Last week I saw my first dog die. It was horrible to say the least. Traumatizing for sure. After spending the day off campus, we returned to Daystar to find a dog curled up on the sidewalk under a streetlamp seizing, foaming at the mouth, lying in it's own vomit, and crying for relief. Immediately all of us girls freaked out and decided to tell a guard. She didn't seem concerned and was not amused by the commotion or worry in our voices. Every time we walked past that streetlamp for the next few hours, we would see the situation progressively getting worse. At one point we had to just walk a different way back to our hostel in tears because of the horrific noises we heard and the shaking we saw. I quickly murmured a prayer to God asking Him to make it quick so that the dog would be out of pain. The next morning I dreaded the walk to the dining hall afraid of what I would see but all that was left was a few puddles of vomit. The other dogs that live on campus had been howling all night as if they were mourning. We woke up to find them searching in their pack to find their lost friend. I was determined to find out what happened. I found the same guard from last night.
Me: What happened to that dog from last night?
Guard: Poisoned.
Me: Why?
Guard: Too many.
Me: Too many what?
Guard: Dogs. Had to reduce.
Me: So it was poisoned?
Guard: Yes, it's just a dog. Too many.
I was appalled! Never in my life could I have imagined this. What is so wrong about one extra dog? What had it done that was so bad? I thought about that poor dog for days. I know many others in our group were shocked as well.
Skip a week.
Kittens. The cat that lives in our hostel, who we affectionately dubbed Oscar before we found out she was a girl and had previously been given the name Lily, had a kitten. We call her Fuzz. Oscar and Fuzz are a part of our daily lives. Oscar tends to take Fuzz behind the toilet to nurse her and obviously we all use the toilet so you can see how accustomed we have become to seeing her. When Fuzz is M.I.A. we all get a bit nervous that Oscar is being a bad mom. We yell at Oscar frequently for her daily abandonment of Fuzz. She always comes back though. There is also another litter of kittens that lives in a storm pipe near the dining hall. They are precious to say the least. They don't really like being held because they aren't used to humans yet, but we are determined to people-train them. THEN...dun dun dunnnnnn...I heard a rumor floating around that the kittens were a nuisance and there are too many cats so they too are going to be poisoned. You have GOT to be kidding me! I ran back to the hostels to see if Fuzz was still there. Phew. She is safe. I then ran to my room to interrogate my roommate Vienna to find out the facts.
Me: Vienna, is it true they are going to poison the kittens?
V: (laughing) Yea...of course.
Me: That is horrible! Even Fuzz?
V: Yes unless you hide her in a box in a room...NOT OURS!...then she will eat the food and one day you will wake up and find her dead.
Me: Why would someone do that, she is so harmless and cute. Kill the old, nasty, ugly cats and let the babies live.
V: That's ridiculous the older cats can smell the poison or something. They won't eat it. What do you do in American when there is too many in a liter?
Me: Sell them or give them away. Why can't they just kill the cats a different way. I don't want them to suffer from the poison and vomit.
V: They have to vomit. I would never shot a cat or something. Poisoning is best. They feel pain, vomit, and die. That is all.
Me: I'm going to save her.
V: (laughs) Whatever you say. One time last semester a girl walked into her room and found a cat had a liter on her bed. She was asthmatic and hates cats. She was so furious. She took the whole liter to the latrine (deep hole in the ground for waste) and picked them up by the tails and dropped them one by one into the latrine. They died for sure. Probably from burning before drowning. The ammonia in the urine would even burn you if you fell into it.
Me: You're joking.
V: No.
Me: If that happened in America, PETA would flip out and send them to jail.
V: You're joking.
Me: No.
So now, I take my pictures of Fuzz and wait. We shall see what happens. But I guarantee you, I won't be happy about it.
May all the animals harmed in the making of this blog R.I.P.
Tough stuff.
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