We are long overdue for a post. Our silence is a result of a super busy
schedule, hectic travel, and limited internet.
Thankfully, we finally have a “normal” stretch for a while. Normal for me (b) is still really busy – I have
a pretty heavy teaching load and am starting to set up strong collaborations –
but I am trying to be more balanced.
Enter Magilla Glub Glub Gauthier (MG3) Jr.
For anyone who knows anything about me, you have known that
I am obsessed with cute animals and have wanted a cat just shy of forever. My city living and hectic travel schedule
never seemed conducive for a cat, so I was forced to troll the internet for my
fix (see www.cuteoverload.com). However, coming to Rwanda seemed like a
perfect time to get a pet. While I will
still travel in country a couple days a week, Nathan is generally in
Kigali. We both seem to be traveling out
of country a bit, but for better or for worse, we are on exact opposite
schedules. Plus we are finally creating
a community, including living on a compound with two other apartments, and hey,
if we ever need litter changed, isn’t that what neighbors are for?
Having a pet provides a new lens through which we see
Rwanda. It seems most Rwandans aren’t
too keen on pets. This is true of many
individuals I have met in sub-Saharan African countries where I have lived in or
traveled – our pets are just their general animals. They serve functions – protection from dogs, pest
control from cats – but aren’t given particular affections and no special bond
is formed. But like almost anything we
will experience here, the relationship with “pets” is particularly complicated
because of events during the genocide.
(Note, I will probably always be vague on these matters,
because the truth is everything I “know” is 20th hand information
but there will always be more details available online.)
Glub Glub came to us via a local vet. She found him being mishandled on the side of
the road by some kids and rescued him - may have seen more like a catnapping
from their perspective. The reality is
that Magilla was WAY too small to be weaned and she believed near death. The vet estimated him to be about 3-4 weeks
when we got him – we fed him only from a dropper for the first few weeks and
even that was hard for him to manage.
There is no kitten food in Rwanda, so when we wanted to
start transitioning him, Nathan bought and cooked ground beef from a local
store. The ground beef, as luxurious as
that sounds, is going to likely be cheaper than cat food. We found a couple of bags at $25 a bag, but
regardless MG3 is a long way from that.
Our temporary fix is that between my two trips to the states and a
friend visiting, we have stocked up some kitten chow and wet food. We were using dirt for a litter box, and
probably will be doing that again soon, but we were lucky enough for Nathan to
stop by an expat yard sale where they had two boxes of cat litter they brought
from the US for sale – crazy Americans, who does that, hehehe ;)?!?!
We have heard the whole gamut for vet care. It seems like most vets are not equip to
handle pets, which makes sense in a country where pets generally don’t
exist. I have heard rumors of folks
bringing in rabies vaccines, etc, for their animals. The vet that helped us find Glub Glub seems
better prepared. He has his first round
of vaccines in a few weeks and then rabies in 12. I can’t even bear to think
what happens after that… regardless, he will be well cared for.
So what does this have to do with living a more balanced
life? Well, the truth is – what is the
best cure for a long, stressful day?
Coming home to a furball. What is the best solution to a life full of
unfamiliar and new things? Filling it
with images of a kitten curled on your husband’s lap. All of a sudden home becomes newly defined –
home is wherever Nathan and Magilla Glub Glub Gauthier Jr are. We might have to rewrite the ES and the
Magnetic Zeros song – home is whenever I am with you and our super cute, hyper,
fluffy, intense, big-tongued kitteh.
And as if we could contain the cute – Nathan, in his biggest
gift in our relationship submitted photos to cuteoverload of our bundle of
joy. So imagine my surprise when I went
for my weekly fix (my internet is so slow, that I restrict cuteoverload visits
to Sunday morning) and there was my own MG3 for all the world to see. (http://cuteoverload.com/2012/09/14/magilla-glub-glub/)
I have included some pics here for you to enjoy too , though these are a bit
more homegrown (ie, I took them).
