Rescue Meow11 I was taking a walk last night around the block along with my mom in order to pacify my paranoia and anxiety. Just as we were done walking and about to return to the road homewards, I saw an uncanny and somewhat eerie thing. I stopped dead in my tracks and made my mom stop as well. It was quite dark as well and we really had to make quite an effort to make out what we were seeing. What looked like a headless furry creature crawling around was a cat – a regular partially stray feline of the neighborhood. We couldn’t see a head just an unshapely shinning thing, where there should be a head. It took me a while to decipher what was what and what must have happened. He had got his head stuck in a milk shopper or one even smaller than that. Probably, the poor Tommy was scavenging through the neighborhood dumpster for some extra after dinner bite [or maybe his owners threw him out and weren’t feeding him anymore], and he must have slid his head into the bag to lick milk or yogurt and had got it stuck. Now he couldn’t see and/or breathe properly, that’s why he was crawling on the ground and whimpering. Upon hearing the patters of our feet, the poor animal stopped crawling and started meowing in the most gut wrenching of the voice. But he was panicky and frantic nevertheless. The more I tried to coo to pacify him and inch towards him; he started moving away from me. I was also scared of getting scratched or clawed in an attempt to free his head, as he was a frisky cat and didn’t allow me before as well to pet him. Anyways, I finally went to the night watchman and politely requested him to help. I was expecting him to say something like: “What can I do? This is not my job? stuff, etc.” He came nevertheless with me! By this time, another white cat had come and was sitting close to the tom’s shrouded head with an extremely frightened and helpless look, and she was meowing softly. While I cornered the crawling creature in the bushes, the watchman freed the cat’s head from the shopper - though with some effort. As soon as the head was free, Tommy skipped for his dear life, ran and hid under my car, and the watchman went his way! What a relief! I know! At this side of the globe, many people guffaw at the thought of being concerned over an animal, when human beings are suffering too from pain, hunger, death….hunger above all! In a world where we give a human life worth less than that of an animal; there, we don’t consider an animal even a living breathing object….god’s creature and creation. Well consider that these creatures don’t have the faculty of speech to voice their pain….This recount was just a freak accident, but do we ever flinch when our children pelt stones at animals, harass them, make them starve? How can we expect god to be kind and merciful to us, when we don’t show mercy to a helpless creature, any helpless creature? This was a Hadees or Riwayaat? I think the latter. But amidst all the hunger, pain, misery and savageness of war and genocide that surround our world, can I cry and feel sorry for “just” a cat? I almost doubt myself. Almost! Being a human being and to be one in essence is the hardest thing! I am misogamist, many a days I would baby talk with a stray cat than bear the small talk of people around me, gaze at a chirping sparrow or menna sitting on the window sill and wish that my weary spirit would glide with theirs. Away…twit-to-woo- away- away- far away! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Update: Ya the tom is fine. Now he has started to recognize me and acknowledge my presence with a meowl. He still doesn;t allow me to touch him; however, now he doesn't run away and come and sit near me and make interesting guttaral voices. In some ways, the animal is better than those ungrateful people that we come across every day. Don;t worry! i am not forsakingo r writing off human beings any time sooner.