A winner in the kitty Olympics
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Despite an unhappy start in life, Varee has little trouble settling into her new home
I met Varee last year when animal rescuers and I visited a woman who was taking care of any cat who appeared in her home in Samut Prakan.
“Pa Mao” didn't know how many cats she had, but I guess it was nearly 60.
That one-room home was a mess, so dirty! The smell was terrible, and most of the cats had eye and skin infections.
Although Pa Mao insisted that Varee was one of her favourites, she never took her to a vet when a back paw was torn off. “No money,” she explained.
When we met Varee, she had three two-week-old kittens, too small to move to another place, the rescuers felt.
“We’ll come back when they’re older,” they said, but a few weeks later, Pa Mao told a rescuer that the kittens had died. She’d also decided she didn’t want any cats anymore and would the rescuers please take them away? Otherwise, she would chase the cats away herself.
The rescuers somehow found homes for all the cats except Varee. No one wanted a crippled cat.
Varee stayed at a vet’s clinic for awhile, then, during last year’s floods, a rescuer took her home and had a veterinary surgeon examine Varee’s leg.
The injury really had healed, and the leg had a pad of tough skin where the paw had been. “Don’t amputate,” he recommended. “She’s fine the way she is.”
Last week, though, the rescuer had all her cats tested for feline leukaemia and feline Aids.
“Guess what?” she told me. “Varee has Fiv.”
There was only one thing to do. Yesterday, Varee joined my household. My white lady Mekhala also has Fiv, and my other cats are vaccinated against this terrible, untreatable disease.
I prepared a place for a cat who probably couldn’t walk very well and still more probably couldn’t climb. She would stay in a cage until I was sure she knew how to get around her new home safely.
Varee herself huddled in a corner, not even eating.
Now, this morning, I allow her out of the cage to see how she can walk. She slips and slides all over the place. How sorry I feel for this unfortunate creature!
Then I realise I can’t find her. I’m positive she must be on the first floor. I doubt if she could get herself up to the other floors, but she’s not in any hiding place I look.
Totally depressed, I go up to clean the upper floors, but I’m in for a surprise. Varee’s on the stairs to the fourth floor. She’s rather proud of herself too.
Then she shows me how she can jump up to chairs and down to the floor. Despite the missing paw, she goes anywhere she wishes.
I’m in awe. Varee doesn't feel sorry for herself. Coming from a terrible environment, losing her children, living in many different places, she remains herself, a true winner in the Kitty Olympics.
