how I upgraded my love for other beings

Almost every person will tell you that they like animals - they won't be "soulless" and love for animals is a bit "in" these days.

I was "like that" too. Make your own opinion.

I had 3 cats:

Jack (born 10.3.2008) - British white without pedigree, I bought him on advertising portal for 150€ from a "breeder" from Nitra,

Luna (17.6.2008 - 24.6.2024) - British black and silver marble tabby with pedigree (from Prague, for 500€), I wanted to find her a boyfriend and breed "whiskas" kittens,

and then Pusinka (born approx. 2010) - an ordinary black tabby from the street with whom it all started.

However, the following events (written in the form of a "diary") taught me that loving animals shouldn`t be an act of vanity, but above all a responsibility for the life of a creature that is dependent on humans and humans are who impact the quality of its life, reproduction, or the question of life and death.

19.9.2013 

I won't sleep until I get this out of my head.

I'm sorry, I couldn't do anything anymore. When I heard his scream, I ran downstairs and wanted to help, but that scream was his last sound. He must have been sleeping under the car with his siblings and mom, and the driver didn't even know about when he left for work in the morning. The 2-month old male kitten with the white locket on his chest was already behind the rainbow bridge and was watching me wrapping his delicate body in a towel and calmly soothing his crying mom. I took him to the cemetery, touched his whiskers one last time and laid him in the thick bushes by the old grave, where no one goes anymore. I was hoping no one will wonder why I`m crying in the cemetery, and then the tiny one sent me sun from the cloudy morning.....maybe to dry my tears?

I didn't help anyone and I even brought myself to cry, but I think it was right that I went there to check. Death is part of life, that's normal and it happens, but carelessness to the lives of the defenseless is no longer. A friend told me that many people would behave like that, they would go to make sure that the kitten is okay. So why did I feel like an idiot...?

Not because I like cats or animals in general, that's not important at all. When life passes, it doesn't matter what kind of relationship we have with that being.

I don't care at all that someone might think now that I'm crazy, that I unnecessarily overact because of a stray cat, of which there are thousands, that I'm oversensitive and "I just have problems". But I don't know how else to express my humility and respect for life, whether human or animal. I value life as such, not just human life. I feel sorry when I know that something could`ve been better because of humans, but we screwed up. I think that's what makes me human in the truest sense of the word. This status is far from just about a kitten.

In my considerations triggered by this incident, I also thought about the lives of children - so easy to produce, but how many have a quality childhood and instilled emotional wealth?

As if quantity outweighs quality, when it comes to the number of lives in this world.

20.9.2013

I informed myself what to do with dead animals - the vet's office disposes of corpses according to the law. I wanted to take him from the cemetery because I didn't want the cadaver to pollute the final resting place for people over time. But it happened that the cemetery where I had placed him was already locked. So I climbed over the fence like some kind of grave robber, forgot my umbrella leaning against some tombstone, completely soaked my sneakers, and took a taxi away, which if the driver had known what I had in that bag...but mission accomplished.

Life goes on.

23.1.2014 

I contacted the OZ MačkySOS and informed myself about their activities, about helping animals and about other things that I didn't know about before. I tamed the mother of the dead kitten and I feed her every day. I want to find her a home, I`ll have her get neutered in the spring so that there are no more unwanted and endangered kittens. Sometimes 2 siblings of the dead kitten also come to eat, they are already big, shy and independent.

1.3.2014 

Dear friends, you won't believe it, but this story continues in an unexpected direction.

I made a box for the mother of kittens - for the winter so that she would have somewhere to hide. I named her Pusinka. One day, while bringing food for her, I noticed that there was something in the box...it was a dead cat. I said goodbye to Pusinka and together with my boyfriend we mourned her...she always waited and called us with her typical meow...I blamed myself for not finding her home sooner.

But at least I knew now what to do with the corpse! 😁

About a month later, when my boyfriend and I were walking through the parking lot (the place of all these events), we heard a familiar meow. Pusinka! She's alive...and she's pregnant - advanced stage. That means another, very similar cat was lying dead in the box.

Who wouldn't be looking forward to kittens...but there are so many homeless pets...and they just keep increasing on the streets, people kick them, poison them, run them over...what kind of life is this? Better none than with such outlook. I didn't have time to have her neutered, nature got ahead of me again.

