Despite advice from my elders I am often forced to take risks and venture into their concrete jungle. We are solitary animals and nocturnal hunters and very good at camouflage and stealth, hence we get rarely spotted by humans. Under night cover we enter their habitats and stealthily pounce upon stray dogs and other domesticated animals and vanish. It has been going on without much ado. As far as possible we avoid any panga with humans and vanish the moment we see them.
But on Feb 7 things went awry. I happened to stray into a building located close to an eucalyptus grove and somehow I failed to notice that someone was watching me. By the way one of my eyes have gone blind due to some mysterious reason.
After a few hours I saw lots of humans and noise. I quietly retreated to the bushes nearby. I was breaking into a cold sweat as I had never seen so many humans in my life. I decided to stay put there hoping no one finds me. I could either wait for the din to settle down to sneak out to the forest or wait till night to retreat. There was no sign of my Plan A happening as there was no let up in crowds and some even came with dogs in tow, making me all the more jittery thinking these canines might smell me out. Hence with bated breath I waited wishing the night to set in early.
Then suddenly I heard shrieks of excitement and a crowd moving towards me. I realised that I have been spotted. I was totally at my wits end as I could not see any escape route. I sneaked back to the building in panic and was utterly clueless where to hide. Meanwhile crowds outside the building swelled and I could even hear some deafening noises, followed by smoke and foul smell.
I darted from one room to another and later hid in one of them. I could hear voices and soon heard a loud noise and realised that a door has been shut and so was my escape route. I climbed up the window and realised that it had a soft mesh and soon I could push it away and ended up in another room. There too I saw a window with soft mesh and leapt out of the building.
I came close to strange looking water body. It was blue in colour. Soon I felt an excruciating pain in the belly as if being pierced by a thorn. The pain plus the presence of so many humans around and their murderous chants made me realise that I better fight back. I attacked six people who were in the vicinity. But later started feeling dizzy and collapsed.
Life in captivity
As I regained my senses, I realised that I was at a far less hostile environs, though I was yet to overcome the trauma and stress I had undergone few hours before. However I soon realised that there was little space for me to move around and it only aggravated my restlessness. In the neighbouring enclosure there was a tiger, who too was in the same predicament, but seemed foolishly content about it.
I just bided my time. Meanwhile I was getting treated for my wounds and felt nonplussed when provided with food at regular intervals by humans. I must confess I did enjoy getting food without having to sweat it out in long chases and climbing trees.
But the yearning for freedom was something I could not subdue. I kept a watch on my human captors and their activities. I kept a close watch on how my cage door was being opened while providing food. I realised that for them remaining alert during nights was quite a challenge.
Nearly a week later I lay in wait during night. I squeezed myself out the cage through a small opening. Then I climbed the tall trees close to the fence and jumped across and ran for my life.
I was finally free and back in the lap of nature I am thankful that my nightmare has ended.
Also Read: Random Jottings
