by Pilar
(Costa Rica)

Hello, my name is Finlay and I THINK I am five weeks old.

About two weeks ago, some humans took me from my mum and threw me out of a car. They left me in a lonely place and my leg hurt.

Luckily, I was found and taken to my new house. There were three big dogs there and eleven cats, but I was not afraid. They let me eat their food but I wanted my mum. A human picked me up and put me in bed next to her, so of course I cuddled up to her neck and fell asleep.

I decided that she was going to be my new mum so I had to behave myself and look cute. When I woke up, I found a tray under the bed and I thought this must be the toilet. I am clever for my age.

Mum took me to the doctor and I was very good, but the next day she gave me something that tasted horrible, and I tried to spit it out, but she said it was for some animals in my tummy. Go figure.

Then I met my brothers and sisters.

Lío is a calico and her brother, Lince, is an orange tabby; they are quite big. They can catch mice and climb to the rafters.

I also met Casumi; she is black and white with green eyes. Eight months ago, my mum found her and took her to the doctor, but she was very sick. After a week, another doctor said she had a stone in her bladder. They took it out and she was fine afterwards, but she was very small and she had two babies. My mum said it was an accident and I am too small to know these things.

Anyway, Sambi and Subi play with me all the time and they are great fun. Subi says he´s a tuxedo cat like her mum; they´re both quite loopy, that´s for sure.

Then my mum rescued Van-like sisters Michí and Tassi; she thinks I haven´t noticed, but she has a soft spot for them.

In August, according to my mum, somebody dumped a cat near the house. The dogs barked when she came to eat cat food, so my mum called her and gave her food and water.

On the 15th, one of the dogs said –my mum thinks we can speak- that there was something under the house. The cat –her name is Dabi now- had babies and she had put them there when it started to rain, so my mum took them in.

Dabi was very aggressive at the beginning, but she was only protecting her babies when my mum wasn´t around. One time she warned my mum that there was a snake under the floor, and another time she fought off two big dogs that would have hurt the kittens. That´s sooo cool!

Dabi has a daughter called Melú with big eyes that mum says are the colour of the sea, and two sons, Brock and Missouri. Dabi and Missouri are grey tabbies just like me, but we are not related, I don´t think.

Anyway I´m very happy now, I play in the sun all day and I´ve almost managed to destroy the plants that the other kittens had chewed to the ground. Soon I will be big enough to go for walks with the dogs and cats; I can´t wait. My job now is to make mummy laugh and protect her. That´s why I sleep on her belly, but keep one eye open for coyotes and pumas.

I pawed all this to say thank you to my mum for feeding me and giving me titbits even if she says everyday that I´m not to beg for food, but of course I know how to get what I want.

I also want to say thank you to Dr. Neely for this site, and to all the humans that rescue a dog or cat and give them a chance to be happy.

Finlay