“Your cat is on line 1…”

I stumbled upon the following story last night: Two Dogs Managed To Call The Police 16 Times in 30 Minutes. It reminded me of an incident with one of our cats many years ago in India. He was a handsome fellow named Simba who was very much a spoiled little prince. This was back in the year 1994, when fax machines were still a thing, and we had one at home.

Simba was a precocious little fellow, a cat school dropout, who was taken away from his mom a few weeks too early when he was given to us. He was affectionate and clingy, never really straying far from me. In the beginning he was strictly an indoor cat who found the most peculiar niches to nep around the house, and one of favourite places during winter was behind the fax machine because it was nice and warm. I had programmed some of the most important numbers into the speed dial buttons before we adopted Simba, and didn’t really think much of it. A couple of times, however, I my mother-in-law in Germany or my mom in Manila was on loudspeaker unexpectedly and neither of us understood how it had happened, until one day I caught Simba snoozing behind the fax machine, one paw draped lazily over the speed dial buttons. Aha! Culprit found!

Well, this continued for a while, much to everyone’s amusement, but the cracker was when the story about Simba and and the speed dials was shared at the office one day. The receptionist stopped eating and burst out laughing, and whe she finally calmed down she said. That explains all the mysterious calls we’ve been getting lately. Someone keeps calling both our lines but never speaks! Later that day, she put a call through and chuckled happily, Your cat is on line one…

I miss Simba and his peculiarities. When I was pregnant, he would take a daily afternoon nap on my tummy and purr happily. He did wonder, however, why his napping place kept growing and eventually he ended up flopping limply with all four paws dangling over my large belly! Nevertheless, he remained loyal to the end and never missed a nap, unless I was out. Little did I know the effect of these naps would have on the baby! Once my daughter was born, whenever she had a meltdown, all I had to do was purr in her ear and she immediately calmed down.

Unfortunately, Simba became jealous of Maike and moved out. He hated not being the center of attention anymore and simply moved three houses down to another German family. We tried everything to convince him to come back home but he refused.