Distraction Dinsdag – Lip

Yes dear readers, you have read it right, due to events that are totally my doing I was taken away from reading the last couple of days. It is not all bad though as I believe Milou and I did something good… We saved a stray cat from the streets…

Picture this in your mind:

You come across a beautiful creature for the past two weeks on your way from and to work. It is winter time in Europe now and that means that temperatures are dropping by quite a bit. In the evenings you happen to hear a cat’s call outside and you wonder if it is perhaps a lost kitten or just a someone who forgot to let the cat back in. You pass a specific spot where you always come across this sight:

That face just begging you to take you home…

You want to, but you have no idea if it belongs to someone or if it will scratch the crap out of you if you attempt to pick it up. You want to help it but have nothing in terms of food or bedding or enough free time to sit at home to take care of it. You want a pet, but you live in a small flat on the 4th floor, yet  you can not live with yourself knowing that out there in the cold a helpless cat has to sleep in temperatures under the 0 mark… This was the inner struggle Milou and I had last weekend…

After two weeks my body just gave in automatically and started impulsively buying food and snacks to cater for a stray. I made some home improvised bedding and toilet space for said stray without having said stray in house yet, but I was prepared to make it’s wish come true… I had minimal problems in getting the cat in to our flat as it seemed to be very used to the idea of being picked up. It is only after I got home that I found out I picked up the wrong stray… Understandable as it is quite dark in the evenings now. So after a while of searching for original stray cat I got him home safe, ending up with a few scratches here and there, but nothing too painful.

We fed it and let it walk around freely in the flat to make it familiarize itself for a bit. Milou and I then continued our evening routine of sitting down and watching a Marvel film. It took our stray cat no less than 5 minutes to jump on our laps and let us run our hands along its body. We were happy, cat was warm, fed and happy and was purring away like a tank going on vacation… Before it got too settled though I thought that it might be a good Idea to give it a wash. So of to the shower we went for the struggle of a lifetime and some extra added scratches… I guess gratitude from a cat means you need to bleed… I decided on giving it the name of Lip as it had a patch of colored fur just under it’s lip and looked as if it was bruised, but it wasn’t the case at all.

After towling down and drying lip, I seemed to have been the main person to avoid and Lip chose to rather go and sit close to Milou. But he warmed up to me as long as I did not give it any more showers. I did as it asked and gave it snacks instead. And love, lots and lots of it as Milou and I have lots of love to give…

One happy cat I say! Look at it still eyeing me with suspicion…

Lip ended up spending two nights with us. We have taken it to a vet to see if he might be chipped or if the owners can be tracked down. It is not chipped and I believe its owners might have moved and just left it there in our neighborhood. It is sad to think that such a lovely creature could just be left behind. From here on Lip will be staying at a sanctuary where the people will be trying to find it a new home. Milou and I are quite sad that we could not keep Lip even though we know that it is impossible with our current living situation and lifestyle. We do rest a lot better knowing that Lip is in much safer hands now.

I am just happy that a cat was able to be taken of the streets and could be cared for and warmed up to us as quickly as it did. I will miss Lip a lot and hope that he finds a good home. We did not even need to train it where to do it’s no 1’s and 2’s, if that does not spell out that it was previously owned, I do not know what does.

So that was the reason for my lack of reviews last week… I am planning on doing a review of a very short audiobook soon and am just about halfway through another book I started. I hope I can finish it before the end of the month. We will see…

What do you think of Lip?