Feline friend who touched thousands of lives :

Amazing journey of Ramsses

by Chamari SENANAYAKE

He was born in Melbourne, Australia and was later known as the 'Prince of Burwood' due to his enormous popularity in the Burwood area in Victoria Province. Not just students and local residents, even the patrol police could not resist his charm as they often stopped their police cars to give him a cuddle when they see him calmly walking down the pavement undisturbed by the traffic on the Highway.

Ramsses was too clever and learned on his own that the Highway was the forbidden area and always walked carefully along the pavement to nearby homes, especially to our landlord's home.

He once mentioned to me of the first day he saw little Ramsses who was only a few months old then, when he was cleaning his car with all its doors open on a sunny afternoon, a little kitten got in and walked all over his car checking out every part. In amazement he is said to have watched what this little fellow wanted, as it turned out, curious Ramsses was so fond of vehicles, and he was so comfortable walking inside any vehicle and inspecting its every part.

Roll over

Ramsses calmly walked out of the vehicle and started to roll over the grass making our landlord's heart melt like ice cream on a sunny day. 'He is the best cat in the world' James, our landlord often used to say after this incident, and made Ramsses a regular visitor to his home since then. They had a pet Australian Cockatoo bird in a cage outside the house, and as if Ramsses felt his loneliness, he often walked in to our landlord's backyard and sat near the birdcage keeping company to the 38-year-old Cockatoo. The white bird was also friendly with Ramsses and greeted him with a special call every time he sees Ramsses in his garden, according to our landlord's mother, this call was completely different to the type of calls he makes when he sees other cats.

Ramsses was always invited to parties in the neighbourhood. Ramsses had a habit of disappearing on Friday evening and not coming home until the morning unlike other days.

I later got to know that he goes to the parties at the nearby homes and sit and watch them dancing and having fun while getting cuddles and greetings from everyone. His collar had his name tag with our address and my mobile number, and it was on many occasions that I received text messages on my mobile from unknown people saying 'Ramsses is at our place, we will send him back when the party is over..' I realised they were from people around our block letting me know that my pet is safe and having fun with them.

On such days we used to leave our back door open for him to come home anytime at night, even on the cold winter nights it became a habit for me and my house mates to leave the backdoor open for our 'party boy'.

Early in the morning around four o'clock I sometimes see Ramsses coming home in a hurry, and gulping down his food and climbing on to my bed to catch up with his rest. Within seconds, he dozes off like a man who worked hard all day. We realised that some days he came home very sleepy and almost drunk, and I smelled his mouth and got to know he has licked some wine from empty glasses at those parties. One of those days he came home drunk and fell asleep like a log, I took a hilarious pose of him and sent it to the Australian National newspaper. This picture of sleepy Ramsses was selected as one of the cutest pets in Victoria for July 8, 2007 issue of 'The Sunday Herald Sun'. He was also selected as the top 12 for RSPCA annual calendar in 2009 just before we left Australia.

Ramsses has come home hundreds of times with lipstick smeared all over his face, after Aussie girls has given him long hard kisses on his cute furry face.

One of my house mates once joked saying 'Looks like he is cheating on you, he has another woman's lipstick on his whiskers..' and we all laughed looking at Ramsses who seemed to have understood our joke and hurried off to avoid any further embarrassment. He departed Australia one day before my flight and being separated from him for two days was a heartbreaking thing for me.

When the Jet Pets company driver came to collect him, his van was full of noise makers who were missing their owners and homes and screaming and barking in their cages, but Ramsses quietly went in his cage and when I phoned the driver later he told me that Ramsses never made any sounds or cries all the way to the company quarantine, the vet and then to the airport.

He had a longer flight than I did on Malaysian Airways where he had a 14- hour stay at the Kuala Lumpur Airport and then a longer flight to Colombo. Ramsses arrived at the Sri Lanka customs after a traumatic one-and-a-half-day flight and a change of two flights and had a grueling wait of 12 hours at the customs until my flight arrived at Katunayake.

I heard the same praises from the custom officials about Ramsses when I went to collect him and paid Rs 10,000 taxes for him. He was quiet and calm although he was terrified of this two-day ordeal and the loss of his owner. I believe it was me who suffered the most by missing him for such a long time not knowing what he was going through. The moment I saw him at the customs office, he was comforted by my voice and the brave little animal behaved as he has completely trusted and confident that I would come for him again.

