Bogie

She had an unwilling free ride from Borivali to Churchgate on the 6:19 am Churchgate slow from Borivali. We get a call early morning when she must have reached Khar about a dog which must have been hurt and was moaning in the ladies first class compartment. We take down the details as in the train no and also calculate the ETA at Churchgate and rush to Churchgate station. We think it would be better taking the injured dog down out at Churchgate station than in the middle for want of time as the suburban train would halt very briefly at its various stops. We inform the Churchgate station master who is very helpful and checks on the whereabouts of the train. It seems that the train is just outside Churchgate station and is expected to arrive any moment on platform number two.

We rush onto the platform and wait at the point where the first class ladies compartment would be coming. The train comes to a halt. We check the train no on the compartment; it is the same one that the caller had given. We search the ladies compartment thoroughly… there is no dog. We then check the next compartment, yet no dog. We go back to the first one for a double check and she is sitting under the seat. We had missed her earlier as we had a grown up injured dog in our mind and not a two month old puppy. She lets out a whine and wags her tail. We take her out. She is very scared and confused but continues to wag her tail. We walk down the platform with her and show her to the station master, thank him and are off in a taxi and she sleeps soundly, tail wagging on the lap.

We thus decided to name her Bogie. She is too small to have climbed onto the train by herself. She must have been put in by some crazy person who had no empathy of what she would go through, in the journey or where she would end up.

Bogie is being temporarily housed by a WSD volunteer and is looking for a good home and if you know anyone who would want her do call WSD on 23733433. She is brown with a black snout, has floppy ears and is adorable. She wags her tail all the time and should we say that she is used to traveling on a Mumbai suburban train?

Croissant's Cat

I know her as the Croissant's cat as she used to hang around outside the Croissant's outlet just when you come out of the Churchgate subway going towards Eros theatre. She has been around for at least ten years and at a time when Croissant's used to be very popular with the college crowd. I remember that she would greet the college students and Croissant's patrons with glee, rushing towards them and they invariably used to end up giving her something to eat.

Vijaybhai who used to sell socks on the streets loves her and says he has not named her. He adds that she is lucky for everyone who she makes friends with and that she is the oldest cat he has seen around in that area. She used to keep littering and has kept a count of the number of times she had littered (six times!) till she was neutered some years ago. He demonstrates how much she adores him by calling out to her and she responds by immediately rushings towards him.

Some years ago she had a terrible accident and she lost her eye. She was in hospital for quite some time. Her eye had to be removed but that has not changed anything for her. She is now found hanging around just outside the subway with the guy who sells shaving blades and FM radios. She will allow you to pick her up and also cuddle and snuzzle against you if you call out to her. So if you are at Churchgate, ask any of the hawkers around and all of them would know and point out this one-eyed Croissant's cat.