cat saga, volume 1

Okay, ether was unsuccessful, mostly due to difficulties cornering the
cat in an area where the ether could work. So I decided to take a page
out of my boyscout handbook, and set up a trap. The market sells a
variety of dried fish, ranging from minnows to more substantial perch;
the smaller sized ones are called kapenta, and for about 3 bucks you can
get a grocery sack full of it. The kittens have been hanging around
outside the nursing college, next to the malnutrition ward of the
hospital, so I went with my sack of kapenta to win the cat's trust.
It's a little cat with big ears, mostly orange and black, and it seemed
pretty friendly.
I hadn't counted on the kids from the malnutrition ward coming wanting
to eat the kapenta, so I had to give some away, and try to reconcile
with scattering food on the ground outside the malnutrition ward. We do
provide food for all of our patients, with special supplements for the
nutrition ward, so I didn't feel too bad.
After about 30 minutes squatting even closer to the kittens as they ate
the fish, I then went in search of a box on the wards, which I propped
up with a stick. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any string, which is
tough to come by at times. Fortunately, the girls at the nursing school
had recently re-done their hair and there were synthetic hair extensions
in the trash, so I made a string out of hair, sat back and waited, and
-- voila! -- I caught the kitten!
After a careful transfer with various pieces of cardboard, I brought the
kitten back home, where I put it in my shed in the back, which is a
pretty reasonably secure area. I didn't carefully inspect the roof
line, however, and it got out through the crack between the wall and the
ceiling. So tomorrow I will return to the nursing college, armed with
fish and box and stick and hair. We'll see if I can be more successful
tomorrow.