Phinnaeus Crookedtail, Cat #2

Another cat comes along….

This is Phinnaeus Crookedtail, so named because his tail in the middle shoots off at a 90 degree angle.

I was coming home late one night from teaching Kindergarten, very tired.  It was already dark.  The Hoegi neighborhood in Seoul that I lived in was rows of old large buildings with either an elderly person or elderly couple living there.  Most of them were  brick with small yards nestled along meandering narrow side streets that are more like alleyways and not large enough for 2 cars.

On this evening I noticed a small ginger colored tabby sneezing and coughing.  Some neighborhood children were trying to catch him.  They had a cardboard box and their mom was watching them as they ran after him. 

Later that same night…

Walking back from the grocery store Irealized my neighbors had not been successful in their efforts because the sneezing kitten was under a car next to my building. He peeked out when I came by so I went inside and got him some water and food.  It was starting to get cold so I worried about him being sick.  I went out and called to him, to my surprise he came.  I didn’t try to touch him because outside cats are usually so afraid of people and I saw him running away from people just a little earlier in the evening.  When I walked back to my front door I was very surprised to find him following me.  I opened the door to the building and he walked in.  I opened the door to my apartment, once again he walked in.  I was so shocked!

Going to the doctor… Hana Vet

It took a few days but he quickly adapted to the house and Sherlock and me.  He had runny nose and eyes so I took him to the vet to make sure he wasn’t seriously sick. She told me he was 3 or 4 months old.  She said he had no serious illnesses just a mild herpes virus which should clear up in a week or so, and it did. He has been very hearty ever since.

Although they got along fine.  Phinnaeus has a much stronger personality than Sherlock (the rescue I had already).  When living in a foreign country one cat seems more than enough so I tried to find him another home.   No takers.  Maybe it is because cats are not universally liked in South Korea.  Many people see them as similar to rats.  Maybe it was that I didn’t try hard enough.  Now after several years I post on rescue sites regularly but back then it was just a word of mouth to other schools and teachers outreach.

You may wonder why I didn’t try to find those children who were trying to catch him.  It’s a good question. Looking back it’s a good question.  One reason is that I didn’t know exactly where they lived.  I hadn’t been in Korea very long, but I noticed that there were not very many people who had domestic pets.  Many had very strong negative reactions to cats, so I worked within a network of foreigners to try to find Phinnaeus a home.

The road is filled with homeless cats…

I didn’t go out looking for them but when there are kittens needing help in front of you what can you do?  You can probably guess, now I had 2 cats!  And of course it didn’t end there… the story continues with cat number 3, Geumdong.