Kitty (less) in Blighty

Remember in my earlier post I mentioned about applying to be a volunteer at BDCH? Regrettably their reply was negative.


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Dear Wharfer

Thank you very much for your recent application for voluntary work at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home. As you may imagine, we receive an enormous number of offers of help with the dogs and cats and I regret to say that we will not be inviting you in for an interview at this stage simply because we are not recruiting for cat socialisers at present. However, your application was very interesting, and your details will be kept on file for six months.

Should our requirements change or any suitable vacancies arise we may contact you again. If you haven't heard from us within that time, then I am afraid it will indicate that we still do not have any suitable vacancies. We are very grateful to you for your interest in helping the cats at Battersea and we are very sorry not to be able to offer you an interview at this stage.

Best wishes

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Oh such bad news indeedy. I was looking forward to 'socialising' with some cats as I have been cat-deprived since landing here. What an extreme change of atmosphere; from stray cats and kittens littering the entire abode weekdays and Winnie and Cleo during the weekends to being totally void of cat-company e v e r y s i n g l e d a y. To top it off, there are hardly any strays roaming about the streets (for which I am truly thankful) for us to bring one or two home on the pretext of 'providing temporary shelter' until a suitable home is found. We did contemplate adopting two (so they will have each other when we are at work) cats from the Home but we had to consider the following:

(1) Landlord's 'pets not allowed' T&C,

(2) Leaving the cat(s) if we were to go for holidays/back home for a week or two,

(3) Being attached to the cat(s) for 3 years and having to send them back to the Home when we leave this country; would it be fair to the cat(s) if we merely adopt them on a temporary basis (3 years) and then subject them to having to move and adapt to another new home? Seems rather selfish and unkind, no?

Some may say there is the obvious option i.e. to bring the cat(s) home with us when we return to Malaysia. I simply cannot do that. Winnie has always been averse to other cat-company. She likes being on her own and does not get on well with other cats, apart from her momma. Hence bringing home another cat to share Winnie's life would be unfair to her; after all, she had sacrificed 3 years of being deprived of our love and affections, it would be awful if we are not able to give her our full attention when we finally go home for good.

Having pets around is absolutely wonderful. Its therapeutic values are enormous but we really feel we are in no position to adopt any kitties while in Blighty hence the idea to volunteer at the Home sparked off. Whot a pity BDCH don't need any at the moment.