The Kitten
Stray animals are more the rule in Ukraine rather than the exception. It is not uncommon to pass by a dozen or more cats or dogs on my way to work in the morning, or to see the same ones day after day.
Close to my house, from this summer on, I have noticed a cute black and white kitten. Usually friendly, playing about, or stealing a bite to eat from the shoorma lady, he's a regular and I always slow down to say "hello," even if just mentally.
This Monday I saw him playing by the tram tracks, which, although not out of his area, was unusual. As I passed he was meowing and looking up. Then I noticed it. His left eye. It was all white and filmy but for the outer edge, which was all bloody. The whole eye bulged unnaturally out of its socket.
It caught me entirely off guard and I stopped to call out to him, but as I had no food to offer and I was too awestruck to touch him, he lost interest. I became sick to my stomach and felt a certain sadness and anger (and guilt) that he was not taken in before that happened. That I had not done so. Such an injury on an older cat would be bearable, but a baby? My throat became constricted and I had to fight back tears as I continued walking.
It took me a good twenty-five minutes to forget about it as I continued my long walk to work.
Such is life in Ukraine. It would be a luxury to weep for an animal without a home, and I, like so many others, can not afford such things. Ukrainians, more so than Americans, understand that life is not fair.
Close to my house, from this summer on, I have noticed a cute black and white kitten. Usually friendly, playing about, or stealing a bite to eat from the shoorma lady, he's a regular and I always slow down to say "hello," even if just mentally.
This Monday I saw him playing by the tram tracks, which, although not out of his area, was unusual. As I passed he was meowing and looking up. Then I noticed it. His left eye. It was all white and filmy but for the outer edge, which was all bloody. The whole eye bulged unnaturally out of its socket.
It caught me entirely off guard and I stopped to call out to him, but as I had no food to offer and I was too awestruck to touch him, he lost interest. I became sick to my stomach and felt a certain sadness and anger (and guilt) that he was not taken in before that happened. That I had not done so. Such an injury on an older cat would be bearable, but a baby? My throat became constricted and I had to fight back tears as I continued walking.
It took me a good twenty-five minutes to forget about it as I continued my long walk to work.
Such is life in Ukraine. It would be a luxury to weep for an animal without a home, and I, like so many others, can not afford such things. Ukrainians, more so than Americans, understand that life is not fair.
posted by Molly | 2:47 AM
1 Comments:
On holiday in the Sinai with my Mum and sister, I was struck by the number of mangy stray cats wandering around, eating anything they could find. They would steal cucumber slices off your plate if you werent looking. One night a tiny kitten, just big enough to walk and mew and open its eyes, crawled over the cushions into the cafe where me and Dani were sitting, and then crawled into my lap and fell asleep for an hour. I skritched it behind the ears and tickled its chin and all the things that kittens like, before it finally went off someplace else, probably to find some food. My sister then observed: "That might be the last time in its entire life that anyone is nice to it."
Life is indeed not fair.
-eoin
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