Goose got here into my life 4 years in the past throughout my first interval English class. I used to be dwelling in a tiny village in rural South Africa educating English on the time, and phrase had rapidly gotten out that I used to be on the lookout for a cat. Granted, I had by no means actually interacted with cats, on condition that I had grown up in a canine household, however I used to be lonely and much from dwelling and lacking the companionship of an animal. I traveled an excessive amount of to realistically undertake a canine.
Enter Goose. Goose was perhaps 5 weeks outdated when he was dropped onto my lap throughout story time, and I’d be mendacity if I mentioned that I used to be ready for his arrival. That evening I couldn’t sleep, as a result of I used to be totally terrified that I’d roll over in my sleep and squish him. I had no cat provides, so we made do with a carboard tray and rice as litter. His first dinner was tuna from the tuck store down the road and plain scrambled egg.
He was excellent. We instantly fell in love with him.
I used to be instantly obsessive about this tiny orange creature. Goose turned a daily fixture in my classroom, and I’d usually use him to indicate my college students deal with animals with kindness and respect. In an surroundings the place a overwhelming majority of the neighborhood struggles each day simply assembly their fundamental wants, it may be tough to prioritize the welfare of animals. In Zulu tradition cats are seen as unhealthy luck and an emblem of withcraft—for sure, it was all the time attention-grabbing explaining why I had a cat dwelling in my home with me.
Goose made every little thing manageable; I used to be now not alone. When the bats slipped in at evening and flew round our head, he would wake me up. When the noise of the rain on the tin roof scared him, we might shelter below the covers collectively. It didn’t matter that I needed to hitchhike to the closest city to take him to his vet appointments, or that I usually needed to skip getting groceries for myself in order that I might carry his litter dwelling—we had been a staff, me and Goose towards the world.
