Fanther, the frail and tiny cat, teaches us the fine art of resilience!
By Nigar
I spotted Fanther at a very green place, which is somewhat like a rainforest (let’s call it the ‘Jingle Jungle Lodge’) when I was staying there for a while. He scampered so fast that in a matter of seconds I could catch only a fleeting glimpse of his velvety black-brownish colour and pretty brown stripes as he rushed away. He looked like a panther, and so I named him ‘Fanther’.
A very cute little cat, Fanther is actually grown up,but malnourishment during his kitty days seems to have left him tiny-sized.Fanther is a free wild cat that has sort of adopted the lodge for his occasional home. Once, I saw him dash into the big kitchen and only God knows how he managed to get any food there amidst the clutter and clatter of people, pots and pans. I’ve also seen him scampering up the steps towards the office, looking all very serious, as if he was checking if people in the office were working or not!
One hilarious quality of Fanther is that when many people arrive at the lodge for seminars or other sorts of meetings he vanishes and suddenly reappears after the crowd has gone. Climbing down a tree at breakneck speed, he may stop to give you a startled stare, as if to inform you that he had worked so hard to make the meeting a great success just like some human beings do especially at weddings and other such parties, rushingup and down because theywant others to believe that they are really very ‘busy’!
Fanther’s undernourished look worried me a lot. I would have loved to fetch some kitty food for him, but that would bebreaking the lodge rules. One day, Fanther’s popping in and hopping out in the kitchen did not seem to go well with some of the lodge folks. So, Fanther was caught in a sack and left a distance away from the lodge. Knowing a bit about cat intelligence, I knew Fanther would come back even if the so-called ‘clever’ humans thought they had got rid of him!
And lo and behold, a few days laterFanther was back in action at the lodge, scampering up and down the trees, prancing on rooftops and courageously curling himself up on a chair in the dining hall, fast asleep!
Looking at Fanther, I learnt how muchfaith this tiny cat has in God. While humans tried to stifle his right to stay at the lodge, with God’s grace he found his way back to his territory! God provides for him, although he may not be getting food from humans. In the race for survival, Fanther is a victor and a winner.
Life’s challenges may put us in situations we may find difficult to handle, but like Fanther, we only need to have faith in God, work hard, overcome fear and be firmly established in our values, without letting others disempower us!
Fanther is undernourished and frail, but he has been blessed with abundant courage by God. He teaches us that if life ties us up in a tight sack which we humans call ‘problems’, like him, we should seek God’s help, develop resilience to set ourselves free and climb the rooftops of success!
Today, Fanther is the king of ‘Jingle Jungle Lodge’, although not many there even know he is around! Dashing in and out here and there, Fanther does not need anybody’s purrmission!!!!!
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