So Blessed

Since we moved into our new home in September this year, we had a problem with a stray (?) male cat coming into our home at night. I will refer to him as The Stray in the rest of the post. Now I'm sure you all know how bad cat pee smells and that it's nearly impossible to get rid of the smell.


The Stray was marking our house all over like it belonged to him. The Stray usually comes in at the early hours of the morning and meow loudly all the way wile he strolls through our home. He made himself quite at home.

I woke one morning early, felt Smokey, Chris' cat, on the bed next to me and cuddled her. When I opened my eyes I noticed that I was not cuddling Smokey, but The Stray! Needless to say, I shouted and The Stray ran away.

We have two female felines. Both have been spaded so I'm wondering why The Stray chose to mark our house as his territory.

We are not sure if The Stray belongs to someone or not, but when my dear husband Chris threatened that he's going to shoot the cat, the image of a little girl crying over her lost cat appeared in my mind and I begged him not to kill The Stray. Chris and I agreed that he’d go to the SPCA and discuss the problem with them.

Which is what he did. He came home with a cage that almost works like a bird trap. It has a door that is triggered to shut as soon as the bait is touched. Of course the cage was not free, we had to pay R10 / day to rent it, which sounded like a real bargain. The bait, my dear husband decided, will be a piece of Vienna sausage and a chicken wing.

The first night he set up the trap and we were confident that our sleeping problems would soon be a thing of the past. Then at around 10pm we heard the trap slamming down and we knew we caught The Stray!

Big was our disappointment when we realized we caught Smokey, our own cat. Through the next five days we caught Smokey twice, and Missy, my cat, also twice. The Stray didn't come into our home once. By then our bill was R50 for the cage and still no Stray. We decided that The Stray obviously knows those traps and Chris took the trap back to the SPCA.

The next night/early morning The Stray was back. He was annoying us and waking us up at silly hours of the night/early morning once again. As soon we move to try and catch it, it runs away. It went on like that again for a few nights.

Then Friday evening I told Chris I'm going to close all the windows in the home and only leave one open in our bedroom. That way we might have a remote chance to catch The Stray as he usually enters through our kitchen window.

At around 2am that morning I woke from a soft sound at my window. I couldn't see anything and assumed it was one of our own cats going out for a loo run. Then Chris saw the cat on his bedside table. There were a few empty glasses also (men!) and The Stray was standing over them. Wisely Chris decided to give The Stray some space and Chris pretended to sleep.

The Stray left and started meowing in the hall. Chris got up and I could hear him chasing The Stray around the house. The Stray ran straight into the closed kitchen window and then straight into a spare bedroom on the other side of the house. Chris wisely decided to lock The Stray in that room until the next day.

There was huge commotions and meows in that room all night long, and we didn't sleep at all, but we didn't mind, having the knowledge that The Stray will soon be at the SPCA and we'll at last get the long awaited, uninterrupted sleep we've longed for so long.

The next morning Chris caught The Stray (after it took Chris about half and hour to find The Stray where he was hiding underneath the pillows and bedding on the bed), put him in a box and took him to the SPCA. I didn't even mind cleaning all the cat pee in that room. I did it with a smile on my face and a song in my heart.

What would you have done, and do you think it was cruel to take him to the SPCA where he might get put down in the end?

My cousin had a baby just a month after Zander was born, his name is Tristan. He is about 4 months old now. In the beginning of her pregnancy my cousin had German Measles. Doctors recommended that she has an abortion, but she decided to keep her baby, something I really admire. Tristan was born at about 24 weeks and only weighed 1.6 Kg. My cousin doesn't have medical aid, so Tristan was born in a state hospital, and South Africa is known for their bad state hospitals. Tristan and my cousin was discharged after a few days. The first time I saw Tristan I was very shocked at his size. He was so tiny! I couldn't believe the hospital discharged him, as in a private hospital the baby doesn't get discharged if he weighs less than 2.5 Kg. But it seemed Tristan was just fine and had no obvious problems...

Up until a few days ago...

My cousin called to tell me Tristan was in the hospital with influenza and that the doctors also picked up that there's something wrong with his heart. The doctors apparently said they're going to concentrate on healing his influenza first, and then they'll see what they can do about his heart.
Yesterday my cousin called me, crying uncontrollably, to tell me that the doctors told her Tristan was going to die, but they don't know when. Because of the German Measles she had early in pregnancy, he has brain damage and also a heart problem and there's nothing they can do for him. They also told her, should another baby come in who has a better chance of survival, they will move Tristan out of ICU and let him die. That is the way it is in South African state hospitals. I can't imagine how my cousin must feel! She also lost another baby boy a few years ago, a few days after his birth.

How does a mother go on with life after she lost a child?........... :-(