There really is no end to stray cats and dogs in Taiwan. Most I see are perfectly healthy, however, and I am happy to let them live their lives. They seem to be doing OK without me.
However, just these past few days, Mrs. Expat and I found out that there were several kittens stranded on a ledge on the top floor of one of the buildings of our school. Of course, we were interested to know if they could be rescued or if we could do anything. I’m not sure how they got up there, but the mother cat had apparently given birth on the roof somewhere and had gotten them down onto this ledge.
Unfortunately, last Friday/Saturday, one of the kittens got scared and jumped off. Naturally, it didn’t survive. The other one was there on Friday night. Helpless to do anything, we started talking to people. They said they were hoping the mother cat would come back and rescue the kitten. I checked again on Sunday – still there. Someone had managed to put a small plank in between the ledges (there were 3 or 4 and led over to the walkway), but it didn’t help him much since he didn’t want to jump down. Mrs. Expat and I did put a can of food up there on Sunday morning. On Sunday evening, I checked again. Still there, but he had eaten, so I felt a bit better about it. I checked again yesterday (Monday) morning and the kitten was still there. I started thinking about what I could do to help and started scouting the roof out and looking for a way to climb down (really a dumb idea – it’s 6 floors up, no ropes, nets, or any other safety gear). The ledge happened to be where the AC was mounted, so they could have opened the window and grabbed the cat or maybe gotten him to jump over to safety. Apparently, sometime around noon yesterday, that’s what they did. That kitten got scared and jumped off the ledge, too. Another one gone.
We figured that was it, but someone told us there was still one more kitten and he was up on the roof on another ledge. Naturally, I went to go take a look. It wasn’t so much a ledge as a platform with a gutter in the middle. The kitten was hiding in the gutter under the roof, unable to be coaxed out. One of the interested students/assistants had gotten some mouse traps (the cages, not the snapping kind) and rigged it with some meat to lure him out. I didn’t think it was big enough, and I was right. 3 times the cat went it, tripped it, and managed to squirm out.
Eventually, after feeding the cat, watching him, trying to coax him out, I figured I’d better do something because he wasn’t going anywhere. I went to the local hardware store and bought a butterfly net. It was extendable to 2 meters or so. Knowing that the kitten liked to sleep in a particular corner of the platform (I had been watching him quite diligently), I quietly snuck up. Sure enough, he was sleeping there, the trap sprung again (I had put a can of cat food inside). I got my net down, he saw it, freaked, and ran right into the net.
He almost escaped but I managed to net him again and get him up. I then eased him into the cage, threw the can of cat food in there, called Mrs. Expat to tell her how awesome I was, and brought the kitten down the ground floor. We had seen the mother cat prowling around, also apparently unable to help her baby. On Friday evening I had found 2 other cats and I knew where they were hanging out at – they had a small burrow underneath the sidewalk and garden around our school. I brought the kitten there, snapped a quick picture, and let him go. He looked perfectly healthy – didn’t have any open wounds or infections. I knew that he had eaten recently, and I didn’t feel that it was necessary to bring him to the vet for a checkup. Since he was entirely afraid of people, it probably would have caused more undue stress on him after living the first week of his life alone on a ledge. I left the can of food and a bowl of water, put the cage back, and went on my merry way, hoping his mother would pick him up. Here is the only picture I have of the kitten I shall henceforth name Icarus (he climbed too high).
Mrs. Expat and I stopped by later that night, around 6:30 or so to check the food. We were both very happy to see that the kitten had found the food and water and his mother – both cats stared curiously at us as we moved off, hesitant to disturb them from their meal.
That makes 3 cats in about 9 months that I’ve rescued. The first one, Gecko (later renamed to Lady Gaga), we gave to a friend. The second one, [hanzi]眨眨[/hanzi] [pinyin]Zha3zha3[/pinyin], we kept. This third one, we returned to his mother. I’m glad I could help make three happy endings this year.
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