On Tuesday, after my morning walk with the dogs, I went to the market to check how many cats were around. I usually see quite a few in the distance. Some of them have collars and I think some of the sellers take care of them. Others don’t have collars, and some of them look a bit rough.
I had seen an orange cat in the distance that I wanted to check closer. I managed to approach it on Tuesday, and I realised it was a female, most likely pregnant. Most likely sick too. Her eyes were leaking some dark liquid, and she didn’t look great. I tried to call Soi Dog’s mobile sterilisation unit, but nobody picked up. I remembered after it was a holiday. So were Wednesday and Thursday. I sent a picture to my vet and was told she was too big to be aborted, and that I wouldn’t find a hospital in Phuket who would perform an abortion on a cat that pregnant.
I think it’s cruel to let a sick stray cat having kittens that nobody is going to take care of. They are probably not going to survive in nature, and the mother might not either.
I went back the next morning, thinking I’d get her to the hospital. She could have her babies in a safe place, and we’d see what to do afterwards. But I couldn’t find her. Maybe she went to give birth somewhere, I still don’t know. I might never know.
However, I saw a lovely black cat on the other side of the market, and I decided to have a closer look. She looked young, and I was pretty sure she wasn’t alone. There was at least one other cat with her. I wasn’t able to see clearly if there were more or how big they were, but my intuition told me she was the mother and she had kittens. She had no tattoo. When I looked at her from the back, she looked more like Mali (who had babies) than like Selina or Oreo (who didn’t have babies). Her tits were not big, but you could see small pink rings in the black fur. I decided to take her to the hospital to have her checked. She came easily.
The vet checked her and when she pinched her tits, milk came out. She said the glands were not active, like she hadn’t been sucked on for a while, but she definitely had babies. So I decided I would take her back to her babies. But first, we checked her blood for diseases. She had none!
So we vaccinated her. We also treated her for parasites and dewormed her. And then, I took her back to where I found her, near a small massage place. Vet thinks she’s between 8 months and a year old. And she also said she could get pregnant again anytime now.
There were two ladies form the massage place who came out, so I talked to them. I told them I had taken the cat to the hospital and what we did, and that I wanted to take her back next week for sterilisation. They approved. I asked if there were kittens, and they said three. It wasn’t clear to me if it meant she had had three or if she still had three. I only got to see one. And it was the most adorable little creature!
I will take Princess to get spayed next week, and I’ll take the kitten(s) to get vaccinated. I don’t think the one I saw was big enough for sterilisation, but let’s see. The ladies told me they were 3 months old. I’ll try to find homes for them, but if I can’t, at least they’ll be vaccinated and won’t make more babies! And if they stay near the massage place, they’re not too close to the road. But beautiful as they are, I hope someone will want them.
I’m actually thinking I might try to get the little family this weekend and take them to the hospital. Just to be safe. I remember how the mama cat we fostered with her two kittens two years ago went into heat just as I was planning to have her spayed. She was desperate for a male. If Princess went into heat, there are so many males around that she would surely get pregnant again.
The bill for Princess was 1860 baht (around £42)
