We, my wife and myself, are consummate lovers of animals and they tend to love us back, without condition and without inhibition. (Although neither of us would temp a crocodile.) When we lose a pet, a family member, it becomes almost like a human wake because we lost one more piece of valuable innocence in the world, one more belly scratch, on more run to the market to purchase food and but ultimately gained one more period of grieving much like one would for a person.
For those who are not lovers of animals, it is understandable to simply dispose of the corpse and move on. For those of us who are “lovers”, it is like getting hit on the head with a rock. Life has changed and we will never forget their names and how they acted healthy, then again how they acted ill. We will never forget!
This weekend we lost The Mouse, an eight year old kitty who had as much adventure in life as Indiana Jones.
When we adopted the little guy from the refugio in Heredia, I let my wife do the work since she was inundated with fifty or sixty kitties and just as many dogs looking for new families.
The night was overcast and turned into heavy rain when my wife asked, “My god! Who can I take, I want them all.” The answer? There was only one who screams out, jumps around with a singular message, “Adopt me, take me home, I love you, you will love me!”, and that was the chosen one.
On the drive back, it was dark and still raining, my wife named the little guy Tiger because she always wanted a cat by that name. However, morning came and Tiger was a tiny little guy with big ears and who’s name forever more was The Mouse.
Mouse immediately found his place in our small home alongside his mother superior, the Madonna, named Kali California because she arrived to Paradise from the U.S. and recognized her superiority. With the help of kitty Valium, she went to sleep as a “gringa” and woke up as a legalized “tica.” She has never looked back!
As animals will have it, the pecking order was established: the senior Kali ate the best food, slept the latest acted with total disdain for Mouse who managed to nap on my computer, on the back of my shoulders and most importantly, on the lap of his aged grandmother who has since died; but she passed with that loving memory of affection by Mouse.
The story of Mouse gets long, but it is very nice.
After 7 or 8 months The Mouse ate into an electric wired fence of the neighbor. It literally fried his brain and he lost the way home which was only a few meters away. For nine months we offered rewards, got calls from scammers, walked, drove the neighborhoods and nobody said they had seen Mouse except a couple of hustlers who wanted $100 up front.
By accident, one morning I was doing my usual and scanning of Costa Rican news and there was a photo of a kitty that looked just like Mouse up for adoption. Nobody wanted him because he had multiple surgeries and one of those was to remove half of his nose and half of the mouth which were results of his being electrocuted.
I could not go and identify him for fear of one more disappointment. My wife did and called back while half crying that, “Yes, it is Mouse, it really is him!”
His new name given by the people who rescued the little guy was “Tony” because he was found in the parking lot, by the dumpster, feeding feral kitties at Tony Roma’s in Escazu. About five maybe six miles from his home. (Since then Mouse always had a taste for good food.”)
Mouse lived for another six years and similar to his adventure at Tony Roma’s he was a rough lot (Not a fighter but the boss, so to speak.) with his little buddies he brought home. we ended up feeding Mouse, Kali, and four more kitties with no place to go and no place to eat.
Now that the Mouse has died, once again I want to thank Dra. Jimenez, Dr. Eduardo Bitter and Especially Dr. Claudio Cendeño. And let us never forget A.M. Costa Rica who published the photo, background, all at no charge that lead to the re-adoption. Thanks from my heart Jay.
You see, not all is corrupt in Cost Rica and there are many people who care about you, me and our pets. We need more, we need to nurture them. Mouse died of either a stroke or heart attack; outside among his buddies and that is the way it should have been.
RIP my best friend.
