The first time we found Mae Namtan, a female cat, at a temple in Pathumthani province, her condition was extremely bad. She might not survive more than 3 days. Some people in that neighborhood said that she was left there for quite a big while.
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She was bony, her eyes wet and stuffy. Her hair was entangled and harsh, not a bit shiny, which suggested that she was in a really bad shape. She could move very slowly. She was weak. We guessed that she had pneumonia in animals. We took her home right away even if we already had 119 animals at the time (Oct. 16, 2007). Actually the burden we had was already too much for us husband and wife, but we can always put our happiness away be it dining out or going out. We just want to have enough money to support these poor animals. Whenever we found a life waiting for its death, we just couldn’t help taking it back home with us. I remember once we took the 43rd animal on our car. Then we found another one on the street as well. At first we drove past it, but soon we had to come back and take it, too. The moment before we came back, we asked ourselves if the next car didn’t help it as we wished they would, how terrible our feeling would be to know that we left it to die.

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Back to Mae Namtan’s story. After we took her to see the vet at a hospital. The result was that she was severely dehydrated. She weighed only 2 kg. which is considered extremely light for a cat this size. And her lung was infected. The vet said she was very sick and had a very little chance to survive. She would probably live no longer than 3 days. We cried a lot. We thought to ourselves why we wouldn’t have met her days before. I held her against my chest, whispering to her how sorry I was. When the vet was back with some medicines, I hurriedly wiped my tears. I didn’t want others to see how sensitive I was with this kind of matter.
After injecting a small tube under her skin to feed saline directly to her vein, we took her home and hoped that there would be a miracle. We tried different ways to make her happy. We cleaned her sticky and dirty body with warm water and light shampoo. We put some clothes over her to keep her warm (even now we still need more old blankets, towels, as well as hot water bags).
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We used a soft towel as her bed with a hot water bag under. And we changed the hot water every 6 hours to keep her warm. We fed her with cat canned food which is cats’ favorite. It was something she had never had before while she was wandering out there. We really wanted her to gain some strength. The first couple of days, we were so happy to see that she could eat canned food, tablet food, and milk.
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Later on the 4th and the 5th days, a bad sign occurred. Mae Namtan ate and moved less and less. Her body began to reject all medicine we fed her. Finally in the morning of October 29th, 2007, she died in our embrace of love. Tears ran down my cheeks for the second time.
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Were we sorry? It’s hard to tell if you had not been us at that moment. Were we happy that at least during those 12 days we had a chance to share our love and happiness with Mae Namtan? We were happy that during her last days, she knew the meaning of happiness. She experienced a touch of love and warmth. She was well fed. She slept in a warm and safe place. Her hair and skin smelt good. Those were experiences she had never had while she was a stray. She did not have to worry about anything. She was expected to live for only 3 more days. But we could extend her life to live 12 more days.
The last thing we could do after she was gone was to put her body under our back yard with some flowers and tears. We are proud that we have been doing the very same thing our King has done to Khun Thong Daeng and her family. He sets such a great example and we will follow his path forever.
To Mae Namtan,
I want you to rest in peace. We love you and all of you as long as we live.
If you feel that this article might inspire people to have mercy on poor animals, please kindly forward this link to friends or other webboards. The good deeds will be with you always.
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