When death stared at me

  This is an incident that happened last year when I was in Pune. Everyday I would travel in bus from my home to office. That day, too, I got ready and hurried to the bus stop nearby. The stop had usual office-going crowd. When I nearly reached, a small creature behind a group of people at the corner caught my eye. It was a cat hit by a vehicle. The poor animal had half of its body hanging out. One could clearly see the intestines and flies flying all around the visible flesh. Probably, it came under a huge vehicle  and someone put it aside at the corner of the road. My heart went out for him. I approached and gently nudged him. He moved but very slightly. Oh goodness! He was still alive. I couldn’t imagine the pain it must have been going through. I poured some water in my bottle cap. The cat tried its best to drink but couldn’t.  That moment, something stirred in me. I decided to chuck everything and take this cat to a vet. Obviously, I possibly couldn’t have left him there to die. I called my friend who had a dog and knew a vet. I had even accompanied him there once when his dog was sick. I dialed the number sent by my friend shooing the flies away off the flesh.
  Then, I rushed to a nearby shop for a cardboard box. While everybody else on road was glaring at me, I put the cat in the box carefully. I called out for an auto. A humble auto driver drove up to me even before I could completely stand up. I told him the address and we were on our way. Now and then, cat would look up at me and stare for few seconds before sleeping back. I was tensed to bits. When we reached halfway, he looked up again at me , only this time it stared longer, as if trying desperately to reach out and communicate. He, then, made a slight, slow movement before lying down again. I tried pouring water into his mouth drop-by-drop. Nothing happened. I gave him a slight nudge and he dint move. My heart sank. He was gone. By then, we had almost reached the clinic. Doctor confirmed his death.  The worker told me they would take care of the box. Apparently, he had become just ‘the box’.   I kept him on the sidewalk of road, bowed and said a small prayer. A living creature had just died in my arms. I was there at someone’s last few minutes.
  I reached office three hours late that day. As expected, my lead gave me a look. I asked excuse for being held up in personal work. I didn’t tell him. In fact, I didn’t tell anyone what happened except to my friend. I don’t think they would have understood.
  So, that’s how it feels like when you see death. Even today, I think of those green eyes piercing right into mine. We all feel we have loads of time to do things that we always wanted to, but we don’t know for sure if we got that time. You never know what tomorrow holds in store for us. Surely, that cat did not wake up that day thinking “I will die in few hours.” Often, I wonder what that cat wanted to tell me in his last minute or what was he thinking when I was holding him. Was it  frightened? Or Was it feeling good? Loved? Protected? I don’t know. I just hope he knows that a human being was fighting to keep him alive.

Help as much as you can,
Prerana