Monday, November 12

Sometimes, I really hate this place


So here I was last night, one hour or so into my run, when I pass by a house at 10B Lornie Road. Right in front of the gate and next to a trash container, a small (around three weeks) kitten lies screaming his/hers heart out, so much that I could hear it through the music. Confused, I stop. I pick the little critter up, he (I assume it was a guy, being so brave :)) ) stops yelling. I try to asses where he was coming from. I notice that on the trash container there's this blue DVD player box with a rock on top of it. Somebody was trying to push the lid open ... I take the box down on the kerb, I sit down, put my ipod and my water bottle on the side (i was planning to run 2hrs and a half), open the lid, and there they are, screaming their poor little hearts out, four kittens. They are obviously hungry and scared since there's only some bread (wtf?) in the box and some newspaper, and no cat.

I pick the whole lot of them up and they relax a bit. I am so stunned that all I do is comfort them and try to think about what to do next. I have flashes of my kitten/dog saving childhood, but this time it's different. I have no phone with me, no money, no bus card and I am roughly 11km from my home. Not that I could keep them in my home, since I am renting and I do not know the owner's view on this, nor my flatmates view. I contemplate having to walk 11 km back to school and perhaps spend the night with them in the lab. I try putting the little buggers in the box, but they won't stay there. I try putting them in my pockets, but they don't like it. So I just sit there. A car turns in about fifteen minutes later, to go inside 10B. There's this chinese man and his son, smartly dressed, good car. I signal to them to lower their window, and they do. I ask if they kittens are theirs, because I found them on their container. No, the older man says. The container is mine but the kittens are not. Are you sure, I ask. Because they are here, on your container... No, he says, only the container is mine. Then they just park their car and go in the house.

I am still sitting around not knowing what to do. I try to pick up the courage and face the long walk home with four kittens in a box. Then the maid from 10B comes out. And the whole grueling story comes out. The kittens are theirs, the cat has died, the owners don't want the kittens inside because they are too noisy. So she put them there because she thought somebody who wants them might pass by and take them. Can't I take them? [... insert here talk about the kittens, can't i take them, etc ...] Finally we put them in the box and in a more protected location.

I take off and run home, sometimes crying, anyhow wishing to go back and take them. As i run I realize that I should have taken the maid's phone or something and call Marian and have him take a cab and pick us up. But would the cab take us? I reach home (after another hour) and tell Marian between sobs what happened. I was thinking of asking jups about how and where to take the kittens, I try messaging but my hands are shaking. In the end marian finds the number for SPCA. I call the SPCA animal abuse hotline and report the kittens. They got picked up last night, I hope. I got a call from somebody about forty five minutes after I reported them, but they hung up after I managed to answer, and did not answer when I called back. I think they did not see the box at first.

What kind of a man throws away kittens because "they're noisy"? What kind of a man then lies about it? Of course the kittens are not literally his, it's not like he had an affair with the cat! What kind of a lesson does this teach his son? (Mind you, he was about 20 years old, so I guess he's already gotten all the lessons he needed.) I know they sent out the maid because I wasn't bulging from the kerb. Thought maybe the crazy ang moh will report them or even worse, knock on their door. Thank god for me being stunned.

Owners of 10B Lornie Road, angry kitten* WILL FUCK YOU! Oh yeah, before I go, owners of 10C Lornie Road, angry kitten WILL FUCK YOU TOO, for staring at me and the kittens through the car windows, while I was sitting on your kerb, too.

*pictured

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hello Claudia,
This is so sad! Really hope those kittens were found. Sometime in 2000 my friends were making their way past the bus stop to the house we were living in at 30 Lornie Road. They saw an abandoned kitten crying pitifully and making her way towards them. They brought her in and had her sterilized and took care of her till they left. She was pretty much used to walking in and out of 30 Lornie Road. She was a good huntress even killing snakes! I thought my friends may have taken her with them when they left but they didn't. Went to look for her but couldn't find her. Asked around too. I can only hope someone adopted her and took her with them. I can only hope now.