Day 14 - The kitten

I found the kitten (previous day) in the bush of a gravel pitch at the end of a little village with a few new houses on the other side of the street. When I stopped to check my phone, I heard a high-pitched, frequenly occuring and desperate "meow" coming from a little kitten inside the bush right next to the street. It was really thin and in bad condition, and by itself even though it seemed quite young. I decided to quickly go to a grocery store to get some cat food. Twenty minutes later I was back at the spot, she was still there screaming at me and really shy. She didn't appraoch the food until I backed off quite a distance. A local from across the road, Marian, watching this from his terrace told me, that he heard something screaming for the last four days but never saw anything. He came around and brought some water for her, she drank for at least two minutes straight. Apart from being in a miserable condition, I could see that she was limping a little and had a hip bone standing out. Once she was full of food and water, she still wouldn't stop screaming. So I sat down on the floor and held my flat hand out, thinking she would be too shy to approach. Turns out, after a few minutes of holding still, she actually came over and was the cuddliest little kitten ever. I didn't know what to do with her, I looked up animal rescue, shelters, anything in the area. Marian told me that Šibenik is full of street cats and that the shelter will probably not even take her. Other neighbours also said, that it happens quite often that cats get dropped at this location since it's the end of the road/village. Marian was also not sure what to do with her, he has a dog and cannot take her for that reason. We asked around the neighbourhood if someone is happy to take her, but without success. Marian then repeatedly suggested that I should take her with me until I found a solution, so eventually I didn't see any other way and we started improvising a solution to take her on the bike with whatever we had at hand. We attached a strong karton box at the front between the steering horns of my bicycle, in which I could transport her safely.
It was quite late already, around 8pm and starting to get dark when we were done. I asked him about potential camp grounds or wild camping spots in the area, but since he just recently moved here from Zagreb, he didn't know. Probably seeing me there a little desperate, he offered me to stay in a spare room at his appartment for the night, which safed me and the kitten the hassle of finding something in the dark, so I gladly accepted.

In the morning of this day, the weather looked quite miserable for the first time of the trip, also it started raining around early noon. I wasn't sure whether I could do the roughly 60km to Dunja (Couchsurfing) with such weather conditions AND a kitten. It was fine with Dunja to arrive a day later and bring the kitten with me, she even offered that she might be able to take her for a while until I found a longterm solution.
Since the kitten reacted really badly to Marian's dog Bady (she growled and hissed at him constantly and we had to lock the dog away for his own safety), there was no option of leaving her at his place. 🙈 Also, Marian was already so helpful and generous to host us for two nights, It would have been a hassle to find somewhere to stay once it got dark. So I thought that staying with Dunja would be the best temporary solution in this situation, even though it involves a bike ride with the kitten.🐈‍⬛🚲
Luckily Marian didn't mind us staying for another night due to the bad weather, he even got some more kitten food that morning, which she ate within seconds. (At that point we weren't entirely sure it's a she, but the vet confirmed it later.)

The day at Marian's place gave me some time for organisational tasks. With the help of my cousin, I got into touch with an NGO in Rijeka (Kitten Safe House). They told me that they are happy to help with everything, such as travelling documents, vet, etc. But they are not able to take her, they are past their limit already. They also put me in touch with a vet in Split to visit on Tuesday, which is not far from Dunja's place.
In the afternoon we replaced the karton box on my bike with a proper little basket to make it more comfortable for the kitten on the bike. She seemed to like the basket and happily layed in there for a snooze. :) I'm aware it's not ideal, but it was the best option she had regading the circumstances..Read more