Pick A Boo, I've Got You!

as originally appeared on our Care2 messaging system

My dearest colleagues @ animal welfare,

It must have been the most excruciating two weeks for you since I share about Boo's plight, a Persian cat who had been abandoned at the vet clinic.

Boo, Early May 2011

Like I suspected, people are racing to help, from as near as Malaysia to as far as Greece, US and UK, Netherlands, Sweden, and one from Czechoslovakia (yep, that's Czech Republic). What I didn't suspect was, magnitude of the attention. I wouldn't have thought his voice reached Czechs.

Within one week after I share Boo's plight, we raised USD 240 together. USD 10 short from what the vet has been asking, so I went to his office and ask him to give me a few more days; certainly USD 10 won't be far away.

But until the end of another week, that USD 10 didn't come. So, with USD 240, and an ATM, I come by to his office again, and tell him what actually happened, that the money we raised from around the world lacked USD 10. I showed him my ATM, and say, "I have USD 300 in this ATM here, doc, but you see, my rent is due mid June, and I have to find a new one. So far the best offer for a house I ever get is USD 600 a year"

The vet just stay quiet, before he said "You are trying to bail out a cat while you yourself lacked money for a home? where are you going to have Boo? on the street?"

I can't answer that, to be honest, but I hand over the USD 240 anyway, and say "Give me 5 minutes, I'll give you the remaining USD 10. There's no way I am going to let Boo rot in his cage another day. If we ended up on the street, at least we are going to see the sky when we wake up, not bars"

When I return to the vet 5 minutes later, Boo was already in the carrying basket on his desk.

"He's all set for a new home" said the vet. "You are the craziest girl ever stepped into my office, but to tell you the truth, you are the first human who get in here with a true mission to save life. Just like a vet clinic should be. The other almost immediately give up as soon as we told an owner the name of a disease. For quite some times I kind of think this town doesn't have heart, they only have breeders"

"Keep that 10 Dollars" said the vet then. "I am going to be on a trip abroad next week, but when I return, I want to see Boo on my desk again. He needs to be neutered"

Before I had chance to say anything else, the vet waved his hand "On the house"

I wished I can take picture of the staffs in the clinic as I walk out with Boo. They actually lined up along the way from the examination room to the lobby, with big grin on their face. "Boo's going home" they said. "Thanks"

I wish I can say "Boo lived happily ever after" just like the other fairy tale. But he doesn't. The challenge comes right after.

Boo is 8 months old now, so if he spend 6 months in the clinic, he went there when he was 2 months old. Since all owner brought their own pet's food when the pet must stay over, Boo eat only on the mercy of the staffs, which put aside some of their small wage to buy Friskies.

So Friskies is all Boo know. He doesn't know any other food. He doesn't even know what chicken is, what fish is, and he refuse to eat anything other than Friskies. The rest of the mobster eat raw.

Boo doesn't know what cat is. He is jumpy the whole week when the other mobster passed him over, and he hid behind a drawer when Dewy and Sports came running after their ball.

The only thing that can touch him is Chibi, a 2 weeks old baby cat someone dumped on the middle of a busy road. Chibi rubs on him all the time, and even tried to sleep on his thick fur, and Boo probably doesn't have the heart to claw a "thing" as big as his leg trying to cuddle up on him.

Boo doesn't know what dog is. Boo doesn't know what rain is, so he slipped out of the door and run under a storm, stepping on each puddle and sniff on everything. When there's thunder, he would challenge it and meow as loud as he can.

And storm is what holding me from sharing Boo's story after he got home. We got endless rain, and flood, and rain, and flood, and wind, and another rain. We got electric failure almost every day, and since part of the telecommunication lines got soaked up under the flood, the whole town was made cranky because our cellphone had less signal. Telephone line is scarce in this town, so everyone relies on their cellphones or CDMA.

Since there's no phone line on my rent (there's none in the whole complex, actually), I have to rely on mobile broadband. And Since mobile phone provider got trouble with signal, there goes my broadband as well.

I was just feeling lucky that we're not drowned nor wrecked like Joplin.

As of today, though, Boo learned the right place to drop his "digestive remains". Boo learned to differentiate between fresh food, edible food, and rotten food. He dislike milk, but love cooled mineral water. He learns to climb,he got to pick his favorite spot (along with a small, pink, mat for his bed), he learns the difference between fish and chicken, and he definitely tell me that he prefer chicken over fish, while the other is vice versa.

Boo also learn to spray (marking), he learn to scratch at the right spot. He learn to stay away from the rain, he learns to pat, though he end up leaving a scar on my cheek for a week, and got some claw too, for forgetting to retract his nail while patting on other cat; and he learn to make me cry every time he decided to go under some furniture and spoiled my effort to keep his fur white (as it should be).

