Home Features Guilt, Recovery & Carrying the Ghosts: The story of a litter of...
“Paws” PERSPECTIVE Paws for a Cause – Guyana
Doctor’s Note: Paws for a Cause – Guyana (“Paws”) is a local Animal Welfare Group operating and registered in Guyana as a Non-Profit Inc. The Group works to prevent animal cruelty, to promote humane, ethical, and responsible pet ownership, to advocate for controlling the animal population via spay and neuter campaigns, to educate the public, and to assist in cases of reported animal neglect and abuse. The Group’s work extends beyond dogs and cats, and includes all wildlife in Guyana. Occasionally, the Group will contribute a “Paws Perspective” to the Sunday Times ‘Pet Care’ Column, detailing experiences in animal welfare.
While our little grey kitten was fighting her battles, her three siblings were also going through health challenges – one had a neck abscess; one did not gain weight and is now the smallest kitten of the surviving ones; one began to show symptoms of eye infection though not half as bad as the one we lost. With daily cleansing of the neck abscess and the eyes of the two infected kittens and a good feeding regime, we miraculously were able to save the lives of the three kittens.
Thankfully, two of the kittens have found loving homes. The runt of the litter was Clementine. Her initial adoption fell through, and she later developed “watery” eyes. We did not have high hopes for a successful adoption for her. Further, she tested positive for Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) which increases her vulnerability but does not deny her a healthy life with proper home management and veterinary interventions as needed.
Animal welfare organizations throughout the world operate on limited and finite resources. Sick (but not necessarily terminal) animals in our shelters are less likely to be adopted and have a higher chance of being euthanized because of their medical needs throughout their lifetime. To provide these animals with a better chance of life, we need help. Your help and our care would ensure that we save as many animals as possible.
Clementine became a “foster fail” and has been adopted by this writer. She has had to be given a course of antibiotics and vitamins no less than 3 times for respiratory infections. Her personality is so much larger than she is. She loves to inspect your work when the litter box is being cleaned, which includes, but is not limited to, checking inside the garbage bag for what we assume can be a mixture of quality control and a farewell to her excrement.
She is so obsessed with her new electronic feather toy that she’ll often run past her breakfast and sit next to the toy, meowing loudly and pushing the feather (which we translate to mean ‘wake up and play!’) until we turn it on, and it springs to life.
She is impossibly serene when she’s drinking her medicine and will launch out of your arms if she sees something else more appealing than your hug (the most recent distraction has been a piece of cardboard). She bopped this writer on the nose with her incredibly soft paw because she no longer wanted hugs and preferred to play. She will turn into a drama queen if placed into a cage for a few minutes while her meal is being organized.
Clementine is now gaining weight slowly but is smaller than her foster sister Esmeralda. Their “sisters’” dynamic is unbelievable. Esmeralda loves to jump and climb on the window grill, perching atop arches and jumping from insane heights.
Naturally, Clementine does the same, landing with a distinctive little squeak, except when she went through a phase of screaming until you rescued her because she had climbed too far up to jump down. Both have broken into the dog’s food container multiple times. Clementine bullies Esmeralda when they’re sharing a bowl of food and perches on your shoulder as you walk around.
If you bend over, she’ll find a way to hop on your lower back and take a few minutes to groom herself unable to stand up properly – you simply must wait until she is done.
While Clementine may need eyedrops for the rest of her life, and succumb to respiratory infections, we look at the joy she embodies.
We think about the surprise interactions that soften our jaded view of the world – amidst the worries about Clementine’s survival rate and the state of her eye, a junior friend of Paws recently visited her and instead of balking at the eye, said “Wow! Her eye is so cool!”.
We have come to accept that there are many out there with indifference, prejudices, biases, dislike and even hate towards animals. There are others, however, that place great value on empathy, love and animal welfare. We hope that such people will be encouraged to adopt kittens like Clementine and give them a chance at life. We operate under the philosophy that the most you can do when they are in your orbit is to love them as much as you can for as long as you can.
All dogs (and cats!) go to heaven, some cross the rainbow bridge before they’re even learned to walk or suffer so badly that the bridge is a relief. The ghost of the grey kitten and all the others that have departed this life in our care constantly leave us grappling with grief and feeling drained. Yet, we sign up to do it again and again. We would rather carry the grief and the ghosts of animals that we’ve loved and lost than carry the guilt of the times we could have helped and didn’t.
We hope that this story of a “litter of cats” may inspire you to “Adopt a special needs animal!” or “Be a foster!”. If you can’t, please consider donating toward the spay / neuter surgeries, vaccines, medical treatment or care of rescued animals. Paws for a Cause’s motto is “you don’t have to be an animal person – you just have to be a kind one.”
There are just so many ways to be kind – and we’re always happy to give you our Paws Perspective on that.
If you’d like to offer comments, support or follow our work, find us on Facebook.com/Pawsforacause.gy, on Instagram @pawsforacause.guyana, subscribe to our YouTube Channel, drop us a line at [email protected], or visit our website at https://www.pawsforacausegy.com.
Animal welfare is everyone’s business. You don’t have to be an animal person – you just have to be a kind person.
