Porridge goes to work!
Written by Dr. Laxmi Iyer

His name was Porridge. Why did his owners call him Porridge? It was still not clear to Porridge although it was obvious to everybody. The Schwartz family with whom Porridge lived were very fond of their pet. Both Joel and Eleanor Schwartz, the older girls Jane and June and the younger twins - Rocky and Robin loved having him around.

Of course he had Porridge shades on his ears, his paws, and even a porridge shaped blob right across his chest. But still that was no reason to call him Porridge. The twins sometimes sang a song teasing him, Porridge! Porridge! Slurp! Slurp!

He couldn't help it. He loved porridge and he loved slurping it loudly and licking it clean off his plate and the plates of all the other stray cats who dropped in at breakfast time. He felt silly but his weakness for porridge was just too much.

Sometimes, he even licked the drops of porridge stuck to the fur and whiskers of the other cats. When he did that, everyone in the family would come to watch him. Then, they would walk upto Porridge and cuddle him. Porridge loved that. He loved being the centre of attention.

However, unfortunately for Porridge in the past year, a lot of interesting developments had been taking place in the Schwartz household.

Of late Eleanor Schwartz had taken up a job and the twins - Robin and Rocky had started going to playschool. He was the only one at home- all alone by himself. For a few weeks, he tried sleeping it out but it was now beginning to get boring.

Both Jane and June, the older kids were now in higher classes and they had stopped giving him the kind attention that they used to. Now, all he heard them talking was about practicing for games and studying for exams. They barely patted him and sometimes forgot to even say hello to him when they returned from school. They were all beginning to act as if he didn't exist and if he did - as if he was just another ordinary cat.

It was high time to grab the family's attention but how? That was the big question. All his old tricks had begun to bore everyone. Porridge decided he would do something different... What was it going to be? Well, he told himself, that since every one in the family was away at work or school, he needed to be busy too. He thought hard. He had to be busy in a way that would endear him to the family.

Well, he couldn't go about playing those silly games like all the other cats or sitting in the sun and cleaning himself. Nobody would notice him then. Porridge decided he would learn how to sing. But how was he going to learn how to sing? And who was going to teach him?

It was funny and strange come to think of it. Each day, as he went to sleep his desire to sing only became stronger and stronger. Eleanor sang wonderfully. Her deep voice literally lifted him out of his sleep and carried him across into another world.

Would she teach him how to sing and how was he going to ask her to do so? Would she understand what he said to her? And after all he was only a plain and simple cat. And all he knew how to say was a Meow! A meow that wouldn't change much which ever way he tried. High pitched or low pitched, it still remained Meow!

That didn't sound like even the beginning of a song. No cat in the world had ever been heard to sing. Not even the temple cats of Burma and China or the cats in Egypt. Porridge began to feel that he was going to go crazy with this mad wish of wanting to sing.

Why! Eleanor wouldn't even be able to imagine that he could think so much. All she thought of him was as a living teddy doll - the way she baby talked to him - in a baby voice - tucking his chin, patting his back and stroking his ears.

She would never for the life of her imagine that he was intelligent enough to understand every word they spoke. Why! He was sure that he had heard her say to her friends, whenever they wanted to confide some intimate details to her, " Don't worry Porridge doesn't understand a word of what you are saying. He is just looking at you like that. He is really a rather dumb cat ".

" Well! Well! " Porridge said to himself, " There has to be a way! ". There was a way. He had once seen some chimps playing a musical instrument on television.

That morning Porridge walked into a music shop and stood there mewing. The owner feeling very sorry for him fed him some milk.

Porridge stood there resolutely mewing even louder in front of a piano. He walked up and down the piano. The owner wondered if there was something wrong with the piano.

Everyday Porridge would walk upto the music shop and stand in front of the piano. Then, one day he finally mustered up some courage to gently tap a couple of keys.

The sounds turned everyone's heads in the direction of the piano. Porridge who loved attention simply once again struck the same notes- this time with much greater force.

Just at that moment a gentleman who had entered the shop asked the owner excitedly, " I am a film maker and I am looking for a cat who loves music and can play some notes. Is that cat yours? "

Porridge who had his owner's name and address boldly printed around his ribbon beamed with pride as he once again displayed his new found ability.