Madame Royale

The kitty is on a mission to secure a tiara for herself!! And no, this ostensibly is not one of her ploys to dethrone me. Unsettled by the moggie skirmishes of the past week and by POPS & PIL's bold, noisy efforts to monopolise me, Ging decided to gird her loins and give the Fathers' a run for their money in vying for my attentions.
The past few days have seen Ging faithfully follow me everywhere with scant respect for privacy, rather like Mary's little lamb. In fact, if I had not closed the bathroom door firmly on her rather surprised face and plaintive mews, she would have cheerfully marched in to keep me company as I performed my daily ablutions!! Seriously, how on earth did Mary survive the devotion of her lamb?? * rolls eyes* *deep sigh*
To assuage Ging's need for some intense female moggie bonding, we decided to curl together on the couch [yes, in the sweltering Chennai heat!!!] and for the want of anything better to do, read up on cats through the ages.
Our choice of reading material stemmed from Ging's discovery of my Maneki Neko - the Japanese Beckoning Cat. The very idea of a Lucky Cat must have appealed greatly to Kitty's vanity because she kept sniffing at Neko, occasionally shooting baleful glances at me which screamed " why black when you could have picked an orange tabby Neko??". Just so that she wouldn't conveniently pass off Neko as a memento in her honour, I decided to enlighten her about the legends of the famous lucky cat.
The kitty was hooked and thirsting for more stories about her ilk!!! From Japan and the legend of the Maneki Neko, we travelled to modern day China where much to our horror and disgust, we discovered that cat meat is a delicacy. Yeouwww!! It of course goes without saying that this discovery immediately escalated China to the top of the moggie household's hate list - its economic progress and growth be damned!!! Our moods grew darker as we unearthed some bizarre medieval myths about cats killing infants by sucking away their breath. To wipe away the shadows, we went back in time to ancient Egypt where cats, as we all know, were deemed sacred. And that was as far as we got. Perhaps Ging wanted to end the facts gathering mission on a positive note or perhaps, she was already picturing herself as a blue blooded royal receiving homage from the lesser moggies.
For, while we were in Egypt, little miss Ging put forth an impassioned plea for her own little tiara and boy, were her arguments convincing. She pointed out that ever since she adopted us 7 months ago, our roller coaster life took an uphill turn - both DSK and I did wonderfully at work, managed to get some minor irritants from his family out of our hair for good, mended a few broken relationships and were generally at peace with the world around us. And this followed a year which was not too great either professionally nor personally. What did she ask for in return? A wee little tiara in paste!!!....
Hmmm...Its kind of hard to say no when Ging turns all misty eyed and wears her sad lost waif expression. And I capitulate, just as she knows I will. But not in the way she expected.
" Tell you what Ging, let's start you out as the princess royal of the household and if you behave as it befits a princess, we shall see about the tiara"
A title with a tiara in the offing....This is better than what she had hoped for. Ging can barely conceal the look of smug satisfaction creeping across her face. And neither can I. A few carefully whispered words to the Fathers' is all it will take to derail Ging's grandiose ambitions..With Madame Royale struggling to maintain a regal demeanour in the face of extreme provocation, the moggie household sure is in for some fun times!!!
*smug grin* Isn't mommy terrible???