‘Neighbours Clash Over Paternity Of Kittens’

Excerpts from a quaintly-worded and astonishingly detailed report out of India, that deserves to be read in full:

The custody of children between couples may be decided in the court. However, in Bengaluru, the police had a tiring time in deciding the custody of four kittens, which were ‘illigitimately born’ to a cat through a male cat belonging to neighbours.

The incident took place at Seshadripuram in the heart of Bengaluru. While one house had a white male cat, the neighboring house had a black striped grey female cat. Recently, the female cat gave birth to four kittens.

When the kittens started roaming around in the house with the mother and started raiding nooks and corners of the house, the house owner was irritated. She asked the neighbour to take care of the kittens, since they were born to their cat.

However, the neighbours were not interested in additional kittens and denied that their male cat had anything to do with the neighbour’s cat or kittens. They argued that their cat never left their house and the kittens must have been born to some other cat in the area.

Irked by the reply, the owner of the female cat packed the four kittens in a cardboard box and placed them on the steps of her neighbour. This triggered a row between the two houses and a huge argument broke out on the street and the two women and their men almost came close to exchanging blows.

The neighbours called 112 and informed them that there was a street brawl in their area. The Hoysala patrol vehicle rushed to the spot and found themselves in a precarious situation. Both sides refused to budge from their arguments.

While the male cat owners claimed that their cat never left home and the female cat was always roaming around with other cats, the owners of the female cat argued that they had proof of the male cat coming to their house and playing around with their cat. They got more angry about the neighbours casting aspersions against their pet, denying the fact that their female cat ever roamed out and played with other stray cats.

Since no DNA test was conducted, the paternity claim of the kitten still remained a mystery. But, the police had a sigh of relief after a third person offered to take care of the kittens.