BOLT: My Newly Rescued Kitten

Few weeks ago, I found a thin, sickly kitten behind a supermarket in Faisaliah district. The kitten's eyes were glued shut due to the formation of excessive eye crust and pus. I took him home, bathed and fed him though forcefully, but unfortunately his little body couldn't handle the pain. He was just too weak. I called him 'Stiffneck' because he could barely move his neck and it's tilted more on one side. Still I gave him a decent burial (I assume it's a he).

And on November 3, while I was heading for work, I saw a kitten as if it was running for dear life,  towards  4 Pakistani men across the street. He was actually following those men. The kitten was seemingly asking the men to take him with them. And there goes my heart again, and so I did  take him.

The kitten was so healthy, lively and energetic unlike the first kitten that I rescued  few days prior. They were the total opposite. And because of his physical attributes, I decided to name him 'Bolt', after the fastest man on earth, Usain Bolt. He is now well accepted by my two other cats in the apartment, unlike the first few days that he's being ambushed and feasted on, though gently. And here's a latest  video of Bolt I took yesterday.

The Spaying/Neutering of my Rescued Cats

A few weeks ago, my friend and I took our rescued cats to the vet. It was an answered prayer. Prior to this, we were brainstorming for ways to get our pet cats neutered/spayed at a low cost.  It's hard to take care of cats especially when there's a lot of them, not to mention the time and of course the financial side of it. We don't want our cats to multiply exponentially. 

It was God who led us to this wonderful veterinarian. When I stumbled on a Facebook page called 'Open Paws' which is based in Riyadh, I chanced upon a familiar friend on FB, Dr.Khumbulani, who is also a follower of this page, understandably himself a vet. Dr.Khumbulani was the doctor of my cat Paquito who unfortunately died last year. So I messaged him and asked about the spaying/neutering services and how much it would cost us. And he said that it would cost about 400 Sr. each, but he can lower that down to 300 Sr. each. Still it's very expensive and we can't afford to spend that amount of money for each one of them. 

Obviously Dr.Khumbulani knew of our financial constraint and instead gave me a name of a certain lady vet on FB and told me that she could help us in our predicament, but mind you, not kind of big time. When we contacted her through phone, she said that she's willing to spay/neuter all of our cats for free including those of our neighbors' pet cats. Yes, that's right, for FREE. Okay, paint a picture of how shock we were when confronted with such incredible generosity. I couldn't believe it, from 400Sr. each to absolutely gratis. I can't thank God enough for directing us to Dr.Ingrid. 

As she is based in Riyadh, Dr.Ingrid scheduled us a specific day for us when she gets to Jeddah. In fact she had herself soldiered up for a tough day for her expected 9 patients. (We promised her 9 but unfortunately we were only able to carry 6.) Her place was not that hard to locate. There could be no stupid mistakes of not trailblazing her private clinic as a familiar smell itself will lead you to where she is. True enough, there were more than a hundred cats living with her in her home. I've never seen that many cats in my life before. She has rescued all of them. I can tell how much effort and money she has invested in them by the looks of their healthy and happy demeanor. Or did I say some of them are too heavy to even carry their tummies? Lol! As soon as we dumped our cats to their cages we were told to pick them up in the evening. By the way, Dr.Ingrid is such a lively spirit to engage in a conversation, but we could not further waste her time as she has already rolled her sleeves up to start her day. When we returned to pick them up, they were all still groggy because of the anesthesia. The good news was, they were all spayed and neutered except for one, the youngest of our 5 cats, which we  thought was a girl but he turned out to be a boy. He/she will be back next month together with the rest of our cats (and the neighbors' cats) that haven't been spayed/ neutered yet.  

Thank you Dr.Khumbulani and Dr.Ingrid for all your help, you're a blessing to us and also to some of our dear friends who are helping us with the rescued cats, thank you for your support. And of course to our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you very much dear Lord for listening to our prayers. To you all the glory!

Here's the video of my 5 cats when they arrived from the vet, after the operation.

She's Wicked (But Love Is A Healer)

See the black & white version of 'Wicked' on 'Camera Ni Cabrera'.

Way back in August when I first heard through the bathroom window of our apartment what seems to be a crying kitten and sure enough, when I looked at the window, I saw a little black kitten looking back at me and it seemed to be asking for food. The kitten has no way of getting out from a cave-like basement storeroom because the door of that small space which is under the staircase of our building is always locked, so it must have been born there and  neither have any interactions with other kittens nor people (aside from hearing them while they go up and down the stairs). It was basically a 'cave kitten'.

After a few weeks, my friend and I decided to rescue the kitten by climbing over the door (it has a wide open space above it where you could climb to get to the other side). When my friend got there, he just couldn't find the kitten because it was dark and the room was full of clutters. There is also a small door that leads to an open space which is the back of our bathroom where I first saw the kitten; he can't find it there either. And so we decided to stop the search and call it a day. The cat was just too scared to show itself. 

From that day on, for it to be able to survive, everyday we give the kitten water and cat food placed inside a loose plastic bag, by way of the small (bigger than a fist size) hole at the side of the stairs. We've been doing that for weeks, until the caretaker of the building called and said that he had found the key to the small room. That evening we decided to give it a second try and search for it again.

