St Gertrude needs to sharpen her pencil in readiness for this entry into
her Book of Purrfect People.
I have written before about the wonderful members of my family who
regularly rescue, foster, save, re-home when possible, keep if they can, put to
sleep with aching hearts when sick or injured, but without exception, love
cats.
My daughter and her husband are winding up their Dubai days and returning
home! (Every time I think of that, I grin! In two months time they will be back
on our shores, and close by, in the Cape, only 600 odd kilometres from me! More
grinning!) For the last six years, Catherine has been involved with TNR (trap,
neuter and rehome/release) of cats in their vicinity. Her own tally is standing
at 83 and apart from that, she has fed several other homeless cats and has had four
wild 'outside' ones living in the car port. When I was with her last month, she
was faced with the heart breaking decision of what to do with those special
four.
It was a decision that was made for her. She knew that at least two of them
were FIV positive and that is a death sentence for a cat that is too wild to be
homed. It means that eventually they starve to death as the mouth sores make it
impossible for them to eat and in a weakened state they are unlikely to be able
to fend for themselves. If they were staying, the cats would simply stay too,
until their quality of life became impaired but abandoning them was not an
option.
So, it was with heavy heart that I accompanied her on three trips to the
vet. We knew that it was the right decision and we kept telling each other that
there was nothing else that could be done, but when push comes to shove, it's
hard to take a cat that looks fine to the vet, and come out with an empty
basket and a heart that's spilling over. I think that week was the worst
one in Catherine's life.
