The Cat

When I came home from the stable today, I parked my bike as always in our driveway. As I did that, I heard a cat somewhere, sounding very unhappy. Now, we have a lot of cats in the neighborhood so at first I didn’t think much of it. Usually it is just the cat next door and some other cat from down the block, that is having a showdown, snarling at each other at a distance.

Still, something about this particular cat sounded wrong, so moron as I am, I had to check it out. I came across a tiny little cat, hiding in the bushes in our driveway, all curled up in a tight ball of long fur, hiding its eyes and head under its paws. As it were lying there, it continued to sound very miserable.

I tried calling for it, trying to get its attention, and it looked up briefly, and hid its head again, continuing to moan… So, I had to do something, It could have been hit by a car, and be bleeding out. Clearly, something was amiss with the little thing, so I went inside the house and told my mom,

“Hey, we have got a sick cat in out hedge. I am going to try and feed it.”

She wasn’t too happy about that. We all know that once you feed a cat, it will most likely come back to stay. But she followed me outside, unable to not help a poor little animal in need. I get that from her. I really do. Blame my soft heart on her…

Placing food in front of the little thing, it poked its head out and ate a bit, continuing to moan and complain. I realized then, just how bad shape it was in.

Running my hand down its spine, and across its hips, I don’t think I’ve ever felt an animal that was this drained, dehydrated, and thin. I picked it up and took it inside. We have winter in Denmark, it is freezing outside. It would die if I left it. If not from starvation, then at least from the cold.

It has spent the evening in my boyfriend’s work room, lying on a chair in front of the radiator, and just looking at the world. It doesn’t really sleep. It isn’t tired, it’s drained. It can hardly stand on its hind legs; there is no strength in the poor thing at all.

It’s a nice cat tough. It purrs instantly when you pet it, and it didn’t make a fuss when I sneak attacked it with a water -syringe, making sure it got some fluid even though it refused to drink.

So, if we feed it once every half hour, it eats a little and lies down again, simply getting completely drained from the effort of having to eat something.

I am not sure what to do about a cat like that, other than feed it and hope it recovers. I don’t know what a vet could do, I don’t think it’s sick, “just” starved and in any way, I only have my bike and I am not going to put that little bugger in a basket on a bike tonight, now that it is finally getting the heat back, so I guess we are just going to hope that it will make it through the night.

One day at a time.

What else is there to do?

Here it is, by the way,

Bear in mind the LONG winter fur and imagine just how skinny it really is underneath that. I don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl yet, either. Somehow that does not seem to matter much, next to trying to save its life.

So, fingers crossed that it will live. It has been drinking a little on its own accord now, so that is a good sign. It’s a fighter. Let’s hope that’s enough to pull it through.

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