The number of visitors we have each morning is going up perceptibly. There is the young calf which comes every morning; he started off by nudging the latch of the gate. Initially, we used to think it was someone knocking. Now we know better. He has grown so audacious that now he has learnt to open the gate and come in after a few nudges. Then there are a couple of cows who rest under the neem tree in front of the house and occasionally call out for water. All the overripe bananas and old bread in the home go to these bovine visitors. There are two regulars, mongrels, who we feed twice a day with bread slices. They are unpaid securityguards outside the house, while our pom manages the interior. We call them ‘karuppan’ and ‘vellayan’ because of their colour. Vellayan is a soft-natured fellow who would willingly forgo all the bread I give if only I would scratch his ears. He would stand docilely all the while I patted him while karuppan would clamour around for attention. There is this white cat which delights in playing the ‘catch me if u can’ game with my pom, Brownie. It would stylishly strut the length of the compound wall daring Brownie to come and get her. The other day, my husband playfully threw a couple of seedais at the cat and to his surprise it picked them up and ate them. Cats eating seedais!!! Now the cat comes in regularly looking for seedais and murukkus. There were two little sparrows which used to spend their night on the ‘mullai’ vine which hung in front of the house. I haven’t seen them for quite a while. There are the occasional snakes too. There was a squirrel that raised its family in a carton in my kitchen loft. I got to know about this family only when the young ones grew bold enough to scamper around the loft. The latest addition now is a crow. Attracted by the smell that wafted from the chappathis that I was making, a crow came and alighted at the kitchen window. I threw her a piece which she caught neatly in her beak and flew off. A couple of minutes later she was back again for a second helping. I told her that she was welcome but that she would have to wait. My daughter, curious to know who I was talking to in the kitchen came in to investigate and burst out laughing.

It has become a bad habit this of talking to animals. But I just cannot help it. They understand so much and respond in their own inimitable way.