Dear
Pauline,
I'm
writing to you to express our gratitude for finding our beloved
cat back safely. Her name is Elsa and we had lost her 3 days
ago. Somehow she managed to escape from our compound by climbing
the fence. We found her last night hiding and crying inside
the monsoon drain two blocks away from our house. The tips and
techniques that I found in your web page are so helpful. And
we're so thankful for that.
I'm
a weekend carpenter (as a hobby) and currently building a bench
for our backyard garden. As usual the place will be in a mess
for quite some time until the project is done. The last project
took me 3 years to complete which was the island table for the
kitchen.
Our
cats, Didi and Elsa, were occupying our backyard as their little
heaven. Recently we fixed a 7 foot brick fencing as a security
measure and also to keep our cats from roaming away from our
compound.
Lesson
# 1 — never leave your backyard in a mess, especially stacking
wood or unfinished benches near the fence as it will give opportunity
for the cat to climb out. (And yes, I should've listen to my
wife and kept the unfinished bench away from the fence; she
warned me that the cats just might climb and jump out.)
Elsa,
in particular, is a very timid and dainty, unlike Didi who is
a bit boisterous and friendlier around strangers. They're both
female and spayed so I don't think she ran away for a 'little
fun'. I suppose she was curious and wanted to see if there was
anything interesting outside the compound.
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When
we learned that Elsa was gone, we looked for her immediately
all around the neighbourhood but to no avail. We searched
once in the morning and once in the evening. I put up
a coloured poster with her picture on it and placed it
at a shop nearby and distributed black and white flyers
to each house in my neighbourhood. There were about 40
houses in our section.
I
surfed the net and found out about your tips in finding
missing cats. After reading them, I was convinced that
she's not very far away from our home. I told my wife
and maid not to give up searching for her.
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My
maid did her dutiful evening rounds around the neighbourhood
on the third evening, and she gently calls out Elsa's name while
searching and still there was no sign of the poor cat. My maid
came home and shortly after that someone came over to our house
and reported that he heard the sound of a cat crying which came
from the drain in front of his house. I assume that she heard
a familiar voice calling out her name and decided to respond
to the calling, even though it was delayed response.
We
rushed quickly to the place and spotted her sitting in the dark
crying inside the monsoon drain. Luckily it's quite a big drain
and had enough room for me to crawl in and rescued her. Hers
was a loud cry in the beginning and as I started to go down
in the drain it became softer and sounded like she was suffering
from pain.
Lesson#2
— everyone is a stranger/threat to a scared cat.
She
didn't come to me when I called her name, perhaps it's their
defense instinct not to respond to a threat. She stayed put
in one spot and was very weak and helpless. I think she was
calling out for help since she couldn't find her way out from
the covered hole. She might have traveled in the dark for miles
going around in circle inside the drain that covers a few blocks
of houses.
I
slowly approached her and gave her a gentle stroke before I
grabbed her body, and I guess it's the familiar smell and voice
that calmed her down a little. Everyone was so relieved the
moment I brought her up to the surface, to celebratory cheers
that night.
Lesson
#3 — As soon as the cat is rescued, check if she is hurt
or wounded IMMEDIATELY and thoroughly before deciding that she
is ok.
When we brought her home, I saw some pus on the right hind leg
and didn't think that it would be something serious. But after
2 days, seeing that she wasn't as active as before, my wife
checked the small wound and only to find out that there were
3 other holes around the area, and it was swollen, red and hard
around it. It seems like she was bitten and was badly infected.
We took her to the vet immediately and the doctor said that
the wound was badly infected and she was also having fever.
She was then sedated so that he could treat her without struggle.
We also found another wound underneath her body. The doctor
said we were very lucky, because if left untreated, she could
die because of bacteria getting in her blood system. Poor Elsa.
The doctor gave an antibiotic jab, some antibiotic tablets and
cream for the wound. We really hope she will recover soon. We
love her very much and it's disheartening seeing her suffering
like that.
Once
again, thanks for your tips and insights about missing cats
especially their natural behavior in such situation. Otherwise
we would've been searching without any clue and she might've
ended up in a different condition.
Cheers,
Eaide, Siti, Ali, Bibik, Didi & Elsa
Malaysia
