June 29, 2005 1:19am Wednesday Taipei home
For the past week, I had heard loud, incessant cat cries emanating from my alley. The cats sounded like they were either in heat or in labor. I’m not very knowledgeable about cats so I couldn’t really determine what all the shrieking was about. However, from the sound of things I sensed that something was not quite right.
On Monday night, my friend and I heard the cries once again and peered out the window to discover a little kitten stumbling around in the dark. It looked very helpless and didn’t seem to be able to walk or see very well. It was dark and we couldn’t see very clearly but we heard its feeble cries. We were heartbroken but I didn’t know whether it was wise to go downstairs and bring it up. Perhaps the mother was still around and just left to fetch some food. I didn’t want to mistakenly take a cat away from its mother. Therefore, after some debate, we decided to not “save” the cat. However, we both agreed that if we heard the little kitten crying again the next day we would bring it back home.
Tuesday morning as I left for my workout I looked around the street to see if the baby kitten was around but it was nowhere in sight. I assumed that it must have either found its mother or its way back home. After a full day’s work, I returned home around 5pm and right as I stepped off the car, I again heard the familiar cries of the little kitten. It was coming from somewhere very close and that was when I saw right in front of me sitting in a planter a large white box with a tiny kitten inside. He was black and white kitten barely the size of my palm. It was so helpless and didn’t look like it was in good shape. His face was very dirty and one of his eyes was shut, covered in what looked like excrement. He was extremely thin and was stumbling clumsily around in the box. He was trembling and I’m sure he was very frightened. That was when I started to panic. I’ve saved dogs in the past but I’ve never had much experience with cats let alone a baby kitten so young and weak. I immediately ran upstairs to my house, put down my laptop and things and then came back downstairs to pick up the white box. I was trying to calm the kitten down by talking gently to but I’m not sure if it understood by the tone of my voice what I was trying to convey. As I was about to enter my house, an old grandmother who was walking by noticed the kitten and asked me if I was intending to save the kitten. I wasn’t sure actually at that point what I was going to do but I answered that the kitten was probably abandoned and was roaming the streets already for many days. Turns out she was a neighbor who probably also heard the cries of the cats just like I had for the past week.
As I got upstairs back into my house, I immediately got on the phone and called my friend to ask when she could get off work and come help me with the kitten. I think I was even more scared than the little kitty at that point. My friend must have flown over to my house in a jet because she arrived in less than five minutes! We both then quickly decided that we needed to take the kitten to the vet immediately as it probably hadn’t been fed for days and needed some immediate attention. We also wanted to make sure the kitten was physically well as it could have sustained physical damage during the days it was abandoned on the streets.
We arrived at the vet and they immediately brought over some baby food and cat milk formula. They were extremely warm, caring and professional in the way they handled the little kitten. The kitten immediately began to hungrily lick and bite at the spoon containing the baby food as it probably hadn’t had anything to eat for at least a few days. How did it survive for so long? How long had it not anything to eat? Why did its mother abandon it? The kitten must have had six spoonfuls of baby formula which it devoured non-stop. The doctor then cleaned its eyes and gave the kitten some eye drops. At this point, we asked the doctor what the sex of the kitten was and he told us he believes it’s a male. The reason being, we were told, is that when cats are young their sex is difficult to determine because their sex organs are still very undeveloped and obscured. By now, the little kitten was starting to gain strength and looking a bit better already. What a difference just a little bit of food made. The nurse then gave him a warm bath because he had quite a bit of flea excrement lodged in his very thin coat of hair which was also very dirty. After the bath, the little kitten looked more like a little monkey than a cat! The nurse blow-dried the kitten to keep it from catching cold and then he was ready to go home.
After we arrived back to my house, we were both exhausted from the entire ordeal and I’m sure so was the little kitten. We looked down into the box and saw the large, round gray eyes staring right back at us. A little tired, still dirty and with a crinkled face the little guy was, nevertheless, very cute and adorable. Then all of a sudden a name popped out from my friend’s mouth, “Ma…lau…why don’t we call him Malau?”. I was like, “what…what are you talking about?” She then repeated herself and then said that Malau means “little monkey” in Cantonese. We both laughed and agreed that it was a weird, funny yet very befitting name for him. Yes, Malau is his name. Full of fight, courage and energy…Malau is ready to grow up.
Stay tuned for more updates on our little kitty, Malau.
