Albert

Cat on the street

 She did it again. My daughter brought home a stray. I have to say, we (her dad and I) are to blame. We’ve been picking up strays all our lives. We’re still stuck with a dog we picked up some four years ago in the mountains, and have a parrot that came flying in one day. We don’t buy animals (although we have broken that rule recently at the sight of a Siamese cat); we somehow end up with them. The last one was this summer, while camping in France. My daughter found a little kitten on a parking lot beside a high way and took it with us in the camper. That cat was the bestowed upon her grandfather (because we didn’t have time to get the paperwork for Beirut in order), who in turn gave it to one of his grandchildren. And that’s where it has found a permanent home.

Yesterday the weather was so gorgeous that I decided to pick up my daughter from her sewing class in Sanayah on foot.  And while walking back through the city, taking little roads we usually don’t take because the car won’t fit or we don’t know where they’re leading to, we ran into this little kitten sitting in a sewer pipe. We could get quite close, as she was not aware we were there; she was blind. Her eyes were stuck shut with crusts and goo. 

Eyes are glued stuck

I only wanted to make some pictures. That was until my daughter spotted her. "Oooooooooh, we've got to take her, can we take her? Haram, she's all blind, she'll get run over by a car " and on and on it went for quite a bit, I think she should become a vet. 

When we wanted to pick her up however, she became quite vicious though, and it took is a good 15 minutes to capture her.

I know, Albert's not a pretty sight right now, his eyes are all infected, but he's getting better

We took her home, washed her, found out she was a he, undid him of all his flees, unstuck his eyes and nose, treated him with some type of ointment, fed him, named him Albert, and he’s been sleeping like a rose ever since. No what is the next step? Beirut is teeming with stray cats. I’ve already got a dog and a cat.

Albert asleep (most of the time)

So if anyone out there would like to adopt Albert, please send me a mail. He eats and drinks on his own.