I wiped away the tears at work today as I read this. I don't yet know if it is a happy story or a tragic, sad story. I haven't finished it. But this first page had me all but crying (no small feat) at the sheer boundless love for a seemingly hopeless stray animal on the verge of a terrible fate. Oh, just read....
EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE ONCE WE GET TO GERMANY There are stories that simply have to be written. Over and over again, people asked me questions like "Why did you bring a cat back from Sri Lanka? Was it really that easy? Why are you so mistrustful of veterinarians?” And so on. So I decided to set up a homepage and tell Poose’s story here.
It is a very unusual story – sometimes amusing, sometimes sad and sometimes almost incredible. But it is one thing above all: true.
First Encounter
”I’m sorry. With these blood-test results, the FIV infection in the background, and these blood-sugar levels, there’s nothing more I can do for you. If this cat were a car, I’d call it a total loss. Hold the kitten in your arms and stroke it until it goes to sleep. It will die painlessly within the next few days,” said the vet in his rather cold manner. With tears in my eyes, I drove home with Poose. He had been with us in Germany for barely four weeks...
...It had all begun in Sri Lanka, an island off the southern tip of India known to many people by its old name of Ceylon. My husband and I had often taken our vacations there. This year, we rented a house away from the sea, in the middle of a small village. We got along wonderfully with our Singhalese neighbors. We washed at the well, as they did, cooked over an open fire and shopped at the local ”Kadee” grocery store. This was Sri Lanka pure – with no protective walls and very little Western-style comfort.
There were coconut palms in our garden and mango and banana trees. Monkeys cavorting among the limbs of three large jackfruit trees woke us every morning with their loud chatter. They loved the ripe, sweet fruits that hung from the trees. At night, flocks of flying foxes would swarm over the fruits in a feeding frenzy. One day we watched a monitor lizard scavenging in our compost heap while we ate breakfast. I tried in vain to photograph a beautiful, brilliantly colored kingfisher. And of course there were lots of stray cats and dogs who visited us often.
One particular cat caught my attention on the second day of our stay. Thin as a rail, it approached me on shaky legs. Its left ear drooped like a dachshund’s. I quickly realized that the cause of the problem was a tumor on the tip of its ear. Full of pus and surrounded by a swarm of flies, the growth measured more than an inch in diameter. The cat tried to get rid of the burdensome weight by repeatedly shaking its head. When it saw me, it began to screech. A wide-open mouth and two luminous green eyes begging desperately for help – that was my first image of Poose, and it has remained etched in my memory ever since.
Food! Something edible, and quickly! I made a hasty search of the kitchen. Processed cheese spread was all we vegetarians without a refrigerator had to offer at the moment. I watched with teary eyes as the cat greedily lapped up the sticky mass. Never before had I seen a cat in such a pitiful condition. And I still feel ashamed today when I recall that I didn’t even touch Poose that first day. He looked so terrible: filthy and covered with lice and nits! It wasn’t until the day after, when Poose showed up in the garden again, that I overcame my feelings of disgust and rubbed him gently beneath his chin. Poose started purring right away and pressed his head against my hand. I just sat there, feeling so miserable ...
The rest of the story is here:
http://www.poose.de/englisch/englisch_Story/e_story1.html
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