Heather's Gone Again: A Cat Lady Christmas Miracle

(This should have been posted before I left for the holidays, but wasn't. oops)

I spent just over 2 months in Sudan - post Benin holiday and pre home for Christmas - with just a 3 night transit through South Sudan to regroup and repack before flying back to Canada.

When I got back to the office in Juba (South Sudan), obviously my first priority was to find Boris and Scabbers and the other kitties and give them some lovin’.

And I was confronted by two upsetting truths:

When I left, Boris was a kitten. Now, she’s a proper cat. They grow up so fast. (sniff)
Boris was now our only office pet.

I inquired immediately as to the whereabouts of the rest of the family, and was told that they had been relocated the week before I came back. At the directive of our Boss. They were packed up and driven to the other side of Juba and dropped off in the big market.

Boris was allowed to stay, I suspect, because The Boss knew that there would be an International Staff Uprising had she disappeared.

The others were much nosier and more annoying, and since Preggers kept multiplying, it was decided that she had to go, as did Not Boris (who, by not being Boris, never really stood a chance anyways).

“But even Scabbers?!” I enquired, horrified. “But she is so friendly and people are not very nice to stray animals generally. With her skin condition and squeaky voice, she doesn’t stand a chance!”

(Also, turns out she doesn’t have a skin infection. She has cancer. Or so says a vet that we sent photos to. Which means we should be extra nice to her. We still call her a Pretty Kitty. Because it’s better for her self esteem. And cause she’ pretty on the inside, where it counts.)

Apparently she wasn’t part of the Order To Remove, but somehow jumped into the trap that had been set to get them into the back of the car, and was taken too. I’m guessing the guys in charge of moving them didn’t want to pick her up, and thus dumped her at the market with the rest of them.

I was pretty unhappy about the whole thing. Despite the 30 degree heat and high humidity that day at lunch, the chill of my wrath was palpable as The Boss sat down to eat his lunch across from me.

I worked on hatching a plan with the one other International staff member present in the office that day. I was in Juba for 48 more hours, and we were planning a Rescue Mission. If Scabbers was allowed to stay, we were going to go to that market and find her and bring her home.

But then that didn’t work. Because work has been a whole new sort of hectic (for usual reasons but also because of the escalating conflict and movement of refugees), and we couldn’t justify leaving the office to find our cat, and the market is off limits outside of working hours due to security. So we were out of luck; our hands were tied.

Then, on the day I was to fly home, as I was quickly scarfing down some lunch before rushing to the airport, I heard something.

My heart stopped.

I jumped from my seat.

Was it? Was it?...

And it was! The little squeak, it was her! She came back! She found her way home!

“It’s a Christmas Miracle!” I exclaimed, and had a mini celebration on the front porch with the other person who cared (and then sent out an email saying much the same, to the other staff who were out of Juba at the moment, and who I knew would also be pretty darn happy about it).

We can’t figure out how she managed to find her way back; she had been driven pretty far. But I don’t care. But I’ll take Christmas miracles in whatever form them come in. So thanks Santa, or Baby Jesus, or Pops, or whomever else helped make it happen.

Jan 2012 UPDATE: Interestingly, by the time I got back from holidays, our Country Director position was vacant. Karma? I like to think so.