My life was turned upside down about four years ago when my husband sustained brain injuries after a fall; he was hospitalised for many, many months during which time I hovered between hope and despair before he eventually passed away. Initially, I believed with all my heart that he would survive and recover from his injuries, but he suffered several setbacks including two seizures, pneumonia and Covid. I was eventually told by the neurosurgeon that medically speaking there was no chance of recovery. I visited him almost every day not knowing whether he knew I was there or whether he could hear me or see me. When he eventually did pass away, I was devastated, feeling empty and alone.
To make things worse, his two sons from a previous marriage started a dispute about his estate; his will, in which I was one the main beneficiaries, was not signed, so they got hold of an old will signed about 30 years previously. They offered me almost nothing, while according to law, I was entitled to financial support as his surviving spouse. I was already severely traumatised, heartbroken and overwhelmed when I started receiving hostile letters from their lawyers making false accusations against me and trying to intimidate me. What hurt me even more was that while their father was alive, I had a loving, caring relationship with them and their children called me “Ouma”.
I often cried for days, I lost my appetite and my health deteriorated. I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome and although I received a lot of love and support from my wonderful children, my friends and family, as well as some trauma counseling, I felt, lost, lonely, vulnerable and stressed out.
When I eventually relocated to a townhouse complex, I decided that the time was right to have a cat in my life again. I have always loved cats; I grew up with them, my children grew up them and for most of my life I had cats in my house. However, my husband and I didn’t have any cats since we traveled frequently and had a large dog that was not used to sharing his space with cats.
My daughter Lisa, who had previously been involved with CatzRus, suggested that I should look for one on the CatzRus website. As I browsed through the photos of available kittens, I felt that I could take each one of them home; they were so adorable. But sadly I felt had to restrict myself to one. I was not very particular about what the kitten should look like, but I knew that when I saw the one that was meant for me, it would speak to me. And so, I came across a black-and-white kitten that had a perfect black diamond-shaped marking on his nose, and beautiful green eyes; I immediately called him Snoopy. It was love at first sight, so I made an appointment with the CatzRus foster mom to meet Snoopy in person and to start getting the adoption papers in order.
However, when the foster mom took me to meet Snoopy, his little sister was cuddled up snugly against him; a calico-and-white fluffball with a lovely little pink nose and pink paws, dark-brown ears and blue eyes, reminiscent of a Siamese cat. I fell in love for the second time and I knew without a doubt that there was no way that I could or would separate them: if I take Snoopy, I take Snoopy’s calico sister! I subsequently named her Lily as she reminded me of a delicate lily-like flower.
I had to wait for about two weeks before they were ready for adoption. On the day I could finally fetch them, Lisa – who had also fostered cats before and who, with her husband Jacques, has seven cats – accompanied me with their cat box and two food bowls she had bought for them, as well as a fluffy cat bed.
Snoopy and Lily settled in effortlessly; playing, sleeping, eating, purring, cuddling, growing up (too fast!) and just being as adorable as only kittens can be! They brought joy to my life again. I could watch them for hours playing, sleeping and just being incredibly cute and beautiful. They are now two years old, happy, lively and healthy. I feed them on Hill’s cat food only and they don’t need to or want to eat anything else.
Our complex, which has natural open spaces in the front and back of the units, is a cat’s paradise with lots of trees to climb, places to explore, nooks and crannies to hide in, a variety of ‘things’ to catch, and neighbours paying attention to them. There have been a few altercations between them and one of the neighbor's cats, Bowie, who believes he is the Alfa male in the complex. Being a beautiful female, Lily is mostly targeted and every time she sees him, her tail fluffs out and the hair on her neck and back raise! However, so far they have both been able to stand their ground against him, albeit losing some clumps of hair in the process from time to time, but emerging otherwise more or less unscathed.
They have undoubtedly helped me through the process of recovering from my emotional wounds and I cannot imagine my life without my ‘babies’. Snoops is a typical boy, who roams around, climbs trees, explores and catches all kinds of living things – even a small snake once (!), then coming home eventually to eat and to stretch himself out somewhere for an afternoon nap. Lily, on the other hand, although she also explores and catches ‘things”, is a real lady and mostly stays closer to home; she likes to be near me, loves sleeping on the patio on her favourite chair, or somewhere in a secluded spot in the garden, or just being close to me where I work on my computer.
I thank everyone involved with CatzRus for the wonderful work you are doing for this worthy cause!
For me, cats are the closest thing to Angels on Earth
Author - Louise Pretorius
コメント