The poor cat was living on the streets, in a garden being fed by an “animal-lover”. He was in a terrible condition crawling on the floor and screaming for help.
It was a Monday morning and my email inbox was boiling hot with people asking me to please help a cat whose four paws had somehow been amputated by some unknown criminal.
The poor cat was living on the streets, in a garden being fed by an “animal-lover”. He was in a terrible condition crawling on the floor and screaming for help.
The cat was put for adoption on Facebook, hundreds of people were leaving comments but noone, not a single person was stepping forward to offer a home
As the “animal lover” taking care of the cat spoke only Turkish I asked one of my friends to make a call on my behalf. The answer received by our offer of help was shocking and surprising: The cat would not be adopted by a foreign person and certainly not by someone related to Viktor Larkhill (me) or Let’s Adopt!. If noone expressed any interest the cat would remain on the streets… Anything, except being in the hands of a foreigner.
Fine (I thought…). We would see…
I won’t go into details of how we did it, but It took exactly 48 hours for that cat to be safe with us. We called him Pepe, the Mystery cat.
Pepe’s life changed dramatically. From living on the streets crawling on his amputated stubs, he went on to being fostered by a beautiful family, in a home covered in magnificent carpets that wouldn’t hurt his delicate legs, and with a friend with whom to play and enjoy life.
A few weeks later unbeknownst by everybody, Pepe, the Mystery Cat, flew to his final home in a far away country where he will live in the best possible care for the rest of his life.
The “animal lover” that originally stated that Pepe would be much better off living on the streets and dying in Turkish soil rather than living in a home with us hasn’t known about this until now. I suspect she must be in a state of shock and possibly quite angry. My words to her would be: “Please don’t. You proved to be unreasonable and put your nationalistic ego ahead of Pepe’s interest. We did what we had to do to save his life. It was a great team effort and we are very pleased that it has all ended so well for Pepe. I invite you to follow our work and get in touch with me directly if you ever need our assistance with the rescue of a handicapped animal. No hard feelings. Peace”
Long life to Pepe, the Mystery cat.
I leave you with some pictures of Pepe’s new life… I think you will want to share this… :-). Feel free to leave us a note and join the conversation in our Page: Let’s Adopt Global
