What is the kindest thing you ever did for an animal?
In reading through the answers which for some reason I just discovered I had not been notified of, I was inspired to write another, edgier question. (Which just got it's first answer, I notice.):
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Used correctly, this site can be a great way to affirm my sense of the goodness of humans, and my part in it all. (Used incorrectly, well...you know.)
Here are the answers so far; the link, in case you want to add a reply or see if there are any more comments, is above with the original question. I would love to hear what you have to say.
12 Answers
Originally Answered: What's the kindest thing you've done for an animal?
Well probably the craziest. I was on my first day as a sales manager for a blue chip company. Cream designer suit, high heels the lot. The day went well and it just happened to be the GM's 50th birthday and we were all invited out to a nice restaurant that evening. So I'm heading home on the A1M motorway outside Newcastle upon Tyne, during rush hour so luckily not going too fast, when I see a dog stuck in the central reservation. So I'm in the outside lane and I stop dead - about 100yds past him at this point. Leap out of the car in my tottery heals and race back up the fast lane as fast as I can. Lean over the barrier, picked up the dog who wasn't much smaller that a lab and stagger back to the car trying to ignore the carnage I was creating behind. A lorry driver wound his window down and asked if he was mine, barely able to breathe carrying this heavy lump I yell, "Of course he isn't bloody mine, mine wouldn't be in the middle of the bloody motorway!!!" I was in my brand new company car and he was bleeding. Nothing major thankfully, he just had a few cuts, scrapes and bruises. No way could I put him on the seat. So off came the already bloody and stained brand new cream jacket and I laid that out for him to lie on. Got him straight to the local RSPCA clinic where they took over.
A couple of hours later, cleaned up, suitably groomed I waltz into the restaurant. Everyone looks up. It appears the traffic cameras had caught the whole episode and it was on the local evening news. To be honest until the day I left the job that was never forgotten and I was always considered to be the mad one. Good news is, he was never claimed but found a lovely new family.
A couple of hours later, cleaned up, suitably groomed I waltz into the restaurant. Everyone looks up. It appears the traffic cameras had caught the whole episode and it was on the local evening news. To be honest until the day I left the job that was never forgotten and I was always considered to be the mad one. Good news is, he was never claimed but found a lovely new family.
Originally Answered: What's the kindest thing you've done for an animal?
I used to live in Topanga Canyon, which some people have referred to as the bohemian district of Malibu, CA. It’s straight wilderness — lizards, horses, owls, coyotes, mountain lions, hippies, etc… At any rate, I was walking up to my car and my girlfriend noticed a hummingbird laying in the driveway.
She was like, “Ohhh, we have to save it…” and some such business. I was just trying to get in the car and go and reacted by muttering something curt about the “cycle of life.”
The mixture of urgency and sincerity in her voice snapped me out of my head space. It’s weird how these things move you from the inside; first you don’t give a fuck; then you’re thinking about the minimum you can do to feel as if you’ve fulfilled your duty as someone who does gives a fuck. The next thing you know, you’re building a cardboard shoebox diorama on your deck that conforms to an ill conceived idea of a humming bird’s natural habitat.
I fed that little guy homemade honey-water from a bottle cap all day — video proof here [1] . Unfortunately it wasn’t enough. When nightfall came, I brought him inside and made a little nest out of an old wife-beater. I checked on him every 30 minutes or so, but at some point he fell into his honey-water stash, got coated in sugar-goo and rolled out of the shoe box onto the cold kitchen table.
I don’t know where he thought he was trying to get to; I thought he knew we were on the same side. He looked dead — or at least coma-toast (not a word, but fuck, it should be). I did some research and found that humming birds fall into such a deep sleep that their heartbeat slows to a zombie like pace and they appear to be dead even though they’re still alive. With renewed hope, I gingerly placed that sticky little fucker back inside his wife-beater -shoe-box-nest and hoped for the best.
But alas, when I awoke the next morning he was still dead.
