When Atia Mathai spotted a blind cat on the street and took him home, she was wondering what to do next. It turns out he had already decided for her. The very next day after she brought him indoors, she walked into a room to find him sitting calmly on a high stool. “Like the Lion King,” she laughs, of the moment she knew his name would be Rajah, and that he would be part of her family along with Felix, her other rescued cat. Rajah, whom the veterinarians say was born blind, was part of a homeless litter near a restaurant. Mathai recalls feeling scared for him when she first saw him on her way to a friend’s house. “I stopped the car and went to the cashier. They were very kind and helpful,” she says of the wait-staff who caught him and put him in a cardboard box with holes in it.
Mathai and her husband Sundeep had discussed adopting another cat to keep Felix company, and found that it took less than a day for Felix and the newcomer to become thick as thieves. “At first, Felix didn’t understand why Rajah didn’t respond to body language. But they worked it out beautifully — they play with each other, rough-and-tumble. And we tied a bell on Felix,” she laughs, explaining that she wanted to make it a level playing field and avoid ‘surprise pouncing’. Today, Rajah’s favourite game is football (also with a bell inside it), second only to hiding silently in corners and jumping on his owners with much amusement. “He comes to the door and sniffs visitors,” says Mathai who calls him the alpha cat that never tires of the attention he gets from people.
“These cats taught us that there isn’t such a thing as a ‘dog person’ or ‘cat person’. Every pet has a distinct personality,” she says, adding that Rajah sidles up to her in the morning asking for a cuddle or a scratch, and goes to her husband in the evening to play with his shoes and fuss over him.
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“There’s nothing you can do to budge him when he sits on your shoulder,” she says of the fearless ginger cat who has come a long way from his rough life on the streets five months ago. “He makes you appreciate the way he navigates the world. He mapped out the new house so quickly. When transplanted out of his comfort zone, his reaction is: ‘I will explore this, and see what to do’. I admire that courage he has. It’s a lesson for us”.