Sharjah, 29 Aug 2009
I've started fostering again with the Sharjah Feline Friends. Feline rep David Oliver and I picked up just over a year-old male cat Ceasar from the newly built Sharjah Municipality Animal Shelter. He was in one of the rooms, all of them glass from floor to ceiling, all by himself because he intensely dislikes cats. He like people. Ceasar is over a year old. He grew up at a Sharjah restaurant. The chef became partial to him and would feed him under the table by slipping him raw chicken and beef. When the restaurant singer Theresa heard that the authorities were coming to round up cats, she took in Ceasar and others. She has 14 cats and because Ceasar doesn't like cats, she put him in the garden shed in a cage by himself. He was there for a month before coming to the shelter in June. He was put in the nice room all by himself where he stayed until I picked him up, about 3 months. That meant the room was not available for other cats and kittens.
The shelter has a total of about 33 abandoned cats and kittens. The new vet starts on Sept 1. She is Australian and works also at the Equine Animal Hospital which is located close by. The shelter is only 10 minutes from AUS.
The first night in my flat, Ceasar cried and wandered around, knocking things around. Daylight came and he calmed down and what a nice cat he is. He purrs, loves a good rub down, loves to be brushed.
His second day in my flat last Monday I had to go to campus to teach classes. He was in my flat alone. I checked on him during the day. He was sleeping under the blanket in my bedroom. He has since migrated to the guest room and sleeps under the comforter. He still is quite shy of people. My "maid" Anbu came in yesterday to clean my flat. Ceasar literally flew threw the air to his safe spot on the bed and under the comforter where he stayed the entire time Anbu was here.
Have you ever heard of a cat that doesn't snoop around in the kitchen? This is the rare one. When I'm fixing my meals, Ceasar comes only as far as the doorway and peeks around it to see what I'm doing. He is probably hoping for a gourmet meal!
Ceasar loves playing with toy mice, and he also loves the black rope that our Sharjah cat Jameela played with. He hid all the toy mice under the side table in the livingroom. It took me several days to find them. He was so happy to see them again, and he immediately threw them into the air.
Did you notice that one of Ceasar's ears is clipped at the very tip. This is a pratice that vet Jim from Belgium does. I think he told me he does this when cats are brought in and it looks like they may be released outside again. I think it is a signal to authorities that the cat has been vaccinated for rabies and neutered or spayed.
Ceasar will go up for adoption as soon as David and the shelter director Emma can arrange an adoption day, probably after Ramadan in late September. He will be a very nice "family" member, and especially if there are children to play with him.