A few minutes after we opened the door, the terrified kitten just leaped out of nowhere and ran frantically  without direction until I cornered it by the door of my neighbor. I can't even touch the kitten for it was so fierce and I was scared that it might scratch my hands. I asked my friend to get me the rag and I used it to cover the entire body of the kitten so that it doesn't scratch me and then I quickly took it to my apartment.

For three days I can't even touch the cat. I have to feed it cautiously and quietly or else it might freak out, but then as the days passed, the kitten learned to trust me eventually. While feeding it, I always sneak my other hand towards its back and gently pet it. It was during that time also that I realized that it's a she and I thought it's also appropriate to give her a name. Since she's entirely black and fierce, I thought why not call her 'Wicked', like the witch in The Wizard of Oz.

Now I think she's already settled-in in my apartment with 8 other similarly curious cats and two weird-looking people (at least in her perspective). What can I say? There's nothing in this world that love can't change. She's Wicked, but love is a healer. Thank you Lord Jesus that we were able to save her. The only question now is, how long can we keep it up with them? They will not be kittens forever, you know, not to mention that their subsistence costs dwarf that of our own (green peas thankfully make us get by, lol). I know it's sad and heartbreaking but one of these days, some of them will have to go. We simply can't handle them all. So sad really.

Our daily routine with all 9 of them (cats)!

And Three Became Eight (The Rescued Kittens)

I've found 7 cute kittens under a car near the garbage bin in the street just outside our apartment the other day. They turned out to be the kittens of the tabby cat owned by the Indonesian expats from the second floor. The cat regularly waits for us every morning outside the door of our apartment for weeks now, seemingly begging for food, and ever since I see to it that I gave her some cat food whenever I see her by the main door. I even gave her a bath once and shampooed her because she stank and looked underfed. We knew that she has kittens somewhere in the building judging by her rows of teats that sagged, but we never thought that we will see those kittens out in the street and under a flat-tired car. 

We talked to the owner of the cats and they said  they threw those kittens because there were too many of them and that they didn't have any choice but to evict them out of their apartment. They could have kept them outside of their apartment or let them  roam freely through flights of stairs but the building watchman does not see it possible for hygienic reason. The owners however took back one of the kittens to be with its mother. So after 2 days of feeding those kittens under the car, we decided to take them all inside our apartment and take care of them 'till they get a little bigger. Seeing them lying on a very hot surface, their tongues sticking out  due to extreme heat and thirst is just not right. Unfortunately, when we were scampering around to catch them, one of the kittens had run like hell it thought it just had a great escape. And we lost sight of it, three days now into our search and rescue episode to no avail, it must have gone with other bigger alley cats. 

Just this afternoon after work, we bought them a few cans of cat foods and a small litter box. I've already bathed and blow-dried all of them and now they are all clean, smelling good and comfortable like little kings and queens. Just a few hours ago before I decided to write this blog, they were all playing like crazy just like  normal healthy kittens do and I don't think they have any idea of what's going on or what  kind  of future will they have. So sad. 

I can't help but wonder how come here in Saudi Arabia they don't have any government programs/agencies or NGOs that  take care of these poor creatures? Seeing them on the street every single day, some flattened and buried under car tires, really breaks my heart. If only I'm as rich as some people here, I would probably buy a patch of land somewhere and rescue all the cats that I see on the street and educate pet owners to neuter or spay their cats, and be responsible pet owners. They should think of these animals as integral part of their families and not as toys like dolls and toy robots that they give to their kids. These are living animals that need TLC. Feline population in Saudi Arabia has soared unabated in the streets because of lack of education  on the part of  pet owners who readily dump them in the streets when confronted with incapabilities to keep them any longer. Lack of compassion is also obvious here for people or citizens who could have thought of something humane for these animals.

Now we have a total of 8 rescued cats (3 of which came from our previous rescues) in our small apartment and they are taking a huge bite out of our monthly salary. Cat foods and cat litters are getting more expensive here in Saudi Arabia. And if anyone out there happens to be an animal lover especially those who live in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, we would appreciate it much if you could share a little in any way you can for us to be able to keep them much longer. Please free to leave your comment below if the predicament of these cute cats moves you. And if it appeals to you that adopting one of them does not bother you that much, feel free to do so. You may send a word by my email at pepecabrera1972@yahoo.com. God bless you all!

Another Orphaned Kitten Rescued!

When I was driving to Hera'a street searching for a photo subject, around 5:00 PM, I saw an orphaned lame kitten under the Hera'a - Madinah road flyover, infront of CityMax Department Store. That poor kitten would not survive there for long. If he's not going to get run over by a car, he will definitely die of hunger and thirst. I then asked my friend to get him so that we could feed and bathe him before setting him free at a safer place.

After giving much thought, I decided to let the kitten stay in our place for a few weeks, so that he could have a little more time to recover from his condition before letting him go. Since I found him on Novemver 1st, I called him 'Undas'.  Since we did not have cat food for kittens, Undas had to be content with tuna for his inaugural meal. In fact I just snatched the plate away after his belly threatens to burst. Oh and he loves Almarai milk too. One drawback though, he annoys all his seniors with his piercing cry that he had a first taste of karate from Miss Ken Lee. He is definitely an addition to my already big feline family. Some of them had only memories to stay, in fact I still miss them. I don't know if they were able to survive outside. You know, I could not keep all of them together.