Housemate

We bought him from the RSPCA(Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Australia) when he was just six weeks old. I and my housemate walked in to the RSPCA just to have a look at the kittens and puppies but we could not take our eyes off the little furry guy who was standing on his two hind legs with his two paws up in his cage. We knew he would be sold immediately and booked him on our way out. We were asked to return back in two weeks as Australian adoption places always sterilise the animals before the sale, and we were counting the days to meet him again unable to forget the cute way he was standing up on his cage. The day we picked him up, he just had gone through the surgery for sterilisation and also has had a green permanent tattoo put on his ear to mark the sterilisation. The little kitten seemed to have had too much trauma for one day and when he was brought to us by a vet nurse he had his paws up in the air but came home even without a whimper or any complaints.

Ramsses was never greedy, as he always ate 'Whiskas' and 'Pedigree' canned pet food, our other Sri Lankan cats often ran to his plate and started gulping down his food as soon as he starts to eat. But he was never bothered by this, neither got angry and walked away quietly like a gentleman, offering his plate for the 'less fortunate'. He used to sit on his own little table and ate quietly and very slowly, and always left some food in his plate unlike any other animal who normally would lick the plate dry. Ramsses never entered houses from kitchen areas, as he knew the front door was the way for the 'visitors'. Neighbours always welcomed him because of his cool gentleman like nature, and he loved children very much. The older neighbours called him chooti putha and sudu mahatthaya because of his very childlike behaviour and amazingly cute looks, and some even used to kiss his paws when I was holding him in my arms, and Ramsses offered his paw to them to be kissed.

After Ramsses died, many children from the neighbourhood came to light candles at his grave, most of whom I never knew before, and I realised what a wide circle of friends he has had. And now they have become my friends, and that is a legacy Ramsses left behind. He was a cat without any sin, as he has never killed any animals in his lifetime, not even a fly, instead, the lord like Ramsses loved to watch animals sitting in his garden in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and he was fascinated by the variety of animals he saw in this country.

But I know that he often missed going out to my friends' houses and parties in my car like in Australia, where he even used to go to the local supermarkets, 'Safeway' and 'Coles' as well as 'Video Ezy' in Burwood. He portrayed perfect behaviour likes of an upper class aristocrat and never bothered us with his whines or demands, and never committed any sins, and loved everyone he ever met, mostly the doctor who made fatal errors on him.

Ramsses died as a true innocent soul that pleased thousands of people who met him and as a true friend who stood by me for a decade through pain and happiness. I and we all owe a great debt to him for showing us what true friendship means.

An Interview with Ramsses (done before his passing)

Q: What is your full name according to Australian records?

Ramsses: Ramsses Fluffybear Senanayake

Q: What is your ancestry?

Ramsses: British Short hair and Scottish Wild cat mixed. But I am all Aussie mate.

Q: What do you miss most after leaving Australia?

Ramsses: The parties, the Aussie blokes and sheila's.. and going to places in our car.

Q: Can't you travel in Sri Lanka..?

Ramsses: Too noisy and too dangerous mate, I love the scenery, but my sister only takes me out to the doctor, which I hate, but I can't show her that I hate it, so I keep quiet.

Q: Do you like Colombo?

Ramsses: Very much, lots of animals are here, I have never seen these animals before, once I caught a lizard, just to show my family that I also can catch something, but I didn't kill it, I let the poor animal go. I prefer to watch them in my garden.

Q: Do you understand the local cats' dialect?

Ramsses: No, I don't understand Sinhala. But I know when people are calling me with affectionate names, I respond to that. But these local cats are like thugs, one of them called 'kaluwa' comes to my house and when he saw me first he was very afraid, but at night he came out calling me names......

Q: Ok, ok, calm down Sir.. I know it was very low of him to call you names when you are locked inside the house.

Ramsses: I mean, my family gives him my food too, he was once saved from deathbed after eating my good food... and he got the nerve......

Q: But looks like you are very popular in the neighbourhood with humans..

Ramsses: yeah mate, I love them and they love me, I don't associate much with animals, I sometimes protect our crazy puppy from stray dogs when he tries to confront them, and I watch our kittens play and they also call me 'sudu ayya' which I think is

big brother, but my company is with kids around my age.

Q: Thanks a lot for the interview Ramsses, you are a very interesting person.

Ramsses: No worries mate, always a pleasure.