Having little Angelin around has been making me think back to when I was a tiny kitten, I’ve been thinking about how our two lives are both very similar yet very different and yet we ended up in the same family.
We both started life on the streets in Cyprus and ended up in the same forever home in the UK but our stories in between are very different.
I’m glad that by adopting me mummy and daddy learnt how to look after a blind cat – not that I need much looking after. After they got me, they realised that they could give other special needs cats a home too. Then, when it was time they were able to provide a forever home to Angelin as well. Angelin found her first mummy when she was very young, maybe only a few weeks old, she managed to find a lady and she sat on her foot, when the lady looked down she saw a skinny, scrawny, poorly kitten and from that moment on Angelin had been saved. The lady took her in and cared for her, gave her medicine to try to make her better, gave her food, somewhere warm to sleep and lots of love 💕. Angelin’s mummy wasn’t able to keep her forever as she was leaving Cyprus so she appealed for someone to give Angelin the permanent home she deserved. My mummy and daddy reached out and offered her a home. Whilst they were sorting out how to get Angelin here they were told that like me her eyes were just too badly infected to be saved and they had to be removed. The rest as they say is history..my mummy and daddy are forever grateful to the lady (Dominica) who Angelin found and who took her in and saved her little soul.
I don’t remember much from before I was rescued but I do remember the feelings, the emotions, the instincts and living on the edge all the time. I wasn’t able to relax, always sleeping with one ear open, just in case… Now though I have learnt to subdue those instincts that I had to have to survive and I’ve learnt to relax, safe in the knowledge that nothing bad is going to happen and no harm will come to me whilst I sleep. I can let myself go and unlike when I was on the street, I can fall into a proper deep sleep even to the point of dreaming. I don’t remember sleeping that deeply or ever dreaming when I was little, I just couldn’t do it. I don’t think my survival instincts will ever fully leave me which is good, as the Queen I always need to be on the lookout for any danger that might come along as I need to protect mummy and daddy and the rest of the family. I can though adapt my instincts to suit my more comfortable life. I am still able to keep my skills sharp through my walkies, hunting and stalking anything that comes my way. I’ve adapted to being part of the family, by running and playing with Millie and Angelin, we rough and tumble, chase each other and without even realising it Angelin is learning the skills she needs through play rather than the need to survive which is how I first learnt my skills.
I’m just so proud that I played some part in getting another little blind kitty off the streets. She was rescued so young that she won’t even remember her brief life on the streets, she wont need to adapt her survival instincts, she can just be a kitten and sleep, eat, relax, play and do all the things I didn’t get to do until I was much older. Life will be easier for her, in some part because of me.She can learn in the safety of our family and we will always tell her when she is out of line or over excited, we can and are teaching her how to first of all be a cat and second of all how to be blind.
She doesn’t need to worry about hunting for her next meal, she doesn’t need to worry about having to step quickly into the unknown to stop from being left behind and all alone. Having to hope that where you step next isn’t a big drop or something dangerous. She doesn’t have to be scared of strange noises or people or things that go bump (or growl) in the night.
She can grow up without worrying, without fear and without hunger. She can grow up carefree, happy, healthy and above all have fun along the way. All she has to worry about is where she left her favourite toy, which of the many beds she fancies sleeping in and of course who she’s going to pounce on and attack next? Will it be me? Millie? Peppar? Or maybe daddy’s toes? She’s learning how to play hide and seek with mummy and daddy, sending them panicking round the flat when they can’t find her, Angelin’s really good at hide and seek but eventually they found her hiding in the bathroom bin under the counter, completely invisible from human height.
Who would have thought that through my tough and scary start in life I would end up helping at least one other kitten not have the same start as me. Though we each had very different starts in life here we are both in the same house as sisters who love each other, snuggle and wash as a cat family should. Without the stresses of worry and fear we can concentrate on just being the perfectly imperfect cats that we are, we can build a family based on play, joy, friendship, happiness and of course exploration and challenge people’s perception of what special needs cats are and ultimately what we can be which is truly amazing given half the chance.
Each smallest act of kindness, reverberates across great distances and spans of time –affecting lives unknown to the one who’s generous spirit, was the source of this good echo. Because kindness is passed on and grows each time it’s passed until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage, years later, and far away. Likewise, each small meanness, each expression of hatred, each act of evil.
Dean Koontz, From the Corner of His Eye
Jenny’s Story 