Heartbreak - Losing Zsa Zsa

Zsa Zsa

I had another post planned for you, but sadly on my morning walk with Muji I found that Zsa Zsa had been killed by a motorist in front of the apartments.  I know it was just moments before we arrived, because I could feel her body was still warm and soft when I moved her off the tarmac of the seafront road. 

I put her over in the shoulder

It was easy to put together what had happened.  There was a gardener working in the area where she spends most of her time - in back of the apartment building. 

Here he is after he moved around front

It's a quiet area where there is usually no one, as the apartments are empty nearly all week and only a few people come to occupy them on the weekends. The man was giving the hedge a hard pruning with a very loud hedge trimmer.  I don't blame her for being scared.  I hate that sound.  She must have been scared to death as it is likely the first time she has heard it in her life.  They let the apartments go all winter.

The hedges got a hard pruning

They were cut a good 4 feet back at the apartments next door, too.

She likely darted to get away from the stranger and the noise, and instead of going to the apartment building next door where he was also working ( I saw the pile of debris), she crossed the road to get to the more peaceful grassy field.  She almost made it. 

People speed down this road like crazy.  There are speedbumps at this point along the road,  but they are ridiculously ineffective.  Like everything in Cyprus they are watered down to be innocuous so as not to anger the citizens.  People don't take kindly to rules in Cyprus and they are completely disrespectful to law enforcement authorities. 

Speedbump?  really?

Zsa Zsa was a winter kitten, still very young.  She originated up at the apartments and came down to the park to eat for a time, but then she started staying back at the apartments when they began work on the park.  That was also when I changed my feeding times there. Now Nik was feeding her every morning at the apartments. 

In fact, when Muji and I got back from our walk, I called Nik to tell him what happened, and he said he had just fed her this morning.  

She was afraid of everything.  She had just started coming out from the brush to eat with the others at the park before all the changes started occuring there.  I even saw her playing one day with Blabby and Greyboy.  That was a huge accomplishment for her because I only ever saw her alone, except the one time I saw her with her mother who was even more afraid than Zsa Zsa, if that is possible, and they were never very close to each other in proximity:

Zsa Zsa's mother, Sunset

Sunset with Moonpie 

Zsa Zsa on the far left and her mom Sunset on the far right - as close as I ever saw them together

It was more often that I saw Zsa Zsa like this, alone, hidden in the greenery:

Afraid to approach the plate, I usually had to put it in the bushes for her

She was always on the lookout:

Even after she started being brave enough to eat with the others she was still constantly on the lookout:

Let's not get sentimental about this and say, "Well we fed her, and we were her friends, we did the best we could and bla, bla, bla, because food is not enough. She needed protection, shelter, a home, security, and then she could have responded to love, you know, like in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - it holds for all of creation. And we didn't do the best we could. Who ever does the best they could? And no friend would leave a friend out on the streets to get hit by a car. So, no, we weren't her friends. We deceive ourselves when we think like that.

The apostle James wrote, “if a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you

says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their

bodily needs, what is the good of that?” (James 2:15-17).

Are not the animals our brothers?  This wonderful prayer attributed to  St. Basil says they are:

The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof.
O God, enlarge within us the sense of fellowship with all living things, our brothers the animals to whom Thou gavest the earth as their home in common with us.
We remember with shame that in the past we have exercised the high dominion of man with ruthless cruelty so that the voice of the earth, which should have gone up to Thee in song has been a groan of travail.
May we realize that they live not for us alone, but for themselves and for Thee and that they love the sweetness of life even as we, and serve Thee better in their place than we in ours.

Zsa Zsa needed security

Zsa Zsa being killed by a car is nothing save tragic.  Because none of us did enough to help her and and all of us could do more to help all the cats.  I am reminded of the opening words to a Jackson Browne song:

Oh, people, look around you

The signs are everywhere

You've left it to somebody other than you

To be the one to care

You're lost inside your houses

There's no time to find you now 

We ask cats to live as wild animals when they are not wild animals.  We say they can survive.  Do they?  Zsa Zsa and Tweeny are evidence they don't survive.   We ask the wild animals of the earth to survive in a world which is no longer wild.  How can they?  What is it we are speeding toward so fast that we cannot slow down, or build safer roads, or look out for our fellow creatures, our brothers and sisters we share this world with? 