The previous day I walked past that little guy without a second thought, and now I was legitimately sad.
We almost buried him, but I reverted to the cycle of life mentality — albeit with a little more reverence. I put him outside and some other animal ate that little guy within 15 minutes.
I’m not sure if this constitutes “kindness” but for a brief period that little humming bird was my first and only priority and I feel lucky I was in a position to be with him in his final hours.
Footnotes
Originally Answered: What's the kindest thing you've done for an animal?
This isn’t a big story, but I’m proud of it, so I’ll tell it anyway.
Two years ago, I heard a small squeaky cry from our house’s gate and found a seemingly new-born kitten. She wasn’t covered in blood anymore so her mother probably already cleaned her up, then I realised she wasn’t new born at all. She was actually a few days old.
She was unable to open her eyes because of the rheum and too young too be able to walk. She had bad fur on her body, covered in fleas and mud because it had been rainy that week and she was terribly thin.
It was either she was moved there by her mother or her owner put her there on purpose to die. The second option had a bigger chance because a lot of people do that here in my province.
Our house is situated directly in front of the highway and this kitten could easily be killed. We already had 4 cats in our home which was already a lot, but I couldn’t bear leaving this small cat out there to die.
I grabbed a towelette from our home and carried her to our bathroom. I immediately contacted my friend who was in Vet school and asked what to do in my current situation. I had her cleaned up, cleaned up her eyes, wiped off the mud from her fur and fed her with milk. I named her “Muglee”.
She’s been part of our family ever since.
Two years later, here she is!
What a fatty.
Thank you Astrid King for the edit! :)
Edit: October 12, 2017, she has been vomiting…she seems to have eaten something poisonous. I was next to her ’til her last breath.
My little Muglee has rested to permanent slumber. She will always be remembered. Rest in peace, my love.
Originally Answered: What's the kindest thing you've done for an animal?
I was on a late-night walk around campus, and indulging my habit of checking out dumpsters to see what stuff people might have thrown out. I looked into one that was only lightly filled to see a pair of glowing eyes looking back at me. The critter started to move around, and when it moved into the light I was able to see that it was a juvenile raccoon. He had apparently climbed into the dumpster, looking for an easy meal, and not realized that it was too empty for him to be able to climb back out.
“Dude worry little guy, I’ll help you out of this jam.”
I walked around for a few minutes until I found a tree branch that was long enough to reach the bottom of the dumpster. Making sure that the raccoon was safe on the other side, I stuck the branch in and leaned it up against the side. It was still about a foot short of reaching the top, so I went in search of something bigger. In the few seconds that I turned my back, I heard a noise from the dumpster. I looked back inside to find that the raccoon had managed to use the branch to climb up and escape.
I hope I get to the chance to run into that raccoon again some day. Perhaps he will remember me.
One afternoon in the month of January two days after makar sankranthi , i heard the voice of cat crying i searched in the whole house to find her but when i went to terrace to look behind house , I SAW A CAT ENTANGLED IN THREAD (MANJHA) USED TO FLY KITES AND IT WAS LITERALLY HANGING TO THE HEIGHT OF ONE FLOOR ABOVE THE GROUND .
I never had talked with the people who stay in that building . I just shouted “aunty ..aunty”
To my surprise a little girl came ..i asked her to call her mother or some one elder,she called her aunt , and after seeing the situation she immediately bought a stick and climbed her window and rescued the cat .
The cat got bruises but it survived . I thanked that heroic aunt and that little girl too .
Ps. I wasn't able to do that because there was no access from my house to the place where cat was stucked .
This is my second answer on quora . All comments and suggestions are welcomed . Peace :)
Originally Answered: What's the kindest thing you've done for an animal?
A couple of years ago I was walking my dog in the mid size city I lived in. It was summer in the deep south, with temps routinely in the 90s. Every day for a week, we passed a puppy tied on a short leash to the front porch railing of a nearby house. There was often no water, some scattered food, and tons of little poop piles. She cried loudly and panted every time we passed by.
