Self-Devpt. Nuggets™

In certain societies, people live in harmony with snakes, and even worship them. In others the mere sight of a baby snake will have everyone taking to their heels. It’s a simple question of familiarity.

A child that’s never seen (or been near) a dog before, could get scared, and even burst into tears when one comes to her, playfully wagging its tail. Give that same child a few days or weeks, and he’ll soon be the best of friends with the same animal!

Let me share an example in form of a personal true story.

I once took home a stray kitten. It had been chased into the rain by some market women who wanted to kill it (based on superstition that it was a witch – a story for another day).

Not only did it have blood coming from its nose, but it’s heavy breathing suggested it also had a respiratory infection. I knew leaving it was likely to mean certain death for it.

Plus, from my earliest years till well into my teens, I and my siblings had lived with cats and dogs in our parents’ home. It just felt natural taking this one home with me.

However, there was a problem.

I knew my two youngest children (girls – 3 and 6 years old), and their mother, were scared of animals. The boys having spent time with me picking up all kinds of insects, trapping birds and rodents, were already weaned of their fear of many things.

So, when I got home, I connived with the boys to make the cat at home They fed the kitten with warm milk and medication given it by Dr. Folorunsho, my Vet Doctor friend who’d cleaned it up and treated for injuries.

Then I pleaded with their mother to let us nurse the kitten back to full health, after which I would let it go. She agreed, but warned “Just keep it away from me!”

After a month, she was back to full health and bounding around the house. Well, it’s been 2 years now since Lily (that’s the name the kids gave it) joined our family.

She’s a big girl now. And guess what? Our girls now carry it around fearlessly, just like their brothers do. And although she still won’t stroke it, their mother brings home pieces of fish and chicken from the frozen foods store, which she cooks for the dreaded cat!

All the perceptions she’d carried around about cats had been subject to tests during the many months she’d had to be around one on a continuous basis. This helped her verify that most of the things that she;d been told were unfounded.

It’s been over 3 years now. She has been with the kids, and the cat, ALONE each time I’ve had to travel away to Cotonou. Very rarely has the issue of the cat come up for discussion at anytime.

She’s a BIG girl now, our cat. When I rescued her in September 2011 as a badly injured kitten, with a severe respiratory infection, she fit neatly into the palm of my hands! The kids LOVE her silly. We once visited my parents and took the cat with us. Something scared the cat as we got down and she scampered into an uncompleted building. Thinking she would come out later, we went in to my parent’s. By the time we came out, she was still nowhere to be found, so we left – the kids were all downcast. It was like someone had died!

Another reason she may have accepted the cat, was that its meowing soon scared away mice and rats that often came from the undeveloped plot next door!

However one looks at it, the point to be made is that once she got familiar with the animal, she lost her initial fear of it, and now lets it sit next to her!

Today, we have NOT one, but three cats – because Lily is now a mother!

See photos below of Lily the little ones – born on 22nd December 2016 i.e. about 3 months ago.

We had a few scares during the first few weeks of their lives, when they picked up some eye infection, but our good Vet doctor friend prescribed a mix of drugs that soon cleared all that up.

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