But I handily took her into a cat-carrier and placed her in my bathroom (I quarantined her from my 2 cats) so that I wouldn't have to mourn her again and for real. In the morning I contacted the lady with whom I work on caring for abandoned cats (Civic Association MačkySOS) about what now...and apparently neutering of pregnant cats is routinely done to prevent uncontrolled reproduction and she booked her in for surgery. Ok, I thought, the kittens wouldn't survive outside during the cold nights anyway and they have nowhere to go, since they're strays and I would end up keeping Pusinka.

But when Pusinka showed me her belly at home and I felt the kittens moving inside her... I failed 😅 The lady from the CA told me that she understand me, since I'm a beginner and I don't know how to take things with such a cool head yet. I offered to let Pusinka give birth at my place and she offered to cover the vet care and look for homes for the kittens.

Now it occurred to me that in the past I wanted to breed on my Luna, a cat with pedigree. I had no idea what I could do with it, I had no idea about any breeding principles. In the end, I gave up on this idea and had her neutered when she was 2 years old, but my desire for kittens was supposed to be fulfilled at least in this way - helping a street cat. Pleasant with useful 😊

So, now my Pusinka has undergone vet examination and tests, everything is ok, she will not infect my cats anymore. She is a very calm and grateful cat. She found us, it is a terrible responsibility when a cat chooses you...not everyone understands it. She is due to give birth in a week, I am very much looking forward to observe a new experience with my favorite animal species - a cat. But at the same time I realize that this happened for the first and last time in my "career" of helping animals. In my further work with street cats I know that I will never be able to make such an exception again, that would be counterproductive. But I had the opportunity to shelter her.

So keep your fingers crossed that there will not be many of those who`ll be needing homes.

14.3.2014 

Pusinka gave birth to 4 kittens. Actually, 5 but the 5th one was dead and I couldn't revive it. It was born much later than the others and was probably suffocated. I had to hold and pet Pusinka during the entire birth, otherwise she would come after me and call me back. It lasted 24 hours. An experience of a lifetime.

Thanks to the fact that I once wanted to have a breeding station, something about genetics stuck to me 🙂 Especially the inheritance of red and black color (phaeomelanin and eumelanin), which depends on gender, so now I took advantage of it. I didn't have to look at their gender, based on the color and method of inheritance I knew who was male and female, and I also know with 99% (nothing is 100%) certainty that their father was red 😎 I also know exactly which one - because later I caught him and at least let him spay, so that he wouldn't  bother such Pusinkas anymore.

I raised the cats, Pusinka was an exemplary mother (who knows how many times she's been a mother), I weighed them daily to see if they were gaining weight and with passion observed their behavior.

2 girls and 2 boys. Cibuľka ("little onion"), Fazuľka ("little bean"), Piškótik ("little biscuit") and Koláčik ("little cake"). Food names 😂 Hruštička ("little pear") - Cibuľka's tortoiseshell twin - was stillborn.

As they grew, they were all very sleek and long. Big pointed ears, long slim legs and tail, triangular head with an elongated nose. As if oriental features. Except for Fazuľka, she got adopted at 10 weeks old and these features didn`t have time to manifest in her by that age.

Pusinka nursed them even after neutering, they sucked her almost until adoption.

23.7.2014 

My beauties, born on March 14, 2014, my cheerful four-leaf clover born to a completely ordinary street cat that I housed one cold February evening, all these kittens are already enjoying their new homes.

Thank you to all the kind people who decided to adopt a kitten rather than buy one. Since I am no longer responsible for kitten care, I can think of another way to help street cats.

3.9.2014 

But life doesn't always write nice things, of course. Another important thing I learned was that not every adoption has to go well. The first-born kitten, a beautiful, elegant tortoiseshell cat named Cibuľka, died shortly after adoption. Someone threw poison into her new owner's garden and poisoned 3 of her cats and 1 dog. A few years later, I learned that her own husband did it. This confirms that 90% of the perpetrators of most crimes are people known to the victim and not some kind of "evil strangers", "tramps" or "unknown weirdos".

I am comforted by the fact that the others are doing well. The brothers Piškótik and Koláčik even went to a shared home. They will never be without each other! 🤩

Currently I still have the same 3 cats. But I don't plan on having any "whiskas" kittens of my own production anymore 😋

When I have time, I prefer to catch stray cats for neutering so that as few homeless cats as possible are born.

15.2.2017 

I had to find a new home for my Jack, more about that here.

So I finally have 2 cats - Luna and Pusinka.

I started to do temporary foster care for abandoned cats and I'm looking for homes for them. My cats were cautious after Jacky left and were afraid of new cats because they still remembered his attacks...but gradually they got over it and forgot the hard times Jacky caused them. Pusinka even socializes the foster cats and teaches them how to be a proper cat 🙂

🐾