Two kittens (or should that be two baboons)

I arrived in June and not knowing how long I would stay in Cambodia I had decided that having  a pet was not going to be possible. I managed about 6 weeks before I fell off the animal wagon! 

"Excuse me, but I didn't fall off the wagon, I jumped!" - anon

Coming back from lunch one day everyone was petting a kitten on the market and when I went to have a look the heart inside the bunny hugger in me that I was trying to freeze the heart of for practical reasons instantly melted. It was pretty clear it's mother was nowhere to be found and it had no owner from the state of it. Much as I knew practically it made no sense, with a bit of encouragement I soon had her over at the office. 

Animal on the office desk - hmmmm this seems familiar!

I tried to call the local cat welfare NGO to get some advice, but sadly the lady woman who runs its screamed at me that she wanted 'no more cats!' - all I wanted to know was what to feed it at such a young age! 

She was tiny, filthy and starving and impossible not to love.

She spent the first few days sleeping on me and eating and soon recovered her energy. She was adorable and constantly meowed and followed me everywhere.

"An ordinary kitten will ask more questions than any five-year-old." - Carl Van Vechte

[meow, meow]

Establishing that no one wanted her I decided she could stay a week at my place until I could fine a more permanent home for her. She had to remain nameless - once you have them named you know they are yours! A week rolled by and I was soon thinking of names, and before I knew it I was in the second week. The landlord discovered her and said it was fine so long as we kept her a secret. Having called her 'not my cat' for two weeks she ultimately got the name Liefie (sort of a pet nickname 'little love' in Afrikaans'). Soon after the land lady (who we were keeping the secret from) came up to check a leak. Liefie would not stop meowing and I could see her looking around for the cat. 'Where's chmaa? where's chmaa?' she was saying. Holding the kitten in my arms was a dead give away and a last ditch attempt to shush her - no luck, I smiled and pointed at the leak in the roof again - no more was said.


About a month in looking healthier.

After a short while I started to feel bad at how much she relied on me and when I was not in she was alone. Much as it was very sweet how much she clearly missed me when I got in a night it was clear she needed a playmate. To go from one impractical responsibility from two really wasn't hard and before I had really decided to take on the responsibility of another kitten he pitched up. If I thought she was in a bad state - filthy with a swollen malnourished belly, he was even worse. You could see his bones through his sparse fur. He was so malnourished he didn't even have fur on his belly, he had so little energy his eyes were also pretty glazed.

When I got him he had no fur on his belly, but spots on his fur pattern,  a ruff of long fur on his neck and a long thin face, to me he looked like a baby lion, so I named him Leeuw (Afrikaans for lion).

Again, he spent the afternoon sleeping in the office and came home with me that evening. 



We had  fair bit of cat politics to get through - her play fighting largely involving smacking him jealously in the face and him crying. After a few days and his energy recovering they started to bond and soon become inseparable playmates.

I still don't know what on earth I will do with them whenever I leave Cambodia, the costs to take them to another country are fairly astronomical, but leaving them here you can never be sure what will happen in the long term and leaving animals behind is so hard. So many animals have stolen pieces of my heart over the last few years, I would really rather not part with any more! 

It has now been about 6 months since I got her and 5 since I got him. They have been neutered (after a real palaver trying to get an appointment with vets coming and going from Siem Reap) and I have been advised that with feline HIV, other diseases, dogs, other cats and motos they will live a longer happier healthier life inside. That said, it would be nice to get a garden at some point for them. 

Who knows how long I will be able to keep them, but for now they are happy and healthy and have survived.

"The trouble with a kitten is that eventually it becomes a cat." - Ogden Nash

Characterise Liefie is crazy, high energy and cheeky, she is the naughtiest, prettiest cat I ever saw and I think for that alone she would have survived, she would have stolen scraps or been so pretty people would have fed her. Leeuw is more of a scardy cat, its taken 5 months to be able to lean down and stroke him from standing without him cowering, he is so timid too, and I really think he would not have made it.

Happy to say they are both so healthy now and he has all his fur back and a real 4kg belly to go under it!

This is what they get up to, acting like baby baboons,  when they don't think I am looking...

Yes they are on top of the curtain rail having climbed the mosquito netting!

Andrex missed a trick here - who needs lab puppies?!

"Of course I'm naughty. I've always had to compete for attention, you see." - Rachel Johnson