Hey! I can't believe summer break is over. So, what did you do during your last relaxing week?

Take care of these little rugrats.

Last weekend, we were taking a walk around the neighborhood; around our ghetto neighborhood with practically more cats than people. Why would a country care about its animal population when they don't even care about its people, right? Unfortunately, people like me (and now Cory) care about these living creatures and can't stand to see them in distress.

Enter ridiculousness.

On a whim, we turned down the road we were going to skip for the evening and as we passed a sewer grate, we heard a bunch of mewing. As soon as I heard it, I tried to block it out. After all, we were down to one cat (after having lost both Bola and Palaaway this year - very, very sad) and could manage that. Especially when thinking about moving on. We tried walking past, but the tiny screeches just kept ringing in our ears. I stopped pushing the stroller and looked into the sewer grate and there sat the tiniest kitten I had ever seen: wet, cold and hanging on to a dry edge with her front paws, for dear life. Immediately a tear sprang to my eye as I looked at Cory with dread.

After that, there was no turning away. As we went past the nearby garbage can to secure a few tools to try to open the sewer grate, I noticed another one laying by the bin. It looked dead. But, with a bit of gentle prodding, we discovered it wasn't. And then there were two.

We worked on that grate as day turned to dusk. No passerby stopped to help until the very end. The fireman in the next village over wouldn't let us borrow a crowbar because we lived in the other village (a mere three-minute walk away). The maintenance shed in our village was "closed" for the night. And so, it was just our creativity and determination. And a very kind neighbor who finally took pity on us foreigners and lent us a long metal pole. Three hours later, we FINALLY wedged the pole into the 6-inch-thick cement slab on top of the sewer grate, pried it open and stuck some of the cinder blocks we had gotten on our anniversary (they came in handy after all!) in to keep it open. Cory reached in to grab the shivering kitten only to notice that there was one more - quiet and dry, exhausted and scared. Over the course of the evening, we went from one cat to four, from happy-go-lucky to stressed, from nine peaceful hours of sleep at night to five due to a four-hour feeding (and peeing and pooping and bathing) schedule with syringes, and from somewhat refreshed to completely groggy.

Why does my heart have to be so empathetic? Why does my look give Cory the "Oh no, oh no, oh no" shake of the head but ultimately a nod which signals that yes, he will help these little things and yes, he will be the one to do all the dirty work? We honestly contemplated leaving them. We seriously considered euthanizing them upon arrival at the vet's (but they are still too small). We are now fretting over finding homes for them. Because why would anyone want a kitten that we found when they could walk out into the street and find one of their very own? PAWS and CARA can't take them, either because there are simply too many animals to find homes for and they are stretched beyond their limits as it is. We have not named them and don't think we will. They are only nine days old and their eyes are just now starting to open and their ears to perk up. They are the tiniest little furry things ever and they are completely dependent on our care. This was not how we envisioned our last week at home before the new school year began.

And this was all after having a dead rat wash up in our drainage ditch and having to remove an older dead kitten which had probably been hit by a car from the road in front of our house.

Great way to begin the school year, I tell ya!