As you know if you actually read this thing, I was in the quaint country town of Damyang for the past 2 weeks doing a teacher's workshop. The workshop was a great change of pace and lifted my spirits and attitude towards Korea.
One night I was out walking with my friends Julia and Samuel and we took a turn down a less travelled road as to not get hit by cars, which is very possible, on the busier road. On our walk we came across a farm. Ohhhh cows we thought! very exciting. So we peak our heads in and the farmer waves us over and we look at the cows and try and pet the many dogs he had and then notice the cat that was being kept in a bird cage. Yep, a bird cage. This is one of the worst displays yet that I have seen in this country of animal cruelty. It was absolutely disgusting.
As you can see, the cage is not very big. Now picture a square container which was his "litter box" that was full of shit, a bowl of food and a water dish. The poor guy had to balance on his water dish b/c it was the only place he could stand.
Samuel and I, being big animal lovers were very distraut from what we had seen.
We tried to figure out what we could do to help this poor guy. We had the brilliant idea of maybe just going late at night and taking him but this didn't work b/c the dogs were barking and the cat started meowing and then the farmer came out and totally busted us.
So, now what. We finally took one of our Korean teachers with us to the farm and asked him to speak to the farmer for us. We told him that we would buy his cat, just name your price.
No.
How much do you want for it?
No.
No.
What the hell. How can you not want to sell your cat to a bunch of crazy waygooks!
The farmer told our Korean friend that he has the cat to keep mice and rats away!!! Can you believe it! Hey news flash, the cat has to be OUT of the the cage to catch them but he obviously doesn't understand that. This is what I mean about, many Koreans simply not knowing about animals.
The farmer finally said that he would talk to his family and to come back the next day.
We were very optimistic and excited for the next day to arrive.
We go back, money in hand only to have the farmer say no to us again! WHAT!? WHY!?
This went back and forth for a while until the farmer called his son over. Within a few minutes his son said ok and we paid 70 bucks for this cat!!!! I know!
So we took him and his disgusting cage and piled into the car.
We then had to wait for a cab for about 1/2 an hour. While unloading our luggage and the cat from Mr. Im's car, the top of the cage was loosened a little and the cat jumps out and starts to run! Ahhhh yes, Seinfeld moment. I finally caught the little bugger and he is now trying to adjust to apartment life.
It is possible that this little guy has been in that cage his entire life. He looks to be maybe a year old. He really has no idea what to do with himself. He has managed to start picking at my fake leather couch though!
He is basically in rehab and learning how to be a cat. Samuel and I will have joint custody of the little guy.
Most likely, many entries to come are going to be about my new cat and how the rehab is coming along!
1 comment:
This is a great story, i'm happy to hear people would do this, besides me a fellow animal lover and rescuer! Thank you for going the extra mile and i hope the little guy lives a long and happy life!!
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