Edgar [redux]

Michael says: Just outside an old mining city in Belgium, there are a lot of stray and abandoned cats, which is an unfortunate situation since nobody really takes any medical responsibility for them. They are fed and occasionally get some attention from children but that's about it. Since my girlfriend's backyard is a feeding ground for many of the strays, one of the cats felt secure enough to make that backyard her nesting grounds. In early april 2009, two tiny kittens were carried onto the back porch by their stray feral mother. They fell into the caring hands of my girlfriend and immediately stole her heart, in spite of her father's protests about having pets.

One of these cuties was named Edgar as an homage to the poet/author Edgar Allen Poe (before anyone figured out that she was a girl). Soon after being "adopted" by my girlfriend, Edgar developed quite a severe respiratory infection (feline calicivirus). But she came through and regained her health. My girlfriend did what she could, providing food, water, grooming, and medicine, and occasionally bringing the kittens indoors. But her father was adamant about not having cats as house pets, so mostly the kittens had to stay outdoors and they remained semiferal.

Eventually my girlfriend moved in with me, which meant she was 100 kilometers away from the kittens. We were told that another family adopted Edgar. Or to be more specific, it seems that Edgar was "abducted" and held inside (which is risky with a feral cat if you value your furniture). We're not sure about what happened, but there have been witnesses reporting her being "taken by strangers." We hope she's having a good life now.

Young kittens need a home and medical attention. Stray cats can breed very quickly. Within one year, each female out of a nest of eight cats can have another nest of up to eight kittens and so on. We contacted the volunteer organization the Felix Project, who do great work in spaying and neutering groups of strays. They have succesfully "taken care of" all the cats in the neighbourhood.