The answer is good people willing to take in these pitiful creatures who are trying to live like the wild animals they are not.  The answer is people opening up their hearts and just putting a little more work in their life that they will reap the benefits of 100 times over.  Animals help us grow emotionally, they give us much needed companionship, and we can be completely ourselves with them. 

I went back and got Zsa Zsa after my walk with Muji and Nik and I will bury her tonight. Please say a prayer for all the cats.

Attributed to St. Basil the Great:

For those, O Lord, the humble beasts, that bear with us the burden and heat of day, and offer their guileless lives for the well-being of mankind; and for the wild creatures, whom Thou hast made wise, strong, and beautiful, we supplicate for them Thy great tenderness of heart, for Thou hast promised to save both man and beast, and great is Thy loving kindness, O Master, Saviour of the world.

I drew this picture for Zsa Zsa back in January when I thought she was lost.

For Zsa Zsa

And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. (Luke 10:2)

This one really hurts.  They all hurt, but she was so darn vulnerable and never even stroked or held once.

Starlight's Babies

I took a picture of Starlight's babies for you this morning while Starlight was having a snack.  She had five kittens, but sadly we just lost one of them, the smallest.  All five came out looking just like mom, black and white, and are just as cute as they can be:

they look like mom

I haven't taken a lot of pictures because I have tried to give her her privacy.  But perhaps I gave her a little too much, because if I had intervened earlier, maybe we could have saved the fifth kitten's life.  I feel just terrible about that.  It is hard to know how much to do for a cat that is so independent and has been living on the streets for so long, but I think now you have to do what you would do for any other pet, even if they don't like it - you must risk their wrath and do what you must do in the best interests of saving all their lives.

This work is so full of painful lessons, and I feel utterly ill equipped and inadequate most of the time.  And I have had my heart broken about a million times. Sometimes it makes me want to run away from it all and bury my head in the sand, but now seeing all I have seen, I don't think I could ever forget their plight.  They are so complex, and like us, so wonderfully made.

Starlight in Delivery

Happy Easter and Christos Anesti! to those who celebrated Pascha this past weekend.

I mentioned that we had brought Starlight home from the park with us to have her kittens.  Well she is delivering them now as I write!  What a lovely start to Bright Week. 

How are we going to handle another cat and kittens?  Well, we are not really sure.  I guess we are taking the Field of Dreams stand that "If you build it, they will come." 

Starilight is lodging in what was Bette's Master Bedroom (and I am happy to say, as an aside, that Bette is getting along so much better with the other cats in the house - which is not to say that it hasn't been trying - it has just taken time - the older the cat, the longer it takes).

She has chosen the closet cupboard for her delivery:

I just wish we had done the same with Strike, brought her home with us, because she is not faring well at the park at the moment.  Strike recently delivered her kittens as well, though we have not yet seen them, but her health has deteriorated, and I don't know that they survived, because it seems to me her milk has dried up - I don't know for sure though.  She is not even a year old, and I have read that a cat under one year old may have a hard time with birthing kittens, with the kittens possibly being deformed or stillborn.  I have also read that new mothers will give their last bit of energy to the kittens, no matter the queen's state of health

The truth is I have always spayed and neutered my pets as soon as they were old enough, so I honestly don't have any experience with kitten or puppy birth save once as a child.  I feel a little inadequate, and I wish I had done more reading before all this happened. 

Space is what we need, and it wouldn't be a problem - and people who are willing to open up their hearts and their homes and offer protection and love to these cats.  I know it is easy to turn a blind eye; out of sight is indeed out of mind.  But their suffering is real - and like the fallen trees in the forest that still make a sound when no one is around to hear, these cats still hurt when no one is there to see it.  Let's see if I can fit another cliche in - it's a jungle out there - for them, especially. 

