not be good for him, because he is very small,” her father said. “What do we do Dada?” Jessica asked with tears in her eyes.
“Maybe,” said her father after thinking for a while, “if we can get Tina to nurse her that might be a solution!”
“But Tina might know that he is not one her puppies and bite him!” Jessica said. “Yes, there is a
possibility of that happening, so we will have to be very careful when we try it! This is the best solution we have now!” her father told her.
They carefully took the tiny
kitten inside the house, where the puppies were. Tina was not to be seen. Jessica’s father slowly kept the kitten among the puppies. The kitten snuggled up to them and slept.
A little while later Tina came to the room. Jessica’s father stood near the kitten, ready to take him away if Tina tried to attack him. Tina knew at once there was a stranger. She approached the kitten but her tail was wagging continuously.
She didn’t growl or look aggressive at all. She sniffed the kitten for a while, her tail still wagging. Then she lay down. The puppies knew their
mother was near and crawled towards her whining. Then she let them feed themselves. Jessica’s father carefully kept the kitten among them. Tina didn’t mind
nursing the kitten. She just looked at it and laid her head on the ground. Jessica’s father smiled happily.
“It looks like we’ve found the little kitten a surrogate mother.
Tina has adopted the kitten as a son!” he said. Jessica felt very happy.
A couple of weeks later the
puppies and the kitten, all opened their eyes. The puppies saw no
difference in their adopted brother. They all played together and slept together in one pile. Tina treated everyone equally. She licked and nursed the kitten like it was one of her own.
The kitten probably thought of himself as a puppy or maybe he thought that the others were kittens. They were all one happy family. Watching them together one day, Jessica’s father sighed and said,
“I feel ashamed sometimes, because animals seem to have better qualities than most humans!” “Why do you say so Dada?” Jessica asked him. “This kitten is not even the same kind of animal as a dog, but look at how they have accepted him and how peacefully they stay together. I can’t
understand why people can’t be like this!”
“Jessica,” said her father turning towards her, “People should never fight based on their differences.
A person’s race or religion depends on the family they are born to, but that doesn’t make any person more or less superior than another person.
If these puppies can accept a kitten
as their brother, why can’t one human being accept another human being as his brother? The difference of race or creed is not found in the inside of the human body. We are all the same and we all have red blood running through our veins! Race or religion should never be a reason for one person to dislike another!”
Jessica nodded her head in
agreement while watching Tina
licking the little kitten. She knew her father was right. If animals could live in harmony, there was no reason why human beings couldn’t. Such peace would lead to a beautiful world where there are no wars. After all, every human being belonged only to one race – the human race!