Pattaya is a city with hundreds of so called "beer bars", often 20 or 30 crammed together with a Tattoo shop and a stall selling Yadong, which is traditional Thai medicine steeped in liquor, among them. In one of those bars I used to play pool and off and on sat at the Yadong stall to enjoy one or two glasses of the red booze.
One day when I hung out there again I noticed a small black cat wearing a collar obviously being hungry. I asked Uan, the Yadong selling girl, whether the cat belongs to someone and she told me that she used to be the cat of a bar owner who recently gave up his business and left her behind. I bought some chicken meat on a skewer to feed the hungry kitten and she polished it off in a flash. When I asked Uan whether she could keep an eye on the cat if I would provide food she agreed, and since then I visited Mimi almost every day. Uan took good care of her and Mimi, that's the name we gave her on recommendation of Mimi, a Chinese bar girl, made herself at home in Uan's shop.
In the following weeks Mimi grew up to be a proud beauty not a bit interested getting near other cats living among the beer bars. End of April I thought it was time to get Mimi spayed and took her for ten days with me after she spent two days in the clinic. Mimi was easy to handle and liked to stay with me but I had to bring her back to Uan's shop since my friend did not allow animals as permanent guests in his house.
One day, when I visited Mimi on my daily tour, Uan presented me Momo, a tiny tabby tom cat which someone brought to her knowing that she was taking care of Mimi. Momo was only a few weeks old and very weak but lovely and all the bar girls visiting the Yadong shop for a couple of glasses to make work easier, loved him. Even Mimi adopted him after a while.
Three weeks passed but Momo didn't grow a bit, probably because of suffering from diarrhea more or less permanently. Since Uan only opened her shop during the night and the cats were left to take care of themselves at day time, and the shop and its surrounding were not extremely clean, to put it this way, I thought taking Momo home would help him to overcome that condition.
That time I worked at home and could therefore keep an eye on him. Momo adapted well and tried to enjoy life. After a few days I went to the vet with him and she told me to change diet to find out what is best for him. She also advised me to pay attention to the risk of dehydration. After two weeks Momo's condition deteriorated and one morning I found him hardly alive, hurried to the vet who only could record his death. I was very sad being unable to save his life and also for the reason that he was the first animal that I tried to take care of that died. That time I couldn't imagine that many of them would follow.