DT
2005年6月29日，星期三，凌晨1點19分，台北家中
上個禮拜，我家的巷子裡傳出了陣陣的貓叫聲。那聲音聽起來像是貓在發情或是生產的樣子。我不太懂貓，因此我很難判斷牠為何叫得如此淒慘。但是那樣的聲音讓我感覺到有些事不太對勁。
星期一晚上，我跟朋友又聽到了那個叫聲，隔著窗戶，我們望見一隻小貓躇行於黑暗中。 牠拖著顛頗蹣跚的腳步，看起來十分無助。由於外面很暗，我們並無法看得很清楚，只能聽見牠孱弱的叫聲。我們聽得很難過，我猶豫著是否立即下樓把牠帶上來。然而母貓可能還在附近，或者只是出去覓食。我不想誤把一對母子拆散。在跟朋友討論過後，我們決定暫時不要「拯救」這隻貓咪。但是我們也決定，假如我們隔天還聽到小貓咪的叫聲，我們就把牠帶回家。
星期二早上，我要出門健身的時候，還特別沿街看了一下，結果並沒有發現牠的任何蹤影。我心想可能是母貓找到牠了，或者是自己找到了回家的路。在結束整天的工作之後，下午五點鐘左右，我回到家附近；當我一下車，我又聽到了那熟悉的小貓叫聲。聲音聽起來似乎就在附近，這時我發現眼前的花盆裡有一個白色盒子，裡面有一隻小小貓。牠是一隻黑白相間的花貓，大概只有我的手掌的大小。牠是如此地無助，從外表看起來，身體並不健康。牠的臉很髒，有一隻眼睛被一些像是眼屎的東西覆蓋住了。牠十分瘦小，不知所措地在箱子裡緩緩爬行。牠顫抖著，我相信牠一定很害怕。我內心開始變得惶恐。我以前有撿過狗，然而這是第一次面對像如此稚幼、虛弱的小貓咪。我快步上樓，放下手邊的電腦、雜物，再下樓把白盒子帶回家。我輕輕地跟小貓咪說話，試著安撫牠的情緒；只是不曉得牠能否了解我的聲音裡想傳遞的訊息。當我要進屋子的時候，ㄧ位路過的老婆婆看到了小貓咪，於是問我是不是想把牠撿回家。當時我其實並不是很確定自己要怎麼做，只是跟她說「這隻貓可能是被遺棄了，牠已經在這條街上叫了好幾天」。結果她原來是附近的鄰居，她可能也跟我一樣，從上個禮拜就一直聽到貓咪的叫聲了。
上樓回家之後，我立刻打電話給我的朋友，問她什麼時候可以下班，過來幫我處理這隻小貓咪。當時的我應該比小貓咪還害怕吧。而我朋友大概是坐噴射機飛來的，不到5分鐘就到我家了！我們決定趕快帶小貓咪去看獸醫，牠應該有好幾天沒有吃東西，必須要有即刻的細心照料。我們也想知道牠的身體健康狀況，在露宿街頭的這段時間，牠的身體可能一直有些不舒服的地方。
抵達獸醫院後，醫護人員立即拿出幼貓專用的貓食與牛奶餵牠。他們相當熱心 、細心且專業地照顧小貓咪。貓咪開始狼吞虎嚥地舔吮湯匙裡的貓食，牠應該是有好幾天沒有吃東西了。牠是如何撐過這麼長的日子？牠到底多久沒有進食了？為什麼母貓要拋棄牠呢？牠很快就吃光六湯匙的貓食。之後，醫生清理了牠眼睛上的髒東西，並幫牠點了眼藥水。這時我們順便問醫生關於小貓的性別，他說牠應該是一隻公貓。他跟我們解釋說，幼貓的性別通常是很難判斷的，因為他們的性器官尚未發育成形而且是無法清楚辨識的。現在，小貓咪開始有氣力了，看起來好很多。只是一點點的食物，便有了如此大的差異。牠的身體很髒，短短的貓毛上有好多跳蚤，於是護士幫牠洗了個暖呼呼的澡。洗好澡之後，牠看起來不像是貓，反而像是一隻小猴子！為了不讓牠著涼，護士幫牠把身體吹乾，然後牠就可以回家囉。
經歷了這場歷險記，我們回到家已經有點筋疲力盡了，我想小貓咪可能也跟我們一樣吧。低頭望望箱子，一雙又圓又大的灰色眼眸正凝視著我們。雖然有點累、有點髒、有點皺，牠的臉龐絕對是可愛而迷人的。突然間，我朋友的嘴裡冒出了一個名字：「Ma…lau…我們就叫牠Malau吧？」我說：「什麼？你在說什麼？」她又說了一次，並解釋「Malau」就是廣東話的「猴子」。我們開始大笑，覺得這個名字很怪、很滑稽，但是也很適合牠。沒錯，牠的名字就叫「Malau」。滿懷鬥志、勇氣與能量…Malau準備要長大了。
請密切注意我們的小貓咪 ﹣Malau 的最新消息。
陶喆
|
新浪
百度
开心
人人
豆瓣
搜狐
淘宝