Dubai
In June, 2014, 38smiles got a call from three school bus drivers regarding a cat that they had found with a badly damaged front leg. The cat was in a cardboard box, skinny, dirty and with half of her front leg missing and infected. A few days later, her leg was amputated and she made a full recovery. Suki, the tripod cat, now named Tripè, lives happily in her loving forever home.
Six months later, on Christmas Eve, 38smiles was contacted by the same school bus drivers, but this time, about Chris who was just a tiny kitten lying so still by the side of the road.
Those kind men thought that although he looked almost dead, he was still worth trying to save. He had been bitten so badly on the back of his neck by another cat that the shock, pain and infection meant that he was just lying there frozen, waiting for his final breath.
The men took him to the veterinary clinic to be treated for the shock, dehydration, infected wound and malnourishment. He must have felt like a lucky kitten because he made a remarkable recovery. In the first three days after he was saved, the pain in his neck from the nasty bite had reduced and it meant that he could manage to roll over to eat and roll back again to sleep.
He put on 400 grammes of weight in those few days. It was perhaps the first time he was being fed properly.
As time has gone on, he has become stronger and has lots of energy. He plays, runs around and looks happy. He still is sometimes a little wobbly on his tiny paws, but is more than ready to find a forever home.
This story just goes to show that the kindness of some people really can make a difference. We are eternally grateful to those compassionate and lovely school bus drivers for helping these animals in need. A lot of people would have ignored him or walked past him without even realising that the kitten needed help. We just hope that he can find a good home to call his own. Are you ready to make a difference and give him his happily ever after?
— The reader is the founder of 38 Smiles, a group determined to help stray animals, based in Dubai.
