The Wild Rose

Upon arrival in India, Britt made it her mission to get a pet. She was going to be alone for two months, and there are about a million stray cats and dogs in Delhi so she took one into her home. Now, she didn’t just go outside and pick up the nearest stray kitten, she went to the mall and adopted one from the stray animal “shelter.” Her name was Ikki, which loosely translates from Hindi as ‘porcupine.’

Unfortunately, after a little more than a week of having her, and despite the excellent care that Britt gave, Ikki took a turn for the worse and ended up having to be taken away by the animal ambulance. We’re not sure if she made it, but we highly doubt it.

Now, Britt was left with an abundance of cat food and no one to feed it to. As luck would have it, a few days prior to my arrival here in Delhi a stray cat showed up on Britt’s balcony. The cat was gnarly looking, with visible ribs and matted fur. To get rid of the leftover cat food Britt put a bowl of it out on the balcony for this stray, and sure enough the cat inhaled it! It has come back every night for two bowls of food, finishing off Ikki’s leftovers. Having seen this cat fatten-up Britt and I decided to keep feeding it and give it a name, Kitty Kitty Bang Bang.

We’ve figured out that Kitty Kitty Bang Bang is stuck on our neighbor’s roof. Someone must have brought him up through the house and forgotten about him (a long time ago!). It’s only about a 4 foot jump from the roof to our balcony, but it’s a three-story jump down to the ground. We would never go near this cat for a plethora of reasons, but mainly because this cat gives off the most evil glares that we’ve ever seen. If looks could kill, then we’d have been 6 feet under a long time ago!