Message From a Happy Hillbrow Cat

My name is Tiger and I am a happy cat in Hillbrow.

Hillbrow isn’t an easy place to live, especially for cats. But I’m a survivor. When I was a baby, a man found me and took me to live in the basement at the Hillbrow Boxing Club. I didn’t like it much at first. It’s noisy at the Hillbrow Boxing Club and some of the humans there teased me when I came.

But George, the man in charge at the Hillbrow Boxing Club, loved me from the start. He gave me food and let me sleep in his room. I started to love my new home. Eventually, when I was big enough to run up the stairs, I started to hang around outside near the boxing ring. I ran around and played with people and learned to hunt mice.

George named me Tiger and he seemed to think I was a boy. How rude! I am obviously a lady.

This is me with George, my human.

A few months after I moved in with George, I gave birth to three babies. I don’t know how this happened because I think I was still a baby myself. But anyway, I had the babies in a drawer next to George’s bed.

Here I am in the drawer with my babies.

My babies were so beautiful. The girl was coloured just like me and the two boys were light tan, almost white, like their father. (What a bastard.)

George was very confused when he found me with my babies. When he tried to touch us, I bit him. I don’t know why but I was frightened that something would happen to my babies. I would kill anyone who tried to hurt them, even my own human.

A better look at my babies.

My babies grew bigger and became very rambunctious. They ran all over the basement and were always trying to drink my milk even though I knew they could eat their own food. I still loved my babies but they started to annoy me. I was too young to be burdened with these wild children.

Cute baby, but…sigh.

Before long, to my relief, my babies all moved away to their own homes. I’m not sure where they went but I hope they are happy. I was happy when they left because I got my freedom back. I ate lots of food and resumed hunting mice.

One day, George shut me inside of a wooden box. I was so confused. Then he carried the box upstairs and gave me to a lady named Heather. I was so terrified, I could barely make a sound. But Heather put me in her car and spoke nicely to me. She told me I was having an operation, and once it was finished I would never have babies again. This sounded okay but I was really too scared to think about it much.

This is me in my box, right before my operation. I was scared.

The next thing I remember, I was back at the Hillbrow Boxing Club. I didn’t feel very good at first, but after a day or two I felt wonderful. I’m even happier now than I was before. Having babies was nice but once was enough. I prefer to focus on my hunting and sunbathing careers now.

I’m happy.

George is happy too.

Read Part 2 of this story.

Tiger was spayed and vaccinated courtesy of Junkie Charity Store. Junkie also paid for the neutering and vaccination of Fender, another Hillbrow kitten who I blogged about last year. Some of you might also remember that Ms. M, Junkie’s founder, was the original owner of the Melville Cat.

Besides being a fantastic second-hand shop, Junkie funds lots of great charities – for both animals and people – around Joburg. Please support Junkie by liking it on Facebook.