Ringo Makes A Splash!
Written by Dr.Laxmi Iyer

Ringo was a blue green eyed Abyssinian who lived in an aimal welfare shelter. She had a rather unattractive record of having been the shelter's only kitten that nobody wanted to adopt. In her kitten days she had never been playful and would suffer frequent colds and coughs. Besides that, her fur would fall off in patches and she would scratch and bite anyone who came close to her. She had developed that bad habit after regularly receiving painful injections and bitter medicines. That was the reason why nobody had wanted to adopt her.

She was now three years old, a beautiful, good tempered and friendly Abyssinian with a lovely coat and good health. Curiously, all the playfulness that she had never shown as a kitten was now beginning to surface in her.

The shelter where Ringo stayed was close to a boarding school. There was a stream that flowed close to the school. It was this place that fascinated Ringo most. However, she was frightened of people- especially children.

A couple of times some kids had chased her and once a little boy had pulled her tail. That incident had shocked her a lot and had made her very cautious of small children.

However, she loved watching the toy boats that they floated on the river. She would watch them from a distance. There was a tree which overlooked the river. Sitting on one of the branches that was directly overhead the river gave her a good view.

She knew the time when the kids would come out to play. Exactly at that time, she would run to the tree and climb up to the special sighting branch from where she could see.

She loved watching the toy leaf boats. She delighted in watching them cruise on the river. She would sit watching them long after they had travelled on - out of her view.

Sometimes, in her daydreams she would paw the air and imagine herself to be sailing away in the little leaf boat.

One day, she saw that the kids had created something unbelievably beautiful. A real boat made of wood. There were beautiful flowers painted in different colours all over the sides of the boat.

She noticed that the kids too were very neatly dressed and rather quiet. In fact, she noticed that this time there were a lot many kids around. She tried counting them but stopped after a while because there were so many kids. The entire river bank was flooded with kids..from one end to the other.

As she took a closer look at the boat, she saw that there was a beautiful red ribbon tied before the boat. And the boat was anchored to the bank.

Suddenly, there was pin-drop silence. She saw the principal of the school come. Then he gave a short speech and cut the ribbon. There was a round of applause. She watched with fascination the big boat moving into the water.

The leaves from the branches high up on the tree kept blocking her view. So, she decided to climb just a little higher to get a better view. It was not often that she got to see a real boat in the river. Just as she had settled herself comfortably, somewhere on a slender branch high up on the tree, she felt a slight creak.

To add to that a strong breeze was sending everything flying. Creeeeeak! She felt the branch on which she was sitting break. She got so terrified that she closed her eyes and mewed helplessly. She held on to the tiny branch that swayed mercilessly in the wind.She felt herself floating in the air clinging on precariously to a slender branch that was as strong as a bunch of twigs.

After what seemed to be an eternity, she felt the branch touch a solid surface. It seemed to feel like it was moving. She could not bring herself to open her eyes. She was terrified. She was certain that she had landed near a cave and that a crocodile would pounce on her.

She opened her eyes to see that she was on the deck of the boat. Suddenly, she felt herself surrounded by a lot of excited and happy voices around her. The kids were checking to see if she had hurt herself and gave her some biscuits to eat. Ringo liked them. They were nice and friendly and not at all the little monsters that she had imagined them to be.

She felt happy! Thrilled to be on a boat ride with the kids and the principal. Her first boat ride! It was unbelievable! Something that she had thought of in her daydreams had actually happened.

She purred contentedly as the children took turns in holding her and talking to her. One of the kids called her Miracle! She liked the way her new name sounded.