By Sandra Kliegelhoefer
[Sandra, director of AKI Partner Organization Mbwa wa Africa, sent this information about some of the kitties at the MwA shelter in Arusha, Tanzania. AKI donors cover about 1/3 of the costs of running the MwA shelter.]
We'll start with cats. Since January, our kitty-kennel is quite busy.
We found this beautiful and highly pregnant cat (we named her Nasinyari) on January 11, and then on January 13, she gave birth to six gorgeous kittens! The little fur-balls will grow up now in safety, we will make sure that the mother won't have to raise more kittens and will try our best to find them all wonderful homes!
Then, a little later in January, another mother cat, Shujaa, moved in with her 7 kittens! Sadly the new kitty mama is paralyzed after she had an accident. When the family arrived here (brought by their owner, who couldn't manage with a paralyzed cat and kittens), the kittens were barely a week old and mom was giving it her all, but she needed some help to raise them. And she needed to be nursed as well. She still has feelings in her hind legs, but couldn't move them. We hope that with some time and care her condition will improve and this gorgeous and sweet little cat will enjoy life.
So all in all, our two mother cats, Shujaa and Nasinyari, had 13 kittens altogether! Shujaa's condition improved slightly, she is moving around but it is unlikely that she will ever walk
again. The two moms came to an agreement to share the work of raising their kittens! It is really heartwarming to see that they don't separate between 'mine and yours' -instead it can happen that ALL thirteen are crawling all over one Mum who is feeding and cleaning them and the 'other' Mum takes a break chilling in the sun.
Here's a cute picture of the older litter, Nasinyari's.
Here's the whole patchwork family.
And then the adoptions began!
By mid-March, four of our super cute kittens found their forever homes! Chloe and Janet took two kittens each, so they can play together and keep each other company.
We still had nine "siblings" and two beautiful mothers waiting to be the lucky chosen ones. And just a week later, four more cats found their forever homes: mama Nasinyari and her daughter, went home with our friend Rodger.
And Sharon took home two little ginger tomcats.
In the 1st week of April, three families adopted four of our gorgeous kitties!
On April 22, our last two little tomcats also found a home together. In only 6 weeks ALL the 13 kittens and their two mothers got adopted - that's a record! Thank you Bernhard Stauss and wife, we wish you lots of fun and a long life together with Tiger and Oscar!
