Sucker for a lost cause

Another of my little strays died today.

Hmm.

As bitter and jaded as I can be, I'm just a sucker for abandoned cats. Everytime they die due to some illness, I tell Abg that that will be the last time. Abg will just look at me with a little twinkle in his eye for he knows that the next time I come across a mange covered scruffy little thing at the hospital's walkway or at the canteen, it will be riding in my silver Kenari home.

Two weeks ago I came across a small kitty near the lab. It was about half six and I had just finished operating on some limb. She came running to me as I called to her. She was as ugly as anything - thin, bloated worm-infested tummy and covered in scabs of mange. I put her on the front passenger seat and there she sat quietly as I drove home.

I applied the mange medication that I always have ready at home, gave her a bowl of kibbles and placed a hot water bottle to keep her warm in the cage.

In the course of the next few days, most of her scabs fell off and she looked much much better. Once I let her play in the house and she spent an hour pawing at a piece of string hanging from the ironing board.

As we were leaving for a holiday, I left her for boarding at the clinic nearby.

When I went to get her, she just looked ill. Foam was dripping from her lips and she resembled nothing like the kitten I left a week before. The vet assistant actually had the nerve to reassure me, saying it was a natural reaction to a deworming medication.

She died the next morning.

So I cried a few tears and apologised, as I always do with all the kittens I couldn't save. and I vowed to never take in another stray for it to break my heart again.