One day, I just couldn't hack it any more. I got in my car and drove over to the house, looked both ways, ran up onto the porch, quickly snipped the puppy’s leash with scissors, and took her home. It was nerve-wracking and risky, because some shady ass people lived there. But we managed to get away clean.
Eventually, I found a no kill shelter that would take her, and kept in touch with them until she was adopted. I had to lie to the shelter, and tell her I'd found her as a stray, because technically I’d stolen her. But I thought it was likely that she would die on the porch if I didn't.
I know there were 2 little kids that lived in that house, and I felt a little bit bad about that, but not bad enough to leave her there. I don't regret it.
This is a 9/11 story, and it’s not about me. There was a big breakfast meeting at Windows of the World on the top floor. One man, who was attending with the group, noticed an injured bird in front of the church near the towers. He went up with his colleagues, but he couldn’t get the bird off his mind. So, he left the meeting, and he went downstairs to save the bird. He did not know he was also saving his life. Everyone on that floor died on that day.
I adopted him, my cat.
I was at Costco just finished shopping. As I was leaving I saw a woman with a small puppy in her hands. It was so tiny. I love dogs and cats, especially puppies and kittens. So after I got my groceries in my car I went over to check out the puppy. Well, it turned out it was a kitten. A mother cat was transporting her kittens across the parking lot and left him behind. The workers had already called animal control to get the litter and mother cat. He was so tiny and all black. After talking to the lady, I agreed to take him. I went straight to my vet and had him checked out. He was healthy but extremely dirty. I thought he was black, but that was all the oil from the parking lot. He was found under a car in a puddle of oil. I took him home and wiped him with some pet wipes. This was the first young kitten I had ever taken care of. He was only 4 weeks old. He is now going to be 7 in July. I think his mother left him behind because he has a funny walk in his back legs. Maybe she sensed that he had something wrong with him.
But I love him. His name is Squiggy.
Originally Answered: What's the kindest thing you've done for an animal?
I once found a baby squirrel in the street, unable to move, quite literally with a hawk circling overhead. It had likely been blown out of its nest by a recent storm. It didn't appear to have any broken bones so I brought it inside and gave it water, then looked online to try to estimate its age and therefore what food to give it. Despite my best efforts it only lived for about another week, but it seemed very happy during that time. It would climb up your arm and sit on your shoulder when you let it out of the cage. It was also good friends with our hamster, although they didn't see each other much with one being diurnal and the other nocturnal.
Well not for an animal but for a bird.
I was looking through my window once when I noticed a pigeon nest in the corner of my balcony, I even saw two tiny eggs in its nest.
I went to my kitchen , filled a handful of rice and emptied it in its nest.The bird started eating those grains as if it hadn't eaten for days because taking care of those eggs was just so important to it.
Since that day I always made sure that the nest was filled with grains.
Until one day I found a tiny pigeon there which filled my heart with happiness.
I was looking through my window once when I noticed a pigeon nest in the corner of my balcony, I even saw two tiny eggs in its nest.
I went to my kitchen , filled a handful of rice and emptied it in its nest.The bird started eating those grains as if it hadn't eaten for days because taking care of those eggs was just so important to it.
Since that day I always made sure that the nest was filled with grains.
Until one day I found a tiny pigeon there which filled my heart with happiness.
Originally Answered: What's the kindest thing you've done for an animal?
I have saved many animals from dying.
But I have a personal favorite. My house has a basement with small windows at the top. They look somewhat like these.
Image credits: Google
An animal got stuck in there and I thought that there must be a way I could save a life. So, out I go with a bucket and I scoop out the animal.
(Actual image taken from my backyard)
I was so proud that I saved a life. This is a memory that I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.
Hope you enjoyed!
Originally Answered: What's the kindest thing you've done for an animal?
Hmm
I love animals but I don't have a pet
I plan to adopt a dog and give it the best company once I finish my studies
And make people aware that animals feel pain too.
2 comments:
What great stories
Aren't they?!
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