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Do You Bring Home Stray Cat and Kittens And Take It In?
Stray Kitten Lucian Found A Home
How we found Lucian-The stray kitten
It was dark outside. A faint meow echoed outside the fence wall of our rented apartment. The dogs from the adjacent apartment started barking. My children rushed outside the door to check. We just lost our cat which my children fondly call Ludwig a few months ago. So my children were still in mourning when this skinny kitten strayed into our front yard.
Concern and Support For Animal Welfare is a Family Matter
We are an animal lover and advocate. My children would often bring home stray cats on their way from school. In fact, my daughters are volunteers of Philippine Animal Welfare Society or PAWS for short. PAWS is a volunteer-based organization that rehabilitates abandoned and abused animals in the hope of finding them new homes and a second chance at a good life.
Where were we? Ah yes, about my children’s concern for animal welfare. I have witnessed how my children shed a ‘bucketful of tears’ (I’m using an idiom to best describe their emotional estate) when they fail to nurture back to good health a number of stray cats which they have laboriously brought and initially sneaked (for fear that they will not be allowed to pet them later)into our home and witnessed with pride when they were able to nurture back to good health some of those that were in a between life and death state (maybe I’m over exaggerating, but it’s just to give you a more vivid scenario of the situation J). Besides, we really are a family that are a part of a humane society that really have genuine concern for animal welfare.
Had we been aware beforehand of numerous animal shelter, pet-finder foundation, animal rescue sites and organizations, society for the prevention of cruelty to animals or spca for short, we would have gladly brought them there for their utmost care, safety and well-being. Pardon me for I am being too much ahead of the story. So let me rewind a little bit...Ludwig...death....a few months ago...oh yes, here it is. As I was saying....
Previously Adopted Stray Kittens
Before Ludwig, there was Peanut, our first adopted male cat, who, unfortunately, also succumbed to sickness. I witnessed how my kids would bring the cats to veterinary clinics to have our pets treated and diligently take turns in giving our pets round the clock tender loving care and see to it that it is able to drink the prescribed medicines on time. They would call me, text me from time to time (author hums the song time after time) when they are in school to check how the pet’ient is doing.
So, when they heard that faint "meow" that early lovely evening, there was a rush of excitement and urgency while heading towards the front door and outside the gate. There they found a helpless, very thin little stray kitten whose stick-like feet were shaking as it tried to introduce itself and murmur a faint ‘hi’ to my ward. Of course I knew because I was at their tail, breathing in their trail of dust (this one is an exaggeration hoping to draw a smile on your bewildered faces J). It was so skinny and its feet got wobbly when it tried to stand up. Immediately the children gather around it with an air of curiosity, concern and a lot of pity.
One of my children rushed back to the house and begged her father to let them take care of the pitiful looking stray kitten because they could not see its mother in a far distance. (How could she leave her kitten alone in the dark, I furiously thought? What a heartless mom-cat she is. She’ll get a mouthful from me when I see her, so she better not show up in the next few minutes because I will really scold her to deaf-yeah, you heard me right. I’m not a cat killer-duh).
House rules takes a backseat where animal welfare is concerned
You see, we all have agreed not to have a pet anymore. I can’t bear to see the grief in their faces, every time a pet dies. They cry a river (this time the author is humming Cry Me A River) after each pet’s’ journey to the other side’. My husband and I pretended to agree that we no longer want to spend our leisure time taking care of those ‘inconsiderate’ animals (now, you’re accusing me of animal cruelty through verbal abuse. I’m telling you the truth.
Aren’t they inconsiderate, after all the time we spent to nurture them and bring them back to an active and comfortable life, they would leave us just like that? Just because they forgot to breathe and have no choice but to leave us despite of our unconditional love for them, all because their lungs failed to expand and could no longer breathe in some air? Are they not being insensitive to us?
Are they not being inconsiderate of how we’re going to feel when we can no longer feel their presence, that emptiness we’ll all feel when we can no longer stare into that soul penetrating look in their eyes because they’ve shut them down in total darkness? How do you think we’d feel if we can no longer feel the soft touch of their paw and can no longer run our fingers on their velvety soft fur?
Did it not occur to them that we will miss that ‘tickled in pink’ feeling from their tiny whiskers when they untiringly rub their tiny noses on our legs when they want to be cuddled or would want us to pick them up and take a rest from whatever we’re doing just so we can spend a quality time with them? If it’s not insensitivity, then what is it? How could they do that to us especially to the kids, leaving us feeling empty after each loss?)
Are they being ungrateful to the love and care we shower them despite of the hardship my husband have to go through to be able to help take care of those couch potato creature who when awake is so demanding, shrieking in high-pitched meows to wake my husband whose dream of sleeping undisturbed for four straight hours was put to oblivion because of the non-stop scratching on the sofa of those tiny paw, the helpless looking stray kitten would force my husband to rouse from sleep to attend to the tiny brat’s needs. As I’ve earlier said, my family is a part of a humane society whose deeply rooted human concern for animal welfare cannot be severed no matter what the cost.
What matters most
Tell me, are we to refuse our children whom you’ll think were suddenly possessed by Cherubs because they became extra sweet more than the taste of sugar and honey combined, sending us the signal that taking care of a stray kitten, is all what they too much want at the moment. Besides, aren't we the ones who taught them to be merciful and caring to animals? Yeah, you’re all right. Our decision making were put to the test by that tiny little creature, whose life hangs on the balance if we happen to make the wrong decision. We helplessly obliged to the kids delight, of course.
The joy of caring and loving a stray kitten and the rewards we got for sharing our home to a stray kitten
We never regretted a single moment from thereon. Lucian never failed to amaze us and bring smiles to our faces and invigorates our children when they come home tired from school and bring laughter to my husband's tired face when he comes from work. Lucian would always rouse and leap from sleep to be at the door when my kids or my husband enters the house every time she hears the gate opens. As soon as the door opens, a faint meow would escape from her. She is always ready to give her paw pat and purr kiss to each one of them. She is the only cat I know to be fluent in Waray-waray (the native tongue of the province of Leyte) and doesn’t understand Tagalog despite of her being born and raised in Metro Manila ^_^. She is the sweetest and lovable cat we’ve ever known.
There’s no denying, we’re all glad, we shared Lucian, the stray kitten, our home!
Animal Rights Quotes
"Cruelty to animals is one of the most significant vices of a low and ignoble people. Wherever one notices them, they constitute a sure sign of ignorance and brutality which cannot be painted over even by all the evidence of wealth and luxury. Cruelty to animals cannot exist together with true education and true learning." - Alexander von Humboldt
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." – Mahatma Gandhi
"We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words." - Anna Sewell
Photos of our adopdted stray kittens who are stray kittens no more
Click thumbnail to view full-sizeAdditional Resources About Animal Welfare
Animal Rescue Sites
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PAWS - Philippine Animal Welfare Society
PAWS is a volunteered based organization which rehabilitates abused animals. One of its responsibilities is to find new home for abandoned and abused animals with the noble purpose of giving these animals a second chance to have good and better lives. It also promotes humane treatment for all animal s.
URL Address: http://www.paws.org.ph/site/450/default.aspx
Humane Animal Treatment Charity, Inc. is an all volunteer, non-profit, compassionate charity that raises funds and then distributes the proceeds of received donations to small, all volunteer, no-kill, humane animal treatment.
http://www.humanetreatment.org/
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http://animal.discovery.com/tv/petfinder/petfinder.html