I’ve become a cat person, but not by
choice. I never understood the persnicketiness
of cats; they seem to barely tolerate humans and delight in the rejection of
affection; their prolific use of sharp claws to indicate both enjoyment and annoyance
with whomever is engaging them is confounding.
I just cannot deal with cats.
However, when a person witnesses the
level of mistreatment of animals that occurs in rural parts of Peru, one cannot
help but to develop an obligation to protect them from the conditions they
face. And after I rescued two kittens
from certain death, I couldn’t stop myself from falling in love with them.
The family calls all three cats “Pichaling.”
There is a mom cat and two kittens, a
boy and a girl, that were born in January 2013, only a few months after I
arrived. The mom cat had three kittens;
one died right away. The other two
survived, and after a few months they were a couple of cute furballs running
around the house behind their mommy and peeing and pooping everywhere.
The mom cat has a nasty temperament and
avoids all contact with humans. The two
little kitties were terrified of people and would scurry away anytime anyone
got close. So, it was particularly
strange when the smaller one sat himself down in front of me one day and
started pathetically mewing at me. It
seemed like such an odd thing to do after avoiding me like the plague up until
this point.
It was the first time I had been so
close to the kitten, and I noticed that he was terribly skinny and shaking,
with glassy, sunken eyes. It suddenly
occurred to me that I hadn’t seen the mom cat around the house for a few days,
or possibly longer. Honestly, I couldn’t
remember the last time I saw her. Apparently,
the kittens have not been getting milk from the mom, and given that the family doesn’t
feed the cats…it hit me like a thunderbolt: these kittens are starving to death
– literally right in front of me!
The tiny kitty was so desperate for food
that he set aside his mortal fear of humans to beg me to save his life…and, of
course, I did. There is no cat food in
my house and there’s nowhere to buy it in my town, so I cracked open some raw
eggs and the two kitties lapped them up like they were caviar.
I was relieved to see them enjoying the
eggs and I have continued to feed them eggs (which they love!) along with
canned anchovies. Eventually, they
started gaining weight and looking healthier.
The smaller one was so scrawny, and although while he became healthier
and started growing, he still hasn’t caught up to his sister.
I feel like a proud mom who rescued two
adorable kids who are now precocious teenagers; the boy is always stirring up
trouble and the girl is now a pregnant teen.
(Oops, I guess I forgot to give her the sex ed talk).
Enjoy the photos!
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| Brother and sister cuddling together. You can see how he is dwarfed by her size. |
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| She used to sit behind my laptop and reach around to swat her paws in front of the screen while playing with me. Here she is grabbing at my camera strap. |
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| His favorite place to nap is underneath my mosquito net. And when he's feeling frisky he tries to climb it! |
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| Adorable sleeping kitty |
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| The only photo I have with his eyes open. He doesn't look as mean. |
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| I think she's stalking me. |
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