One thing you must absolutely get used to when living in Taiwan is the bewildering amount of stray cats and dogs. It’s rather heartbreaking, really, and the Taiwanese government doesn’t seem in the least bit interested in doing anything about it. As far as I know, all Humane Society/Animal Protection organizations have been started and organized by foreigners.
Most stray animals you see on the streets will be fine and healthy. The dogs will look well fed, perhaps a bit worse for wear, but certainly not starving. Cats, also, tend to find enough food to stay alive. While I certainly appreciate the efforts of the organizations in taking care of these animals, it’s just not for me. I simply don’t have the time or resources or go around rescuing every animal to get them off the streets. Besides which, if an animal looks well fed, is happy, full of energy, and looks reasonably healthy, what am I to do?
What I can do, however, is help those animals that obviously need help: the starving dog, the kitten with no mother, etc. These tend to be fewer and far between, thank goodness, but its one simple way I can help.
About two months ago, I rescued a cat that was living in our area. Now, admittedly, that cat looked really healthy and happy. I took it in because it was 1) Calico (very odd for a stray in Taiwan) and I thought it was beautiful, and 2) it ate like a velociraptor and I assumed it wasn’t getting a steady source of food. Mrs. Expat and I took it to the vet, had all the blood tests and everything done to make sure the cat was OK, and then found a nice home for her. We would have kept her, but she didn’t like our other cat, [hanzi]彎彎[/hanzi] ([pinyin]Wan1wan1[/pinyin]). On her own, she’s a wonderful cat and purrs like there’s no tomorrow. At any rate, she now has a happy home and can have a wonderful, happy life filled with food and toys.
A few weeks ago, Mrs. Expat and I went to Beigang for the Matsu Birthday celebrations. After wandering around a bit, we found a small, black kitten that was obviously in need of help. Her right eye was severely infected, and her mother was nowhere to be found. We packed her up and brought her back to the vet to get her taken care of. The pictures below might be kind of graphic. If you don’t have a stomach for these sorts of things, it’s best to skip them.
The Vet obviously had to keep her under observation. What happened was that she actually had some sort of nasal/breathing infection, and that had spread to her right eye. After a few days, we could tell it was getting worse.
What was great to see, however, was that no matter how bad her eye was getting, she was really playful. This little kitten had so much energy and loves to climb the walls of her cage at the Vet’s. Unfortunately, a few days ago, we realized that the eye was definitely getting worse. The infection on the outside had kind of gone away, but her eye socket was still infected and the pressure on the inside was forcing her eye out. It’s somewhat common, our Vet told us, and either her eye would pop out, and it would have to be taken off, or it might get sucked back in eventually. Either way, the kitty was definitely going to lose that eye.
So, the Vet decided that she had gotten big enough that she could survive the surgery. Later that night, he took her eye out. He showed it to us later (our Vet always takes pictures and shows us all the gory details later), and he said the eye came out in shards, just like glass.
The good news it that 2 hours after the surgery, the kitty was awake and climbing the walls of her kennel again. He is still so full of energy! Now, he’s all stitched up and has a second lease on life.
A few more days of observations, maybe some blood tests (to make sure he can’t spread anything to Wan1Wan1, and we should be able to take him home. I’m not sure if we’ll keep him or try to find a home for him. Either way, I’m glad we were able to help.
Now, it was rather expensive, all in all, mostly due to the NT$700/day charge by the Vet for keeping him there, but we didn’t have any choice. I will say this, however: if you go into any reputable pet store in Taiwan, you’ll find cats on sale for NT$15,000 or more. I figure, I can buy one of those healthy cats and spend nothing on the vets, or I can rescue a small kitty and spend almost the same amount of money on giving them a chance to have a good life. The cats at the vets already have their health, food, toys, etc. Nothing much would change for them. Giving a small kitten a chance to live a long, healthy life makes me feel better, however.
At any rate, we still need to think of a name for him. Any suggestions?
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