Every day, two households in Srirangam pack a container of cooked rice mixed with milk, bottle plain milk, and pack a few disposable plastic cups and a box of crunchies. The food is carried to the temple and laid out on banana leaves at various spots. “The minute they see us, they bound towards us, polish off the food and reward us with satisfied purrs and unwavering loyalty,” says G. Santhanalakshmi, who has been feeding over 40 stray cats and kittens within the temple along with K.P. Gopalakrishnan and his wife, G. Lalitha.
While Santhanalakshmi has been feeding the strays for the past eight years, Gopalakrishnan and Lalitha started pitching in about a year ago. “Though we let our pet cat into the temple because it was getting difficult to manage it at home, we were worried about it and that’s how we began coming to the temple regularly to feed it,” says Lalitha.
Soon the couple realised that there were not only more cats within the temple, but others who were already feeding them. “Apart from us, there were others like Mythili Jagannathan and her daughter and Santhanalakshmi who were feeding cats within the temple for quite similar reasons and we began helping each other out.”
Since Mythili and her daughter are no longer able to regularly feed the cats, Lalitha says she and her husband started feeding cats in the evenings as well. Today, Santhanalakshmi, Lalitha and Gopalakrishnan have divided among themselves the spots and timings at which they will be feeding the cats. While Santhanalakshmi comes in during the mornings to feed her lot, Gopalakrishnan comes both morning and evening to feed them all.
Sure enough, the cats have figured out their timetable and run eagerly towards their friends at the appointed times. “A lot of people wonder if we are fulfilling some prayer or if we were advised by astrologers to feed the cats, but we do it only because we love them,” says Lalitha. “Sometimes cats litter on the streets surrounding the temple and people often leave the newborns within the temple,” says Santhanalakshmi, who carries home the ones that seem too small or weak to manage on their own. She nurtures them at home for nearly four months till they begin eating rice and then brings them back to the temple. “Asidha is one such kitten that I released into the temple after it had matured a little and till date it remains extremely possessive of me, openly resenting the other cats I feed,” she laughs. But it isn’t an entirely nurtured life for the cats within the temple: “Though most people are supportive of our efforts, there are a few with objections and others who leave the cats on the roads unprotected,” says Lalitha. Santhanalakshmi says she has over the years learnt to ignore those who object to her feeding the cats.
Very often the cats get injured over territorial fights, which are very common according to Gopalakrishnan. “If a cat from another spot wanders into alien territory, the other cats will immediately chase it away, often severely wounding the wandering cat,” he says.
The three of them, therefore, lookout for injured cats, newborn kittens and depressed cats that refuse food. “We inform each other over phone about such cats, and take them to the vet whenever required,” says Santhanalakshmi, who adds that they also keep each other informed on the rare occasion they aren’t able to make it to the temple.
“But we never miss even a single day, because we’d be so worried about the cats getting hungry, so we come even during rains and hardly travel.” However, on important festival days like the Vaikunta Ekadesi and the Chithirai Ther Vizha, they have no choice but to forgo their routine.
