How far would you go to save an injured cat found abandoned on the middle of a road? When he found one, Vaisakhan went so far as to catch a train and take it to Kerala's capital city Thiruvananthapuram for better treatment. What aided him in that endeavour was a WhatsApp group of animal lovers.
On Saturday morning, Vaisakhan, a territory manager with a private cellular operator, was on his way to office at Kozhencherry, a small town in Pathanamthitta district . The time was around 10.30 a.m. and he was already running late for an official meeting. At Thekkemala, he found the bleeding cat on the middle of the road.
“It was apparently hit by a vehicle. I thought it was dead and stopped my motorbike to shift it to the roadside to prevent it being crushed by vehicles. But when I went close, it raised its head. So, I took it to the government veterinary hospital nearby. They gave a few injections and said that they could not do much more,” says Vaisakhan.
He left the cat there for treatment and went to his office. On the way, he messaged a WhatsApp group of animal lovers about the cat’s condition. V.K. Narayanan, an Assistant Manager at the Reserve Bank of India in Thiruvananthapuram, responded to it. He put Vaisakhan in touch with Mukesh Kukku, who is part of the Street Dog Watch Association in Kovalam.
“I told him I can help him in rescuing the cat if he could bring it here in Kovalam, where we are running an animal rescue facility,” says Mukesh.
On the way back from office in the evening, Vaisakhan went to the hospital, put the cat safe inside a carton and boarded the next train to Thiruvananthapuram.
Late on Saturday night, Narayanan, Mukesh and his friend Vijin were at the Thiruvananthapuram railway station to receive the cat. Mukesh and Vijin then took the cat to their facility in Kovalam, where the cat is now recovering.
“The cat has got a serious injury on its back. It is also pregnant,” says Mukesh.
