The ‘catwomen’ of Daryaganj : Two women walked 10 km in the heat to save a stray cat

 Fatima and Sultana, two sisters who live in Darya Ganj used to feed and play with a stray cat in their locality. They suspected that the cat was pregnant, as she had become becoming very sluggish. One day, to their horror, they found the cat unconscious, and figured out that she had fallen from the second floor of a building.

As the city had gone into lockdown, the two sisters didn’t know what to do. They could not find a single veterinary doctor in their neighbourhood who could attend to the cat whose condition was extremely critical. Someone suggested that Fatima and Sultana take the cat to Freindicoes in Jangpura, an NGO that runs a shelter for stray, abandoned and bused animals, along with a veterinary clinic.  

But there was no way the sisters could reach Jangpura without any conveyance. All the roads were shut and there were policemen deployed everywhere to stop people from stepping out of their homes. But the compassionate women could not bear to see the cat in such a terrible state. So they decided to walk all the way to Jangpura holding the pregnant cat in a basket! The distance was about 10 km and the heat only made the journey worse. “We pleaded to so many people on our way to give us a lift, but no one stopped. So we kept on walking, as every minute was crucial,” says Fatima. It took them about 2 hours to reach the clinic with the cat.

As soon as they arrived, a team of doctors headed by Dr Banajit Majumdar attended to the cat. “The cat had fainted due to the trauma. I removed the four unborn kittens that were inside her, but we could not save them. She survived the complicated one hour surgery,” says Dr Majumdar. The doctor says that it’s really sad that no one agreed to help the woman. “The police and even citiziens should come ahead to help in such cases. It is tragic that no one agreed.” Geeta Sheshamani, founder, Friendicoes, says, “It’s touching to see the compassion in the lesser privileged…the poor do have a big heart. We have rickshawallas and daily wagers coming in with injured animals, asking us to help.”

The cat was sent back with Fatima and Sultana in an ambulance by the NGO, and she is healing under the care of her human friends who love her unconditionally, and would always go the extra mile for her, literally! Friendicoes shared this beautiful tale of kindness and compassion on its page, and the sisters were dubbed as the ‘catwomen’ of Daryaganj.