The following is harrowing and you may prefer not to read it. While it’s not a nice
story it does show the importance of humanitarian control of cat colonies to
avoid the most dreadful suffering that can happen without it.
I had
been expecting to post on the first two tours we did on Wednesday, but instead
it seems more fitting to write a tribute about a new born kitten found between
tours that was to have a very short-lived life.
The morning tour group on Wednesday 7th August was a
Dutch family of daughter, mother and grandmother living in Ireland
I was heading down a park stairwell and my attention
was drawn to him by his squealing. I thought he was a mole or a rat at first.
He was clearly lost and in great distress looking for his mummy. He’d just narrowly escaped falling through a
grate into the abyss of a drain below.
When I got him he still had his umbilical cord. He was
covered with white bits which at the time I thought was some sort of plant life
but later (correctly) occurred to me were flies' eggs. It seems as soon as he
was given birth a swarm of flies descended upon him and showed him no mercy.
I'd come across who I now had to assume was his mother
the day before. A very tame cat who must have been abandoned because I'd never
seen her before. According to her feeder, a retired Argentinian chap, she was
pregnant. It
seemed more that she was with milk but I assumed he knew best.
After discovering 'Luca', it seemed not. Luca was relatively far away downhill
from where his mother was, so phone calls were made and 45 mins later he was
being given 'biberón'.
I arrived with him exactly on time at 16:00 for the second tour with Deborah, an English lady
who's lived the past 30 years near Girona, just 80 miles north of Barcelona
After saying goodbye to
Deborah at Plaça de Catalunya and thanking her for her generous donation, I
took Luca back home to look after till his ‘foster mother’ that had been
arranged came to pick him up the following afternoon. It had by then occurred to me
that the plant life was in fact flies' eggs so I painstakingly picked off every
one that was visible. Quite a few were deeply embedded.
The next day it was difficult
to give Luca biberón and he was visibly weakening. Eventually I found out why.
I lifted up his right leg which seemed strangely listless and discovered a
gaping wound. He was being eaten alive
from within by maggots.
I dashed to a vet's as soon
as possible. They’re nearly all closed
during August as were three of my nearest.
There was no way his life was
going to be saved so we had no choice but to euthanise him.
More than a tear or two was
shed (as they come back to me while writing).
Rearing a kitten so very
young it's touch and go as to whether they'll make it or not. It can be very
difficult to give them bibéron, but he gulped it down as soon as it was put to
his lips. He was going to make it, or at least he would have done if flies eggs
hadn't been left inside of him.
At least for a very short,
brief while, Luca knew love, and was spared the full horrors of the fate that
awaited him.
The thought of what fate may
have awaited his brothers' and sister's born with him doesn't bear thinking.
Just in case the rest of her
litter has survived, we’ll be back to castrate the mother after they’ve had
time to grow and be old enough to eat. It is incalculable just how many horrors
like this have been avoided through Barcelona
Originally I called him 'Birdie', a named after the daughter of the Dutch family Bridget in unisex form because I didn't know his sex, but then I renamed him 'Luca' in the
end because 'luchador' is the Spanish word for 'fighter', and he fought for his
life. I will continue fighting in his memory to see that this project acheives
its full potential.
May you rest in peace little
Luca and may Heaven await you. God bless you little feller.
Graeme
(Coordinator & Guide,
'BCN ♥ Cats')
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