We recently spent a gloriously restful week in Aruba. We'd never been there before. Turns out that stray cats are a common sight around the hotels/resorts. We met three friendly cats around the place where we stayed; two were exceptionally friendly. One was this cat; we guessed her to be a young female:
We saw her a couple of times and then didn't see her for a few days until the evening before we were to leave. We were eating at the resort's outdoor restaurant, our table near a hedge. She came sauntering through the hedge and enjoyed some bits of our meal. Then she jumped up on my lap and settled in for the duration of the meal.
We brought her back to the room and called Aruba Kitten Rescue (AKR; I had emailed them and another organization earlier in the week when I learned about the stray cat problem and wanted to know what, if anything, tourists could do to make these cats' lives easier). We discussed this cat and decided that they would call the vet early the next morning to see if they could give her a rabies shot, do an exam and provide travelling papers. AKR came to us early the next morning, whisked her to the vet, whisked her back, provided an airline approved carrier so she could sit under the seat in front of us; a harness and leash for walking her through the metal detector (she walked on a leash like a champ; thoroughly unflummoxed by all the people pointing and saying, 'There's a cat!') and wished us a safe trip. You can read AKR's post about her here.
If you go to the website you'll see this post, where they talk about the supplies they need. Basically, the stuff they need -- small harnesses and leashes; soft carriers; KMR -- is very expensive down there. And it's expensive to ship stuff to them from outside of Aruba. So they depend on people travelling to Aruba who are kind enough to bring stuff with them. So if you're planning to go to Aruba and would like to help, contact them first to find out what their current needs are and how to best get the stuff to them once you're in Aruba.
I had ordered some tapas for dinner while she was sitting on my lap that night and one was called 'pinchitos'. The waiter said it meant 'little bits' (they were mini skewers with one or two small pieces of meat on them) and, since she's a little bit of a thing, I started calling her Pinchita and the name stuck.
The Aruban vet estimated her to be 5-6 months old and they didn't feel any kittens inside her, but, if she was pregnant, she probably wasn't very far along. Our vet came to see her a few days ago and left a note (at this point in our relationship with her, she just lets herself in and out) saying that Pinchita is not a kitten and that she might be pregnant. Turns out she also has worms -- lots of them and quite the variety. The vet gave her a first dose of dewormer when she was here, but now that she has the results of the fecal exam, she's going to give Pinchita a stronger dewormer next week when she comes by to see Dolly. We've also seen one flea so far, so she's getting treated for that, too.
She's a tiny little thing: 4.75 lb. How is she supposed to have kittens? I hope she's not pregnant, but I guess we'll just deal with that if and when it's confirmed. I wonder if/how her dewormer and flea medication might affect her kittens/pregnancy. We've never had brand spanking new kittens in the house before; I don't know that we're prepared for this. I don't know nothin' 'bout birthing kittens.
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