Hypocricy

I need your help.

I have a friend. It’s a black cat speckled green eyes. She’ll miaw at you but not bear a grudge if you choose to ignore her. She’ll sit in the window, watching you and rub herself against the window if you should reach towards her. She lived two houses down the street until very recently, when her owners moved away and left this cat to starve.

Those people infuriate me.

“A cat cares more about its house or neighbourhood than its owners.” Yeah. Sure, if you keep that mentality. We have two cats in Finland, both very happy with our family. Both cats have one family member they specifically depend upon and think of as their best friend, but will use the other family members as a crutch when they are not around. My own cat has lived in three different countries and five different houses, and traveled even more. So yes, a cat will care more about the area it lives in than it will care about you if you don’t take care of it.

Oh, I won’t deny that there are a few cats that wouldn’t give a rat’s ass if you dropped dead, but this cat, this chestnut-highlighted friend does not possess such a personality. I’ve been feeding this cat. But very seldom. Up till now, it did have a home and someone who fed it at least every other day whenever they could remember to. But now even that is denied this cat.

I tried to avoid feeding her, but the day before yesterday, I petted her and was frightened by how lanky she had become. I can feel her every bone… the spine juts out under that smooth fur like the plates of a stegosaurus. I fed her yesterday.

Today, a housemate complained. This is a rather nice girl, a good Christian girl who does soup runs and donates much of her time to the church. She asked who had fed the cat, and I said it was me. She said it wasn’t our responsibility to feed the cat, that she was frightened of the cat, that she found it difficult to leave or enter the house when the cat was occasionally outside of the house.

I didn’t feel like arguing that this might be the perfect opportunity for her to get over her irrational fear, so I stated the truth: The cat’s owners abandoned her, and now she’s starving. I’m not going to stand by and watch it die.

She said the next typical thing, which is “why don’t you take it to the local animal shelter?”

I replied that they put the animals down if no one adopts them. And no one’s going to adopt an old cat. So it would just mean her death.

Before she could formulate some sort of new selfish reply, I said that I had been asking around if someone wanted to adopt the cat. That shut her up. I do have one friend who would be willing to adopt the cat, but he lives in Ireland, and that would mean a six month’s quarantine period before it could be brought in, and I would prefer not to let this poor creature suffer through that. I can’t take the cat in myself, because there are practically no student-let houses that let you keep pets.

I am, mildly put, annoyed at this Christian girl who can’t find the space in her heart to care about Robin. And if she truly is as great a Christian as she believes, why can she not trust in her God to protect her from this friendly cat? Why will she do soup runs for homeless humans, but will coolly tell me to let this cat starve or die, when something can be done about it?

And so I ask you: Is there anyone out there who might be willing to adopt Robin? I live in England…