Ginger Shadows
written by: Neha Singh Soni
My cat Coco was unlike other cats. My ginger fur ball had a knack for getting us to do whatever he wanted. If his needs were not attended to, he would leap onto the refrigerator, then onto the almirah and try to push things down one by one, his amber eyes fixed on us like a warning. Sometimes he would tip over his food bowl, scattering kibble across the kitchen floor.
Unlike most cats, he didn’t like fish much; chicken and eggs were his favourite, and of course, he loved mice- if he could get his hands (in this case, paws) on them. It used to be a real-life Tom and Jerry show where the cat runs behind the mouse, whiskers trembling, only to come to a halt at its hole and wait for hours for the mouse to come out, staring at the crack in the wall as though the universe existed only inside it.
Midnight was his favourite time to play and eat. He would actually wake me up at midnight and make me throw things so that he could run after them.
More often than not, I would ignore his midnight play by pulling the blanket over myself so that he could not give me headbutts.
It has been three months since he left… disappeared. And here I am, still waiting for him to wake me up to play, to feed him, waiting for his midnight meows.
- Ginger Shadows - June 19, 2026
