Calcutta, Feb. 17: A kitten that Taslima Nasreen picked up from a renowned fish market in Calcutta seven years ago and adopted as her daughter is now a fine young lady with a Twitter account all to herself.

Minu the cat joined Twitter on February 14 and already has 90 followers. The proud “mother” of the feline can’t stop gushing about Minu’s popularity.

“Minu has already turned out to be very attractive. A lot of boys and girls are feeling jealous and have complained to me that they have 1,000 tweets but don’t have more than 30 followers but look at Minu… she has 90 followers already!” gushed the exiled author over phone from Delhi.

“Both Minu and I see V-Day as a day against violence towards women and animals so it was the right day for Minu to get started. Not too many people know about her presence on Twitter yet so I guess she will have to join some Twitter clubs like Friday Friends to find more followers,” Taslima said.

The writer feels her beloved pet “is wiser, kinder and more intelligent than me” and deserved her own space to express her thoughts, opinions and connect with her fans. “Often when I tweet a silly question, Minu has an intelligent answer that she expresses through my Twitter account. Many of my friends and followers respect Minu and her opinion and they felt she should have her own separate identity. I agreed,” she said.

Minu has been quite active on Twitter, updating followers on her life (I am a Bengali. I know Bengali well & a little big [sic] of English. I read both Bengali & English. But I edit only Bengali books.: ), routine (I just had my lunch. Menu: Royal Canin chicken,Whiskas Salmon,Tuna treats, Milk, Juice, An apple. Yummy Yummy!) and even sending out a message or two (…there’re so many unlucky cats. Pl adopt them).

“We have a responsibility towards animals who haven’t had the privilege of being adopted as pets. So as a philosopher and a pet who lives a life of luxury, Minu will help create that awareness and express opinions on the wrongs and destruction that evolved animals like humans indulge in but she being a cat would never do,” Taslima said.

The “fictional philosophy” Taslima has attributed to her feline companion, who she says is “well read on world history and world religion, well travelled” carries her underlying message for all humans.

Taslima says Minu is a “kind cat who loves all human beings equally and will follow everyone who follows her”. Her list of followers is a mix of engineers and computer programmers, authors and photographers, other pet cats and cat mums. With 29 tweets to her credit, there is more to come.

“Unlike us humans, Minu is very disciplined. She is a 100 per cent indoor cat who wakes up at 10, eats breakfast, soaks up the sun, reads newspapers and books and needs to sleep for 18 hours. She will keep tweeting in between and keep her fans posted,” Taslima said.