We wondered for days about our travel. How would we do that? What about our kitten? It was not possible to take her along with us. As the day for our travel neared my daughter was very apprehensive, ‘Will she forget us mom?’, she asked again and again.

I had smartly delegated the task of finding a suitable pet boarding to my daughter. She did her research, called up, asked around and found a suitable place.

Messi watched us quietly as we packed our bags. Every now and then she came running to check what was happening.

‘Is she feeling suspicious?’, we both felt a sharp pang of betrayal. ‘It feels like cheating her!’

Finally, we reach the pet boarding house, there are many cats at the place, the young man who runs the center looked as if he knew his job. ‘I take my cats for pet shows’, he showed us his many medals, we felt reassured, watching his banter with the cats,some of which were his own. ‘Some times people just drop their cats and go’, the owner mused, as we filled the forms and completed the formalities. A very small sickly kitten tried to nuzzle on to my feet, ‘that is a rescue’, he said.

While returning from the pet boarding we were quiet, ‘will Messi be fine, will she remember us, when we come back?’

When we entered the silent house we both realized our shock at not finding her around.

But this had to be, if only for a few days.

Ciao, Messi, much love!

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