What We've Been Waiting For

It's taken 3 and a half years and multitudes of kittens, but finally a vet came to Dodoma!

Last weekend, we were finally able to have our pet cat, Moshi, "fixed" by a vet! No more kittens for Moshi...

The visiting vet comes from England, but is currently residing in Morogoro in Tanzania. She came just for the weekend. Her Saturday schedule was hectic, as families based in Dodoma booked all of her time in order to have their pets seen to! Her work started at 9am, with cats galore lined up to see the vet, to have their rabies vaccines updated and the necessary procedure to help reduce the massive cat population of Dodoma!

Moshi knew something strange was going on, although she did not make too much of a fuss as Andrew carried her over to see the vet...

The "surgery" was our neighbour's lounge! It was transformed from a comfortable living space into a sterile surgery, with all kinds of rather menacing medical instruments, syringes and potions carefully laid out on the dining table and a chest of drawers magically turned into an operating table! Moshi howled with protest at the injection to put her to sleep, but it wasn't long before she was stretched out for the operation to begin...

An hour later, we were called over to fetch a completely "blotto" cat... We tucked her into a cardboard box- no nice cat-carriers available in Dodoma! Esther helped me to fetch her, to carry her home:

 Moshi had to be tucked up warmly with blankets, even in the shimmering heat of Dodoma. The drugs available to put an animal asleep for an operation are not as advanced as the medicines available in the UK, so the vet explained to me that our cat would be unconscious for up to 24 hours and that she must be kept warm, as her body temperature plummeted.

It was Sunday lunch time before Moshi came around. In the meantime, her 2 remaining kittens were running riot in our garden, tearing up the grass and plants and creating mischief...

...all the while crying for their mum and searching for her in the oddest places, like the top of our back door!!

I had to keep them separate from their mum from Saturday onwards, to ensure that they did  not feed from her and cause infection to Moshi's wounds. The noise was horrific as Moshi called for them and they pitifully miawoed for her! I felt like a tyrant, keeping them apart:-(

 Finally, by Tuesday evening, the kittens, who are big enough to fend for themselves, had been sent off to new homes with Tanzanian friends, who want them as rat-catchers...it will be a very different life for them, just as Moshi starts her new life without having kittens every 3 months!!