No Cats Allowed - The Kracker Cat Blog: As soon as we settled down in Bangalore, India, a cat appeared

Friday, May 8, 2009

As soon as we settled down in Bangalore, India, a cat appeared - more on this to come

It has been so long since I have posted a cat pic here! I did not see a single cat during my most recent wanderings in the Arctic. Afterward, I did spend a few days at home and I did take several Kracker cat pictures, but I never got the chance to post them.

Now I am in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, with Tryskuit and no sooner had we arrived when this mother cat appeared.

Mother cat?

That means there must be kittens, right?

Come back and find out.

8 comments:

Charlie said...: Very good sign to see a cat that soon after landing if you ask me!! I hope you both are having an incredible time in India! Take care.

Charlie; May 8, 2009 at 8:31 PM
Zippy, Sadie, Speedy and M'Gee said...: A mother cat...purrfect fur Mother's Day.; May 9, 2009 at 2:28 PM
JP said...: Hey, do get in touch with us if you need help with cats while in Bangalore. My number is 9731985661; May 10, 2009 at 7:50 PM
yashas said...: hey nice to see you in blore..i m a big fan of your blog..they are 5 kittens who hav made their home in my neighbours car:).."namma (our) blore is more of a dog city but you wont be disappointed
cheers; May 13, 2009 at 3:46 AM
The Activist said...: I didnt see any cat in Bangalore during my stay. She is a beauty. How are you enjoying Bangalore?; May 13, 2009 at 6:19 AM
dannah said...: hey, while you enjoy your company with your cat and while waiting for that mamma cat to arrive, you may want to visit http://dogtime.com/dogs-just-know-sweepstakes.html and join the Pup-peroni Sweepstakes that could win you $750 worth of prize package!; May 17, 2009 at 6:04 PM
Suzi said...: Hi, if you are still in Bangalore and want to meet our girls do let me know!; May 19, 2009 at 9:16 PM
Grahamn Kracker said...: To my Bangalore friends:

I apologize for not getting in touch. I had so little time and was always on the go - mostly outside of Bangalore. We went traveling - from Mysore to Ooty to Chennai to Hampi, to Badami...

We just traveled and traveled.

Saw a few cats. Not many. You will see those that I managed to photograph here.; May 27, 2009 at 7:44 PM

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Due to an unfortunate series of events that beset me as a child, I grew up believing myself to be a despiser of cats. After I married, five children came to Sunflower and I, and when my two youngest, both daughters, would see someone giving away kittens in the parking lot of the local grocery store, they would beg, "Please, Daddy! Let us take home a kitten!"

With a smile, a tilt of the head and the bat of an eye, Tryskuit and Nabysko could charm just about anything they wanted out of me, but towards cats, my heart was hard. "No!" I would deny them, "Dogs are fine, dogs are good, but let just one thing be understood: in my house, there are no cats allowed!"

And then on a hot July day in Alaska, in the year 1991, a skinny kitten stepped out of the woods behind our house - quite literally, he stepped out of a dream and came to me, to beg for my ham. He relished the ham, but he did not care for the pickle, nor the mustard.

That cat stayed, and more followed. These are the Kracker Cats, and in this blog, the stories of all will be told. These will be happy stories, humourous stories, frustrating stories, sad stories, tragic stories. Readers - you who love cats - you will laugh, and you will cry!

To see all the Kracker Cats, both the original and contemporary, scroll down.

I travel a great deal, mostly in Alaska, but I wander into many other places as well. As my children grew, I was gone from home as much as not, sometimes more. When I was home, I would tell my children bedtime stories. By the time Kaboodle appeared at our house, the boys had outgrown these stories but my daughters still thrived on them.

Now, they insisted that every story that I tell be about a cat. So I made up some wonderful ones, right on the spot, and I was always as curious as they were to see how these stories would turn out.

Then one day as I was about to climb into my airplane and fly off to a village in the Alaska bush, Nabysko, the youngest, looked up at me and said, "Daddy! Write us a cat story while you are gone!"

So I did. Not long after, I happened upon a cat. I took its picture. I inquired about its history. When I returned home, I showed the picture to the girls, and told them what I had learned about the cat's history.

Ever since, wherever I go, I try to find and photograph a cat, and learn what I can about its history.

Hence, "Cats Met Along The Way." And always I keep in mind the wise admonition of Persimon Munk:

"Every cat has a story."

Charlie Chaplain, above, chosen at random, is just one of the hundreds of cats that I have met along the way, in every region of Alaska, 24 states, DC, four Canadian provinces, England, Russia and India.

And I will be meeting more, in many other places.

As my children grew, Sunflower was forever scolding me about all these lies that I told them. "You should write these stories down!" she insisted. I ignored this advice, but then, one summer, I decided to write down a few of the tails about cats that I had told to Tryskuit and Nabysko.

These are the stories that will appear in this section of the blog.

Above is an image, created by my talented niece, Amber Swallow, when she was still in high school, to help illustrate a story about Art, a cat who tried to fly his Catabria airplane over Denali.

If any of you southerners are confused by this word, "Denali," it is the name of the mountain that so many well-intentioned folk who don't know any better mistakenly call "Mt. Mc... Mt. McK... Mt. Mck... in... in.. le.." Oh, hell! I can't even say it! I'm not talking about a hamburger here! I'm talking about the highest mountain in North America, the mountain that rises higher vertically over the surrounding terrain than does any other mountain in the world.

I'm talking about Denali.