Identity Crises
Written by Mrs Gayatri Barua

She is white with black spots all over. So, George who is all of twelve decided to name her Salt-n-Pep. She is the love of the house. Mornings for Salt-n-Pep start with George playing soft music to wake her up. If she does not like the music, she twitches her whiskers and lashes her tail from side to side, as if voicing out a protest. Right on cue, George rushes to change the music and looks expectantly at her waiting for her approval which she gives by going back to sleep.

George strokes her softly. It's only then that Salt n Pep blinks her eyes indirectly saying "Yeah, I am awake for the day." After opening her eyes wide Salt-n-Pep looks around the room before looking at George. He then picks her up from her bed.

Gently he grooms her and ties a brightly coloured ribbon. Salt-n-Pep rises to the new day with vanity. She looks out of the window gazing at the world outside. "Is everything okay?" is the expression on her face when she looks at the birds and the stray dogs.

After having a proper look she thinks, "Oh, it's the same old day, no changes." She quickly turns her face away after looking at the stray dog, who is busy eating something in the roadside garbage den. "Oh my God, how horrible and meaningless their lives are! Having such a life must be a curse! Why is there no one to look after him! I can't take it any more", That's what Salt-n-Pep's expression seems to say.

With an irritated expression she looks back at George who is busy studying. He has exams. But Salt-n-Pep does not care. She is not just a cat. She is his pet. She knows full well that for George she is more important to him than his books. So she goes near Mike and authoritatively cuddles up to him.

Everything in this house revolves around Salt n Pep. The newspaper vendor would be scolded at, if the cat magazine was not delivered on time, because Salt-n-Pep loves browsing the magazine. She had timings for all her routine works. At times the people in the house would even disturb their day's schedules to adjust to Salt-n-Pep's routine.

Her food is always cooked first with seven different menus for seven different days of the week. The food has to be delicious. A little flaw in the preparation, and Salt-n-Pep won't touch it. She won't eat any fish. It has to be from the few selected types. The milk too has to be flavoured.

Although she eats on the same dining table, Salt-n-Pep always occupies the 'head of the family' seat while eating. Her food is always served first and the family would eat only after she starts eating.

George's Mom and Dad are always concerned about her, sometimes more than George. That makes Mike feel left out envy of Salt-n-Pep. When George mentions this to his parents, they try to convince him that Salt n Pep is the baby of the house, so he should not mind it.

Salt-n-Pep loves it when she goes for her drive. She looks out of the window to the sky above. The sky looks so vast and scary. She sighs in relief "Thank god! I have a shelter for myself." She feels that she is luckier than many cats around.

She is often taken to her favorite park for outings. If it is cold outside George covers her with warm clothing when she is brought out of the car. She swings with George, and she loves the slide. Once when her foot got stuck in the chain of the swing, everyone was so concerned that they took her to the doctor immediately. Even though the doctor told them not to worry, no one slept that night except of course Salt-n-Pep. Salt-n-Pep cherished such love and care from everyone in the family.

Everything seemed to be fine and one felt that her idyllic life would always be the same until that terrible night when George and his family had a small get together.

Both George's and his parent's friends were there. His mom had baked some cakes and made some delicious muffins. She had also baked some delicious biscuits for Salt-n-Pep and as usual her dish was filled with milk. Mike's dad picked her up and introduced her to the gathering.

Just when the party was in full swing, suddenly one of George's friends Timothy noticed a mouse running past him. The mouse ran and hid near the chair. Timothy screamed, as one doesn't usually see a mouse running around the house.

Everyone's attention was drawn to the mouse. The mouse thoroughly enjoying itself ran to the other side of the room. In a couple of minutes, the mouse was all around the place. Suddenly George looked at Salt-n-Pep expecting her to catch the mouse.

But Salt-n-Pep was confused, as she was not at all used to such duties. Salt-n-Pep was even more confused when others in the room joined George again in expecting her to catch the mouse.

At a loss what to do, finally Salt-n-Pep recalled her mom's clear instructions " My child, learn to
catch rats and mice and you'll never go hungry". Although she had never done it, she decided to
give it a try. Just as she was beginning to feel confident about chasing the mouse, the mouse suddenly turned back and jumped at Salt-n-Pep.

She gave a terrifyingly pitiful mew and ran for her life for protection from her master. At this the mouse became bold and chased after Salt-n-Pep for a while and even tweaked her tail before
vanishing. George's father felt a little embarrassed in front of the orthodox crowd who had never seen a cat being chased by a mouse. Just at that point Salt-n-Pep jumped on to his lap.

Meanwhile, Salt-n-Pep heared the loud laughter all around and people screaming, "A mouse chasing a cat, hah… hah…". Salt-n-Pep looked at George, who gave her a cold stare, which she had never seen before. Out of embarrassment, his father dropped Salt-n-Pep to the ground. She of course did not like it.

Mysteriously the mouse appeared again and started chasing Salt-n-Pep. Discarded by her master Salt-n-Pep ran out of the room to safeguard herself from the mouse. Finally she succeeded in hiding herself behind a chair. But she could not understand why everyone was laughing at her.

Later after all the guests are gone Salt-n-Pep walked to George thinking he would cuddle her and comfort her. To her shock he hit her very badly. Her head started reeling. When she gained her composure, she noticed George come charging towards her.

Completely unaware of what was going to happen, she found herself caught by George by the ear and thrown outside the house. "You could not catch a tiny mouse, you dumb cat! You cannot stay here any more. Something is wrong with you. Get out! ". George shut the door on her forever.

Salt-n-Pep looked at the door closing from the corner of her eyes, and realized for the first time that she was of a very different kind and she did not belong there! With a heavy heart as she stepped outside the gate on her own for the first time, she noticed the stray dog wagging his tail and playing with a torn ball. For some time she looked at him playing and saw how happy and contented he looked!

After all, the world outside was not as bad as it seemed to her! She looked at the sky with the stars twinkling, one two three and so many! Oh how beautiful it looked! The ball came and touched Salt-n-Pep from behind. She looked at it and then looked at the dog. She smiled and pushed the ball towards the dog and then started running after the ball. "Yes, the world outside is not as bad as it looks from the windows!"