Sun-dappled

Cora. About 10 years. Female ♀

This girl was one of 10 cats we rescued from a house-of-horrors.

We first got to know Cora's previous human when the lady had 6 cats; and she seemed like a responsible, dedicated animal care-giver. Over the years that we knew her, that woman kept taking in more and more cats, without the time and the will to look after them well. The place was filthy, the food and water bowls unclean, the cats were fighting, some of the weaker cats were heavily victimised by the few bully-tomcats. As said to StaciNadia , we are not talking about hissy-spits and fisticuffs here, but full-blown entanglements, with flying fur and splattering blood. We got to witness these as we were the ones who cat-sit for her when she was out-of-town. We had spoken to her about setting up a safe-zone for the victims, a room where they could be free of the bullies ... but that never happened.

Cora was one of those victims. She was so badly bullied that she lived her life on a window-sill, a 6-inch-wide ledge outside the kitchen window, three stories up from a concrete carparking lot below; baked by the fierce sun we get here, and drenched by the lashing rains when the weather changed. She would sneak in to eat and drink, but chose to poo and pee on that ledge, rather than face the bullies to get to the litter trays.

She was 3 years old when we took her in, and although she lived on for another 8 years with us, she never really lost that low-to-the-ground slinking run -- we called it "the victim's walk". It took a couple of years before she learnt to relax enough to sprawl. The very first time she slept all sprawled out was an EVENT in our home!

Cora was a sweetie-pie, but she never developed a close relationship with us. But that's okay with us ... we were happy that she had the opportunity to learn to live without fear a constant companion.



Died: 11 Nov 2009. Age: 11 years 6 months.