Strike at the park about a week ago; her health and well being has deteriorated

There are moments, when being with the cats at the park is like paradise - but most of the time their lives are frought with dangers.  We can spay them, neuter them, feed them - but as long as they are out on the streets we cannot protect them from cars, insensitive people, dogs, and other cats, and let me just say, cats can be cruel to one another - and it is the sweetest, meekest, and often most people-friendy and trusting cats that suffer the most attack and harrassment, and are the least able to defend themselves - like Blabby at the moment, who has slowly been pushed out of the park.  All of them live in fear.

Holy Week

It is Holy Week here, and Sunday night ours started off with a melted router.  It's a long story, but suffice it to say it had something to do with a halogen lamp and a small fast cat named Minnow.  While we have replaced our router, a day off from the Internet was refreshing, so I am going to take the week off from the Internet, because our router is not the only thing that needs resurrecting.

To catch you up - the only cats we trapped on Sunday night were two who were spayed, one, our neighbor's cat Julie, and the other, our old friend Sylvia.  : \  Our pickings are getting slim since we can't trap pregnant or nursing mothers, the males are somewhat distracted right now and not interested in our food, and there are more people about, summer visitors, making privacy and maneuvering extra difficult.  Our feedings have moved to the wee hours of the morning; I start at 4AM at the park and Nik starts about an hour later.  This morning at the upper park near the parking lot, there were 7 cats,  nearly all of them new.  The food I am leaving for Strike her must be attracting them.  There was also a hedgehog, eating happily next to the cats.

Holy Tuesday - The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins

Strike Delivers, New Moms and Other News

It had been 12 days since we had seen Strike, when I first caught a glimpse of her, while walking our dog Muji past the park.  I was just sad I didn't have her special can of gourmet ready for her!  We were so relieved.  She is such a sweet cat, so gentle, and she is a first time mom, so when we didn't see her for so long we were concerned.  It was obvious from her appearance she had delivered her kittens.

I was so happy to see Strike's head peering out at me and Muji from the brush.

We were just sorry we didn't have her special can of gourmet on us

But the next night we found her in the same place and gave her her propers.

Strike gratefully gobbles up her first can in nearly two weeks; Blabby gets a bite, too.

And there are more new moms. Nik had seen a new cat up at the apartments whom he described to me, and we have named Trixie, and I caught my first glimpse of her down on the beach where she was blocking my and Muji's path.  She obviously has kittens nearby and is guarding them.  (The tallest buildings in the background are the apartments.)

Trixie from the apartments blocks our path to protect her young.

The message was clear:  Go around crackers.

We obliged, of course, and traversed and stumbled over the precarious pebbles by the sea. 

Here's a zoom shot, because I assure you, we did not get this close:

  Who is going to argue with a face like this???

Muji and I caught a glimpse of new mom Baby up at the apartments where she has been spending more and more time:

New mom, Baby, who has has been feeding up at the apartments lately, gives me and Muji a questioning glance

And new mom Tweets has been meeting us late in the evenings at Sammy's for some special sustenance; she has her kittens to feed, too:

New mom Tweets waits for us for a little extra something at night besides crunchies, and just as importantly, some atention

And so far the last new mom news is that we brought pregnant Starlight home with us from the park.  She has taken over the master bedroom and Bette has been set free to get to know our other house cats a little better.  Starlight, if you'll remember, was showing up for feedings with injuries from other cats, and we were concerned that she had been run off from the apartments.

Meanwhile, this week at the park there was a whole lot of pruning going on:

Tree prunings litter the park floor

At night we all had to blaze a trail through the new prunings to get to our feeding table

I do wish people would think about the fact that the birds are already nesting and do their prunings earlier in the year.

The trees were divested of their branches

Back at our house we had a new cat show up.  We are not sure if it is a male or female, but he/she is very shy and has a damaged front paw.

This photo was taken from my car when I drove up to the house and found him/her

I followed the kitty around back of the house to the shed and got this shot:

This new kitty is very shy

And some great news is Jazzy's mouth is healing and he is eating again.

