Monday, June 19, 2006
Heeeeere kitty kitty kitty!!!I've always wondered if people should be allowed to keep pets. Deciding for getting a pet means deciding for more responsibility but most people just ignore this, they say "hey, it's just an animal, it can't even talk so it can't feel either and we can still get rid of it if we get bored". This ends then in millions of animals suffering on the street, being mistreated or even killed by their "owners" though I really don't like to use this word. In German we say "Frauchen" or "Herrchen" which expresses a more positive and tender approach to our pets.
Mahatma Ghandi once said that the morals of a nation is mirrored perfectly in the way they treat animals. I have to agree with this. Then again, generally one would suppose that the richer the country the higher morals they have. What a mistake.... Living in one of the richest countries of the world and seeing all this luxury and waste I thought there would be lots of animals shelters where the very best doctors would take care of the poor stray animals. Reality is that the ONLY animal shelter in the whole country of Qatar is managed by foreigners without any support from the government!!! One might think now "Oh, how fine! They have harldy any stray animals!" but that's wrong again. The whole country is full with stray cats, dogs and other animals. Especially stray cats are to be found everywhere, around the buildings, on the streets, in the containers, under parking cars, on the pavement, everywhere, hoping for a human being to pass by and help them but hardly anyone cares, I was even warned I could get in troubles with the police when I feed stray cats as those are "not supposed to be in the streets" (where else are they supposed to be if they were thrown out???). Some human beings are blessed to see things and cursed not to be able to ignore what they see. So who cares about whomever telling immoral rubbish, heeeeeeeeeere kitty kitty kitty, mommy brought you dinner!
After all, our Jinxy comes from the shelter too and I have to say they are really wonderful people over there. We went to visit them and brought them a tiny kitten we found around our house. The poor thing, it was maybe 2 months old, just skin and bones but so grateful even for a nice word. We would have kept her but unfortunately our kitty cat doesn't really like any other animals (the kitten spent the morning in the washing room and Jinxy wouldn't put even one paw on that half of the flat...). That's how Whiskey got to the shelter. I was really worried if they'd find her a new home, she was just too skinny and small, not really the most attractive kitten, with all those scars on her body. But the amazing news is: Whiskey found a new home the very next day!!!!! They told us some nice lady came in and was looking for a kitten that is the same age and size than hers and Whiskey was the lucky one!!! I'm sure this lady will be very happy with Whiskey, she's really an amazing kitten. A week later we went for a visit to the shelter again to cuddle the kitties and brought them some cat food too. Just when you visit an animal shelter can you see how cruel the people of that country really are, there you can see how they treat the weak and helpless ones. We saw there cats and kittens with the cruelest injuries, a half blind cat, a cat that became too aggressive to be touched (I wonder why.... Could it be that some nice person helped the poor cat to make an opinion on humans?) and so many tiny kittens where one wonders how can they survive without their mother? It made me really sad seeing all that cruelty in this country.....
