I put it
down to Planet Earth 2.
My daughter spent the Christmas holidays watching and
rewatching prowling night panthers, roaming hyena packs and baby turtles going
astray; confusing the moon with city lights they end up on highways instead of
the foreshore.
It was
these turtles in particular that so fixated my daughter’s imagination that when
she saw a minuscule creature scurrying dangerously in suburban byroads she did
a U turn. The fugitive turned out to be a kitten which happily jumped into the
car when she opened the door. And so we spent St Stephen’s day looking for an
owner and a vet. For kitty on further observation, had damaged his/her eye.
A trawl
about the internet and the neighbourhood threw up no clues as to kitty’s
identity. A chance encounter in Spar yielded the name of a vet who was actually
open. We whisked the fugitive off to this surgery where we were generally misinformed
and told to bring kitty to the DSPCA. This charity, however, was closed until further
notice and no joy on that website regarding rescue options in case of Christmas emergency. A cat shelter in Aughrim, Co Wicklow offered
to rescue kitty but asked me to check out the eye injury with a reputable vet
first.
The fugitive settled in happily, dismantling Christmas tree, bullying our 4 year old setter, cracking eggs and creating general mayhem. A visit to my own vet yielded the fact that the eyeball was perforated, probably by a scratch from a sibling, that kitty was a 12 week old male, would never recover its sight, but was otherwise healthy.
No prospective owner has darkened our door so
kitty looks likely to stay. The Aughrim lady has enough cats to rescue and our
setter, while looking back nostalgically to kitty free days…seems to have accepted the one-eyed visitor as a possible long term lodger.
I Highly
recommend the generosity, quick response and integrity of Catriona Leahy of
Aughrim Cat Rescue. See site if you want to help out or adopt a kitten.
He's a keeper!
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