Animal Life In The Raw

[thaiturkey]

Cats and dogs in our area are often poorly looked after and scavenge for food where they can find it. Dogs are definitely not welcome on our land but I have a soft spot for cats. Nevertheless, we don't encourage them because my old cat, who came with me from England, doesn't like others and stays indoors most of the time if there are any around.

A while back, we took pity on a stray, young white cat and fed her occasionally. She was killed by a car right outside our home one night and buried by a neighbour.

Months later, we saw a mother with two kittens at the end of our land. After the mother was badly mauled by a dog, we fed them. That meant, of course, that they would hang around the house and demand food. One kitten disappeared but the mother produced two more litters of three kittens each, only one of which survived from each litter.

One night, driving the pickup into the drive, I felt a bump. I'd run over the hind quarters of the mother. We caught her a day or two later and took her to the vet. No bones were broken but she had nerve damage. The vet dealt with her injury and neutered her. She was frightened witless and refused the medication that we were given so we had to leave her to her own devices. Two weeks later, she reappeared from cover and was fine except for a limp.

While we were considering how to catch all of them and take them to a temple for the monks to look after, disaster struck again. My wife started up the pick up one morning and heard a cat screaming under the hood. The six month old kitten had climbed into the engine bay and a hind leg was wrapped around a pulley against the engine block. The leg was a mangled mess and the kitten was screaming blue murder. My wife couldn't deal with it and I wasn't much better. A neighbour helped me to lever the leg away from the pulley with a screwdriver. We put iodine on the wounds and had no choice but to let the kitten go before it bit and scratched us. We haven't seen it since.

The next morning, my wife managed to entice the mother and remaining kitten into large bird cages with food and took them to a temple. Amazingly, instead of running for the bushes when she released them, they ran straight into the temple building.

Yesterday, we found the decayed body of the black kitten and assume that it was attacked by a snake in the neighbouring cassava plantation.

Probably, animals don't have the same emotions about the loss of offspring as do humans but I can't help feeling sorry for that dedicated and productive mother cat who now has just one kitten from a total of eight that we know about and no clue as to what happened to at least some of them.

 

[orientphoenix]

don't feel bad, at least you did what you can

 

[thaiturkey]

Thanks.

 

[theoldchick]

Sometimes nature at work is not pretty. I know people who spend a lot of money to feed stray cats and end up with a feral cat colony of of dependent weaklings who breed like rabbits.

 

[thaiturkey]

And that's the way it was heading! The upside is that my own cat is now happily spending more undisturbed time outdoors and the bantams that will arrive tomorrow will do the same.

 

[thaiturkey]

It feels like a new beginning today.

The old turkey coop is cleaned out ready for some young bantams to be delivered later. My cat is happy outdoors again. Overgrown trees have been heavily pruned ready for the rainy season. The overgrown clumps of sugar cane are cut. The waterfall pump has been replaced, the pond refilled and the catfish are loving it. The gate lights have been replaced at last. We are looking forward to the plough coming soon to prepare ground for planting the new bamboo saplings. The Yamo Festival is on, an annual homage to a famous local lady. My step daughter has a chance to win a scholarship for a Masters Degree. It's one of the two days per week when local expats. gather at my wife's restaurant to put the world to rights. It's not too hot and the weather forecast shows that the rains will arrive soon and relieve us, or rather my wife, of the daily watering job.

Simple things make or break a day!

 

[Matthew3590]

What made you want to move to thailand? What country are you originally from?

 

[thaiturkey]

I'm from England and retired to live in Thailand.

 

[sumi]

You tried your best with the cats, which is more than many people would. Here's my (nice) stray cat story:
I walked to town with my son one day when he stopped and pointed something out to me. It was a stray cat and it was in a very bad state. One ear missing, half it's tail's missing, one eye missing, ribs sticking out and hosting half the country's fleas to boot. I couldn't take it home with me as we had an unfriendly tom and I wasn't going to leave it there, so I decided to take it into town with me and see what I can do. The cat didn't mind being picked up, but I did mind the fleas, so I stopped by the off sales on the way to see about getting a box. I walked into the shop with the cat hanging onto my shirt and within seconds you could here a pin drop on the place. I burst out laughing, explained the situation and got a box. We went to the house of the butchery owner who's wife is into animal protection (the irony!), but she couldn't help. So I went to the cafe and asked the owner for a lift across town to his neighbour who works for another animal protection charity. She's a veterinary nurse. I thought she could either find a home for it or (more likely) have it humanely euthanised.
We got to her house and she wasn't in so I phoned my DH and asked him to come get us. We went to her mom's house and dropped of the cat with her stepdad, asking him to make sure she gets it and takes care of it. I was sad, but I figured it was for the best. Better than dying slowly next to the road.
Then a few weeks later I bumped into the stepdad and he said I won't believe what the cat looks like now, getting fat and all and doing very well. I was stunned. I thought the cat was dead! Apparently his wife took one look at the cat, judged it too ugly to be of interest to anyone and decided to keep it! He's named Popeye, on account of the missing eye and is so fat and healthy I walked right past him and didn't recognise him when I went to visit! They say cats have nine lives, but some kitty's get second chances too.

Perhaps I should mention that we live near a very small town, so we know absolutely everybody. Handy in situations like this!

 

[thaiturkey]

Well done! Nice story, Thanks for sharing.

Here's another happy ending.

Last year, an Australian lady teaching English at the International Buddhist College in our local town was a regular customer at my wife's restaurant. One evening, she told us that she was leaving to travel to Chiang Mai to look for a home for retirement and then returning for a while to Australia. She wanted some help. A dog, Oi, owned locally, had been badly neglected, was in a poor condition and was bullied by the temple dogs. The lady spent time, effort and money to get Oi back into shape and they seem to have adopted one another. The monks at the college asked her to return Oi to his owners before she left. She feared that the poor animal would soon be back in his starved, flea bitten state and being attacked when he went near the temple dogs and wanted to find him a better home. His owners had no interest in him, leaving him to roam the streets and find food for himself.

I don't want a dog at home but said that we would take a look at him and think what might be done. She was back with him in no time and I could see that he was a quiet and friendly animal. With some hesitation, I agreed to take him and either find him a home or keep him. My wife, a mug for animals, had no hesitation whatsoever!

We took Oi home but he wasn't happy alone for the hours that we were out. He escaped twice and, the second time, didn't return. Our searches in the neighbourhood were unsuccessful. We thought, after a few weeks, that he was killed on a road or by other dogs. He was no fighter and didn't run well as a result of some accident in the past.

Months later, my wife spotted him with a man from a neighbouring village. Oi came to her as soon as she called him and looked very well cared for. My wife told the man Oi's story and he offered to return him. She wisely declined because he seemed to be in good health and was obviously happy with his new companion. More recently, my wife found Oi's new home.

The lady from Australia has now retired with her husband to Thailand and I hope that, some day, she will be able to see how Oi is getting on. At least, she will have some pics. of him as soon as we can get over to the village to take them.