Simmons Says: Animals

Ghana is an interesting place when it comes to pets. People here don't really have "pets". They raise chickens and goats, only to eat them later. There are stray dogs everywhere, but they are so scared of people that they just run from you. And I have yet to see a "big dog" here. I think all animals here are malnourished so they don't grow to be very big. When you go to any open market, you see kittens. I have yet to see a full grown cat and I found out that it's because Ghanaians eat cat. This completely upsets me, as I was raised with many cats and am a cat-lover.

A little over a month ago, we went to a market to look for a few items to send home to our nieces and nephews. When you go to a market, everyone tries to get your attention so you will buy something from them. We've become very good an ignorning people since living here....

As we were walking around the market, my youngest spotted a tiny kitten. He tried to pet it, but it ran away. He pointed the kitten out to my husband and what happened next SHOCKED me.

My husband has never really been an animal person. Every time we went to my parents house, he would barely give any attention to my dog (my parents keep her because my son is allergic. Plus, she's a good guard dog for them). My parents have 2 cats and he doesn't pay much attention to them either. My kids and I, on the other hand, play with them all day! There is just something special about the kind of love a pet gives you.

So my husband sees this cat and his heart completely goes out to it. This cat is tiny, dirty and malnourished. There were areas on the cat where the fur wasn't growing. He was shocked at the state this animal was in and didn't want it to continue. One of the men at the market noticed my son and husband taking an interest in the kitten and told them it had a twin. My husband asked to see the twin, so they ran off and found it. This one looked even worse than the other. It was smaller than it's twin and it had an eye infection. My hubby couldn't stand it and neither could my kids. The boys ran over to where I was and told me all about it. I had seen kittens all over the city so I knew the kind of state they would be in. I have wanted to rescue some of those kittens before, but thought my hubby would kill me if I brought one home so this blew me away.

When I reached my husband and saw the kittens, my heart fell. I couldn't believe how terrible they looked and how scared they seemed. We were now surrounded by 5-6 men, all of them saying the cats belonged to them but they would sell them to us. They were completely taking advantage of the situation. Here they weren't taking care of these kittens at all, but they wouldn't let us walk off with them. So I argued with the head guy and pointed out how the kittens were in terrible shape and there is no way they were being taken care off. He offered to sell them to me for 75 cedi, which is equal to about $40. I pointed out the kitten with the eye infection and told him I'd have to take it to the vet to get medicine and that would cost me more money. He then offered 65 cedi. I asked if they had their shots already and the guy looked at me as if I was speaking a foreign language. I explained that I'd have to take them to the vet to get shots for rabies and that would cost me a lot of money. He offered us 60 cedi. I argued with him some more about how terrible these kittens were treated, etc and told him I'd give him 50 cedi for both of them and then he would no longer have to "feed them". Yes, I know he wasn't feeding them at all but he claimed he was. The man agreed and then asked for a few more cedi to find a carrier to put them in. I reminded him again that I was taking these two kittens off of his hands and that he could go find a box to put them in.

We finished our shopping and came back to 6 men trying to keep the kittens in a small, beat up box. They were shoving them so hard into the box and when the kittens jumped out, they would grab them by the head and throw them back in. I was sick at how they were treating them so I just grabbed the box and kept my hand over the top so the kittens wouldn't jump out. We paid the head guy and ran for the car.

For about a minute, the kittens tried to get out of that box. I'm sure they were terrified! All they knew was that humans were not good. Poor things!! They finally settled down and snuggled together on the side of the box. We took them to the vet and they both weighed under 1 pound, even though they were about 8-10 weeks old. They were too malnourished to get their shots so they just got a flea and de-worming treatment. We also got eye drops for the one with the infection.

When we brought them home, they were so frightened. I put a basket on the floor sideways and put a soft pillow inside of it. The kittens immediately curled up and went to sleep. We gave them food and water, but they weren't interested. I was so worried about them! I wasn't sure if the smaller one would make it past a week.

Long story short, it's been over a month since we rescued them and they have each gained over 2 pounds and are becoming happy, playful kittens. Turns out that they are a boy and girl and we named them George and Obruni, but we call Obruni "Sissy". They have been a great addition to our family and have completely changed my hubby's heart towards cats. These kittens follow him around everywhere. They are living in our garage for now, but are slowly venturing outside. They are so much fun!!!!