My New Cat Named “Orange” is Heaven Sent

It was Friday, 9th November 2012, and hubby had to wake up earlier than usual.

Their entire work team would go to Bayern for a day´s trip as an advance christmas party, exclusive only for the employees. In December there will be a second Christmas party which is open for the spouses to attend too.

Hubby left that morning without taking his car because they would travel by train. Instead, he walked for about ten minutes to the highway where a colleague would pick him up and they´d drive to the train station in the city. He kissed me goodbye at around seven o´clock. Because it was a very foggy, cold morning, and given that I work from home, I went back to bed. But a little over five minutes since hubby left, the doorbell rang. I opened and it was my husband with a cat. He said, “Honey, I found a cat. Don´t let him go out.”

Longing for a Cat

I was shocked. I couldn´t believe that there really on my floor was a cat. That week I had been begging my husband nonstop to get me a cat. I´ve been dying to have a pet for a while now, be it a dog or a cat. But my husband was always adamant. He just lost his two dogs, both twelve years old, to a heart failure disease and an ovarian cancer. He hasn´t fully recovered yet, he still misses them and he´s still not ready to have a new dog.

So I suggested to have a cat. I used to have lots of cats back home in Asia and I know how sweet they could be. But my husband isn´t fond of cats. He says that cats would ruin our wallpaper, scratch our new sofa, and that when we travel next summer vacation, nobody would take care of it.

I tried to convince him that cats, once trained, are not destructive. I also believe that finding someone to take care of our cat while we travel won´t really be an issue. There will always be a solution. After doing my best to convince him, he agreed to have a cat but not this year, next year after summer.

Why I Wanted to have a Cat

It´s my second winter here in Germany. I moved to Europe from Asia last year, August. Last winter, for the very first time in my life, I had severe depression.

The short daytime, cold temperature, dark cloudy sky, and complete silence in this place resulted to me being depressed. It didn´t help that I work from home and I´ve no friends. If my husband is at work, I felt so isolated. Facebook is my only means of socialization.

Now that we´re approaching winter once again, I don´t want to repeat my last year´s experience. I know that having a cat would make me a happier person. I wouldn´t feel alone.

An Answered Prayer

I know that God understands what I feel but I had no idea He would answer my prayer right away. That morning, while my husband was walking through hilly roads heading to the highway, he saw a cat sitting on the sidewalk, alone. While approaching he was wondering why the owners let this small cat stay in the cold. He stopped and asked the cat why he´s outdoor that early. The little cat looked at him in the eyes.

My husband then continued walking but the cat walked with him. Seeing that nobody was around and that the cat seemed to have nowhere to go, my husband picked him up. It didn´t struggle at all. Quickly my husband decided to bring the cat home because he was worried that it would freeze to death in the street.

Hubby couldn´t stay long to take care of the cat or he´d be late. I was left not sure what to do. It´s been so long, seven years, since I had taken care of cats. It was fortunate that I had some fish, left over from last night´s meal. I gave it some rice and fish and it devoured the food like crazy. It was obviously very hungry. Even when the food was finished, it continued licking the plate. I knew that it was still hungry so I gave it second meal.

It was staying on my kitchen window, looking outside. I felt that the cat wanted to go out. I wondered if it lived in the streets alone all the time. While it´s relatively clean, it was thin. It also had running nose and kept sneezing.

Quickly I figured that the cat must have been outside in the cold for a long time. It had labored breathing and was obviously sick.

I immediately felt the need to protect and take care of it. My husband was on the phone all the time checking how the cat was doing. We´ve thought of bringing it to the vet but we weren´t sure if somebody is looking for it. We kept telling ourselves that we shouldn´t get attached too quickly for we didn´t know, maybe somebody would pick it up the next day.

When my husband came home in the evening, he named the cat “Orange”. On my next post I´ll let you know how the first week with my sick cat, Orange, went. Stay tuned.

Continue Reading: My Cat´s First Visit to the Vet