His best skill is: opening refrigerator. I don't know how he done it because the other never succeeded before, but Boo have 100% success rate opening its door and raid on the second rack (where I put his chicken).

Yesterday I saw him watching Sports playing soccer for an hour before he sneaked on the ball when Sports was sleeping and play the ball himself.

The night after that, he's having a man to man talk with Kaitou, the Godfather, and the founding father of the Syndicate.

Man To Man: Kaitou and Boo

I am offering you my apologies for the delay of relaying Boo's update. If I could, I would have broadcasted this world class cat rescue at the same day. Not everyday citizen of the world raise money to bail out one single cat that otherwise might have gamed over before his life even started.

Boo got plenty more to catch up for the 6 months of his life in the cage, but I am sure that the blossom that bloom late is the most beautiful of all.

Way to go Boo. Welcome to the Syndicate.

Pick A Boo: Can I see you?

as originally appeared on our Care2 messaging system

Fellow rescuers and animal advocates,

You'd probably called 'Boo!' only on Halloween to chase away some spirit.

But this one is boo-ed from his right to live by a negligent owner.

I met Boo just a few weeks ago. I don't know why he was given such an ill name, but I am determined to get your help to save him, and change his ill fated name into a well-fitted one. For the sake of better life.

You see, my past few weeks were spent between office and the vet clinic nearby. Some of my refugees underwent spay/neuter surgery last January, and two of them: Sports and Peta, develop a severe infection around their genitalia so they have to have a surgery for the second time. It's just a malpractice, and it's usual here in Indonesia, no big deal, you can't do anything anyway (yeah right).

While Sports and Peta has to stay over a few nights before and after the surgery, I come and visit them everyday after office just to cheer them up, especially because both of them are still afraid of other humans. I usually pick them up from their cage, cradle them in my arm and told them that they are going to be all right, and that they are going to go home soon. Sometimes we just cuddle eadh other and pray to God that the surgery went well and everything would go uphill for them.

Then I notice that every time I put them back in their cage, the cat next to them cried out loud and desperately trying to get his turn of cradling.

From the tag on the cage, I learned that his name is Boo. He was taken to the clinic in December 2010. The owner then told the vet that he was blood vomiting, and that he was told by another vet that Boo contracted deadly disease. The worker in the clinic said that the owner gave USD 25, and left with a promise to pick him up in a few days.

But he never returns.

Both the vets and the workers of the clinics tried to call him, with a good news that what appeared to be a blood vomit is a small small ulcer at the back of his tongue, and it had healed by itself by the second day. Also to say that Boo is perfectly healthy, but no one picked up the phone, nor answered the text sent through the owner's cellphone.

Since then, Boo has been the ghost of the clinic.

"He is like that", said the clinic worker, the one who deliver the food for the animals. "Whenever someone walk in, he would cry and ask to get out"

Boo, May 7, 2011

"When we give him food he'd pat on our hand, asking to be craddled", the worker continues, "And when we walked away, he'd cry long enough before slumping at the corner of his cage, as if he was about to be left to die"

Boo, May 9, 2011

Well, it seems like the owner intended him to be that way.

Since then, I'd stop by longer at the clinic, and make time to say hello, and Boo will stuck out his paw and greet me. When I open his cage he'd be jumping right onto my chest, and when I put him back to go back to the office, or home, he'd cry long enough before slumping at the corner of his cage. As if he was about to be left to die.

Boo, May 11, 2011

Well, it seems like the vet intended to put him to sleep if no one claim him and pay his fee. Why feed and maintain something that no one wanted?

I took a peek on the vet bills for his medication and boarding. Aside from the USD 25 the owner left, Boo need USD 250 for all the meal and daily necessities during his ghostly presence in the clinic for a half of a year.

Then I wondered, can I raise that much money to bail him out? Would there be someone out there care enough to answer Boo's desperate cry? Or would Boo just live a half year of useless life and die like nothing?

Please help, whenever you can. I talked to the vet to wait another week, because I am going to bet on the generosity of my kindred friends, and the mercy of other animal advocates.

My paypal address is: whiskerssyndicate@gmail.com. I do not set up other chipin because I have limited internet quota, so if you would like to help spare Boo's life, please send your gift to whiskerssyndicate@gmail.com and send a note along with it "For Boo"

Then share Boo's story. Share his desperate cry in his lonely cage in facebook, in emails, in other forums. Reply to his reach out. Let your kind presence echoes his plea.