SEBASTIAN’S DIARY (Part 6)
by Ruth
(England)
Please see these parts first:
Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5
4 months later
I don’t write much in my diary these days as most days are the same.
Although the lady who looks after me here is very kind and gives me a lot of love and attention, I really don’t like living in a cage. I have nice meals and soft litter in my litter box which I use and now I don’t get to walk about very much my paws don’t hurt all the time although my legs do ache and I long to be free.
My old mom who was kind is just a distant memory now but I can still clearly remember Julie who was so nice and her mom who wasn’t very nice and the horrible Jake and Rusty.
People often come here and look at us in our cages and say we are all beautiful and the nice lady always says what a good boy I am and although I have problems caused by being declawed she thinks in a kind home I would keep on being a good boy.
But all those people choose other cats instead of me.
More cats come in their place and then go to new homes but still no one chooses me. I think it’s because I have no toe ends.
One day I heard the nice lady talking to another lady and she said,
‘I’m glad this is only a small Shelter and we can’t take in many cats. I hear the larger ones have lots of cats relinquished to them, like poor Sebastian, unwanted by the very people who had them declawed and caused their problems. I honestly sometimes think I can’t go on doing this work for much longer, it breaks my heart seeing him caged here for so long’
I wish I knew what people were saying about me when I hear my name.
By Ruth
2 months later
I am still here in my cage and lately have had a bit of trouble with my front legs. The man who comes to examine us cats and make sure we are well said to the lady,
‘Sebastian’s leg joints are stiffening with not being able to exercise as cats need to, he really should be on medication’
The lady said,
‘I do take him out of his cage as often as I can so he can walk around a bit, you can see the other cats have scratching posts to exercise on but he doesn’t have one of course. I’ve read up a lot on declawing since Sebastian came back here and how clawless cats desperately try to exercise and how some people laugh at them trying. I read of one cat with calluses on her stumps because her ignorant owner encouraged her to keep on trying to use her post. What a pity that stupid person didn’t provide the poor cat with a scratching post before, instead of having her toe ends amputated’
The man sighed and said,
‘That’s life, people can do as they please and there’s not a lot we can do to stop them. Declawing is legal in our country after all. Anyway back to this cat, I honestly don’t think anyone will want to take him on with his problems and the expense of the medication which could help him is really too much for this Shelter’s funds, so maybe it would be better to euthanize him’
The lady shouted angrily,
‘No, Sebastian is a beautiful boy, I’ll pay for his medication myself and I’ll find him a forever home if it’s the last thing I do!’
The man shook his head and said,
‘I wish you luck, I know how fond you are of him, but you need to be sensible about this. However, I’ll try him on an injectable medication today’
The serious tone of their conversation scared me a lot and I was glad that after the man stuck a needle in me they put me back in my cage and he left.
I don’t understand what they were saying but I’m glad that man has gone because he frightens me a lot when he comes.
But the needle has made my legs hurt a lot less so maybe he is kind to cats even though he is rough.
A month later
My carrier has come out again.
I wonder what is happening now? The things that happened to me before have got very blurred but I know that the carrier means I am going somewhere…
Yet no one has been today and chosen me.
I am feeling very frightened again …
Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5 – Part 6 – Part 7
