I want to tell this story, because I wonder if it ever happened to you! I still don’t know why…

Back in 2023, I was on one of my magic walks, and I heard a really loud meow from such a small mouth. A black kitten, mere weeks old, was sitting in an empty field, and I asked the lady across the street if it was her cat. It wasn’t. He had a broken foot and smelled terrible, but I bundled him up and brought him home. We gave him milk, to which I regretted later, because I learned he shouldn’t have milk from a cow. Oops. We brought him to the vet with a 50% chance of survival, and I believed in him. He won! He’s now our Rama, named after Lord Rama, the strong avatar in our spiritual path, Hinduism.

Two years later, perhaps out of boredom, or protection, he brought another kitten into our farmhouse! We lived in the countryside in Portugal and regularly kept our door open at night for fresh air from the deadly heat, so he crept inside with her. I woke up to the sound of another little meow, and Rama was chasing her around, as if he was playing with her. I looked at my husband confused. Why? How? We named her Lila, which means “the divine play” in Hinduism. She’s now just over one year old and we live together as a happy family.

But… Why? How? Did Rama chase her home as an act of dominance? Did he sincerely want a permanent play-date? Where was Lila’s mother? Did he do it out of compassion and know she was abandoned? I still have no idea where she came from or how Rama found her, so maybe you have some idea about cat behaviour that I don’t fully understand…