As a kid, I have always heard people say black cat crossing your path is unlucky, black cats are bad omen, they represent witches, on the contrary there is no scientific reason for why black cats are lucky or bring misfortune. But as a kid, my mind succumbed to the old superstition of black cats are unlucky.
On the eve of 5th April, heard a door-bell, at opening it we saw a young lad carrying a beautiful black cross breed Persian cat. They were vacating the apartment and were low on cash; hence he was giving the cat away for 100 Dhs, completely bewildered and amazed at that statement as nothing of it made sense to us……. Why would you sell your cat?
None of the neighbors on our floor gave into taking the cat, nor did we. It wasn’t about parting with the money but it is a responsibility, a commitment that we weren’t either prepared or ready to take upon.
In the meanwhile the owner said the cat had a fall from the balcony of the 3rd floor, it was very recent and his tooth has been chipped. Since they were busy it couldn’t be given any medical attention. For this wasn’t enough he added, if none of you wish to take the cat I will leave it astray…………. How would he even think of doing something so mean? How could they be so careless and irresponsible? My husband asked indignantly.
It was alarming as the cat looked extremely unwell. Hence our neighbour decided to keep the cat and I volunteered to take him to the vet the next morning. The vet said the cat is traumatized suggested keeping the cat back for a couple of days for treatment as he was really sick, had high fever, hadn’t pass urine or motions for number of days – he was in terrible condition, so we left him to come back happy and healthy.
Now the dilemma begins - who would give the cat shelter? Our neighbors or me…… With all honesty I didn’t want to take ownership of the cat because it was black, ridiculous I know, but the theory of black cat had feared me to the point of irrationality. I still give it a thought and after a lot of contemplating I decided not to keep the cat, as I was unsure if we can look after him responsibly and moreover my mind was not open to shelter a black cat.
Hence after a few days, before the cat was brought back from the vet, I arranged a shelter for him, by talking to SCADS (Sharjah Cat and Dog Shelter). Now, the cat looked well and much better than the day he was left initially.
While I was keeping the cat at the backseat of the car, I felt him say “If you can drive and own a black car, why can’t you keep a black cat?” I had no words, had nothing to say……… felt very terrible......... but couldnt help and finally gave the cat back to our neighbors, who decided to take him to the shelter.
Just when everything was falling in place, my neighbour calls up saying, the cat is unwell again. He hasn’t moved an inch and was urinating blood. I insisted they take him to the vet immediately.
The vet concluded saying the cat was very sick, extremely unwell; he couldn’t be cured as it is terribly infected. The vet said the fall from the balcony was the cause of his agony and pain.
The only solution the vet could think of was “euthanasia”. The vet had nothing but sympathy for us and the poor cat's ordeal, the cat obviously was ambulatory. The vet said we were absolutely making the right decision, helping him with a peaceful painless death to end his suffering, and that there was nothing we could do to help him, except to help him die.
We had no option but to give in and put the cat’s ordeal to an end. 13th April 2010 a day that will always be remember in his name – Misha.
One question remains unanswered, where is the black cat enigma ? What do we conclude with Misha - was he lucky to succumb a painless death or are we unlucky that we couldn’t do enough to save him?
- Victim of superstition
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