27.10.2007Lost Kitten:I'm not sure if we did a good thing today. We had all gone to eat at Navtara in Mapusa for lunch and had to stop by the bank on the way home. Whilst Theresa was in the bank Richard spotted a tiny kitten on the side of the road and I immediately left the car to see it. It was a very small, fragile and trembling kitten, meowing along, looking very lost. I decided to hold him in my hand and comfort him for a while. Adam was very adamant not show any affection towards it, as we already have 3 cats in the staff house and he was worried that Theresa and I would try to bring this fellow back with us as well. Adam's point was that "this is India; there are lots of people let alone animals who need looking after. We can't be taking on everyone who needs help" and that if we left the kitten it would be much better chance of survival. It was obvious that he didn't want to bring the kitten home and Theresa agreed because of the cats she has already rescued and taken in the house. So we all decided to take the kitten to the Animal Rescue Centre near the retreat. The poor thing was very jumpy already and had thrown itself out of our hands on the pavement couple of times; we were worried that he was going to hurt himself. But at the same time every time he made his way on the pavement he slowly crawled back to us desperate in need of love and food. My main concern now is that the Animal Rescue centre does not seem to be the ideal place for the kittens. When we went in we realised that already today there had been 13 kittens brought in, and there was another girl at the reception with a tiny black kitten that she had found. We were told that sometimes people come to take the kittens in but unfortunately if they stay at the centre they do not survive long. It was possible that they may have an infection or a disease and put down. Adam said that this was probably a kind way of telling us that due to the increased number of animals brought in the centre is most likely to put down some of the animals. I was heart broken. Had we brought this kitten to its own death? Maybe the security guard at the bank where we had found the kitten wasn't quite sure when he told us the kitten didn't have a mother, perhaps we have taken away a happy kitten from its mother as well. Theresa consoled me saying that we will tell people about the kitten with the hope that someone might be interested so that it ends up in a good home after all. I am too scared to find out, to go to the rescue centre and be told that the kitten was put down because of an infection.