I promised Ollie when I found her, that she would never know hunger again. Ever.Ollie was one of my very first “rescued” animals in Tanzania. She came from a litter of 5 kittens. Her mother was found (poisoned) on the top of a storage container, with 3 kittens trying to suckle off her dead body. The other 2 kittens, sadly, were already dead.
The 3 surviving kittens were removed by well meaning staff and placed on the ground underneath a coffee bush. They were given a dish of rice and milk. As they were still so tiny and not yet ready to be weaned, (their eyes were open but their little ears were still folded in) they could not yet feed themselves. They were riddled with fleas which has burrowed little tunnels underneath their skin. They stank and were severely dehydrated. It had started to rain that day, and their pitiful cries of hunger alerted me as I walked from my office through the coffee plantation to the hotel which I was running at the time. The desperate “Mew, mew, mew” sound they made, made me think at first, that they were bird. Until I saw them. Pitiful little creatures, so fragile that their bones tiny protruded through their translucent skin. I quickly got one of the staff members to fetch me a dry box, lined with an old towel. I took them home and the rest, as they say, is history.
I named the black kitten Emma, the tabby Jessica and the ginger one Oliver (as I thought that Oliver was a boy - hence “Oliver” later became “Ollie”). Justin and I had to gently bath them to get rid of all the fleas. I remember using an old cereal bowl as a makeshift bath – that’s how tiny they were ! We had to syringe feed them Infant’s Formula every 3 hours. There was no animal welfare organization or anywhere I could take these poor mites, so I decided to keep them, although up until that time I was officially “a dog” person …! (I have since learnt that if you are an animal lover, you are actually neither !)
Zonde helped us by acting as a surrogate mother, and she used to lick them to stimulate them and clean them after each feed, and also allowed them to cuddle up to her to keep warm.
A few months later we moved to our first farm in an extremely remote part of the country and of course the kittens came with us. Sadly, Emma died suddenly one night (I never found out why as we had no vets nearby at the time to perform a postmortem) but Jessica and Oliver survived and grew into the most beautiful, loyal cats.
We lost Jessica tragically in November 2006 when she caught and ate part of a poisoned rat and I still can’t believe that she’s gone. (I still can’t actually talk about her much, as it is just too painful for me.)
Ollie will be 6 this year, and I call her my little “Malaika” which means “angel” in the local Kiswahili language. She is the only cat who sleeps on our bed at night, and is never far away from me. She is the most timid of all my cats, and whenever we have visitors to the farm, will spend the entire time hiding under our bed ! Her and Zonde are still very close, and can often be found licking each other’s ears and having a cuddle.
I have recently added a link to the Animal Rescue Site on my right Sidebar and all you need to do is to click on it to automatically be taken to their site where you can click on the big purple “Click Here To Give – It’s Free !” button to donate FREE food for animals in shelters. Each click provides 0.6 bowls of food to a needy animal, and it won’t cost you anything - except the satisfaction of knowing that you are helping animals who, unlike Ollie, have not been as fortunate in life.
The 3 surviving kittens were removed by well meaning staff and placed on the ground underneath a coffee bush. They were given a dish of rice and milk. As they were still so tiny and not yet ready to be weaned, (their eyes were open but their little ears were still folded in) they could not yet feed themselves. They were riddled with fleas which has burrowed little tunnels underneath their skin. They stank and were severely dehydrated. It had started to rain that day, and their pitiful cries of hunger alerted me as I walked from my office through the coffee plantation to the hotel which I was running at the time. The desperate “Mew, mew, mew” sound they made, made me think at first, that they were bird. Until I saw them. Pitiful little creatures, so fragile that their bones tiny protruded through their translucent skin. I quickly got one of the staff members to fetch me a dry box, lined with an old towel. I took them home and the rest, as they say, is history.
I named the black kitten Emma, the tabby Jessica and the ginger one Oliver (as I thought that Oliver was a boy - hence “Oliver” later became “Ollie”). Justin and I had to gently bath them to get rid of all the fleas. I remember using an old cereal bowl as a makeshift bath – that’s how tiny they were ! We had to syringe feed them Infant’s Formula every 3 hours. There was no animal welfare organization or anywhere I could take these poor mites, so I decided to keep them, although up until that time I was officially “a dog” person …! (I have since learnt that if you are an animal lover, you are actually neither !)
Zonde helped us by acting as a surrogate mother, and she used to lick them to stimulate them and clean them after each feed, and also allowed them to cuddle up to her to keep warm.
A few months later we moved to our first farm in an extremely remote part of the country and of course the kittens came with us. Sadly, Emma died suddenly one night (I never found out why as we had no vets nearby at the time to perform a postmortem) but Jessica and Oliver survived and grew into the most beautiful, loyal cats.
We lost Jessica tragically in November 2006 when she caught and ate part of a poisoned rat and I still can’t believe that she’s gone. (I still can’t actually talk about her much, as it is just too painful for me.)
Ollie will be 6 this year, and I call her my little “Malaika” which means “angel” in the local Kiswahili language. She is the only cat who sleeps on our bed at night, and is never far away from me. She is the most timid of all my cats, and whenever we have visitors to the farm, will spend the entire time hiding under our bed ! Her and Zonde are still very close, and can often be found licking each other’s ears and having a cuddle.
I have recently added a link to the Animal Rescue Site on my right Sidebar and all you need to do is to click on it to automatically be taken to their site where you can click on the big purple “Click Here To Give – It’s Free !” button to donate FREE food for animals in shelters. Each click provides 0.6 bowls of food to a needy animal, and it won’t cost you anything - except the satisfaction of knowing that you are helping animals who, unlike Ollie, have not been as fortunate in life.