Jazzy feeling better and eating

Other Toms, Dicks, and Harrys

We have two other elusive Tom Cats in our neighborhood besides Big Van, and we are itching to trap both of them them and alter them, too, because they cause a lot of trouble.  But they are entirely feral, which makes it hard, because when we see them in the yard, which is rarely, and we go out to offer them some choicer morsels, they scoot. 

Big Van, the neighborhood Tom that eluded our capture last weekend, has some rivals

Here's the first, Butch Cassidy, passing by our house last night, in the only photo we have of him:

Butch grabs a bite from the bowl by the door, and scoots off when he sees us

The other cats, Morris, Mandy, Sylvia and Amber, get upset when Butch shows up.

A closer view of Butch leaving;  Mandy is in her bed in the drawer behind him - Morris was nowhere to be found when we arrived, but came back after Butch left.

And here's Butch's partner in crime, The Sundance Kid:

Sundance can also be a menace, but he is not as bad as Butch

If you look closely at the above photo you can see that Sundance has been fighting recently.  Both of these Tom's, when we see them, carry a variety of new wounds and battle scars.

So the three Toms we have our eye on right now for trapping are Big Van, Butch, and Sundance.  Wish us luck tomorrow in our endeavor, please, because it will make life better for all the cats in the neighborhood.

The Fields - An Adventure with Muji

Muji and I had a little adventure the other day when Nik was at work.  We went off to take our usual morning walk through the fields, and took the camera along in case we saw any cats, but instead we saw a dog. 

Well, hello there

We've met this dog before. One day, driving through the fields, Nik and I saw him in the road.  We stopped to help, and found he was well cared for and had on a beautiful collar with detailed information.  We called the number to discover we were talking to the Cypriot farmer standing just feet in front of us who was on his cell phone, well, talking to us.  :)  The man thanked us and scooped up the chocolate dachshund in his arms, cradled him like a baby, and lovingly scolded him in a soft voice.  He told us he did not know what he would do without his dog!  Clearly he loves this dog. 

So this is the same dog who decided he would come on a walk with me and Muji. 

"I feel like a walk today."

He happily followed us in the big circle we make around the farms, and was just about to follow us home to the seafront road, which is dangerous, so it was time to stop and call Nik at work and have him call the farmer (who doesn't speak English) to pick up the dog.  I read Nik the phone number, and then the three of us sat down in Big Van's corner to wait for the farmer. 

"I wonder what's taking him so long."

"I wish I could stay a little longer."

Well, we waited a pretty long time.   Long enough to have another adventure, because Tweets showed up, and she has her kittens in the empty lot just across the street from where we were sitting. 

Tweets shows up

And just as the dachshund started to wander around and get a whiff of kitten behind the gate across the street, Tweets decided this was a definitely a problem.  So she lowered herself,  drew herself up like a big puff fish, and then charged him and tackled him.  The poor dog ran off screaming with his tail tucked between his legs, and then stopped  far enough away to have a good long think about whether to come back to wait with me and Muji. 

Tweets is just in front of the garbage bin, having completed her mission; the poor dog is just to left of the telephone pole running for his life

 All in a day's work

hightailing it, four off the floor

North Dakota wasn't far enough away

he had a good think about coming back

Finally we heard a loud humming sound getting louder and louder, which I realized was a small tractor.  Well, no wonder the farmer took so long!  He was driving a tractor!  And I looked over at Tweets and she was thinking about having a go at the tractor as well!!!

The farmer scooped up his naughty dog again, apologizing profusely.  I smiled and told him no problem, and he slowly drove off with the dog in his arms.

But a plus to the story, besides a fun morning, was that we had told this farmer last time we met we were looking for land to keep animals on, and being the animal lover he is, he was rather enthusiastic about it.  He told me on this day he had found something, and he would get the details for us.  So that's great news.  The more possibilities, the greater the chance it will happen.  And the more land for sale, the better the price.  I also have made friends with a man who cleans the seafront road down near the park and the apartments, and he has told us of a piece as well. 

You see, you miss a lot when you don't have a dog to walk. 

thanks for the memories

:)