The Team Sherpa Blog

Last Sunday I buckled up my new shoes, took a compass in hand and headed on to discover the local Laxou-forest. When I made it to the forest, the first thing I noticed was that I had entered a completely different zone of plantation. There were hardly any pinetrees or other conifers that I am used to seeing in a Finnish forest. Instead, there were oaks and other noble leaftrees everywhere, and ivies crawling up on their branches. The forest wasn’t nearly as thick as I’m used to, and the spring sun shone brightly to the paths on the forest floor.

I also spotted many birds that were unfamiliar to me, but otherwise the animals of the forest were hiding during the day. I enjoyed the crispy air, walking alone and thinking my own thoughts. I hummed a finnish song, when I suddenly heard a noise from a couple of meters on the right side of the path, behind a fallen tree. It sounded like an animal in trouble. Since I’m very fond of all kinds of animals, I took a course to see what was happening over there.

Crouching silently towards the fallen tree i could see a piece of fur between the tree roots. There was a small kitten hiding! I got down to the ground and started to calmly speak to the kitten, trying to get her to come to me. At first she glanced at me in suspicion, but after a short while she ran into my arms. When I tried to put her down to the ground, she absolutely refused the idea end cling on to me with all four paws. She was obviously lost in the forest, and hadn’t eaten for a few days. Unfortunately I didn’t have anything to give her.

Now I was in a bit of trouble. In a strange country with a lost cat in my lap. Since I couldn’t see a better solution to the situation, I took the cat to my arms and started walking out of the forest. The cat didn’t like being held against my chest, but instead climbed up to my shoulder and decided that it was a good place to observe the world. So there we walked through the forest, me talking calmingly to the cat and she sitting on my backpack/shoulder, digging her little claws to my jacket.

When we reached the forest border, I started systematically to knock on doors, hoping that somebody would open. In the third house there were people having a Sunday meeting between the neighbours, and they promised to help me with the cat. We gave some food to her and tried to call the local Animal Rescue, but since it was Sunday, there was nobody. So they promised to keep the cat for a couple of nights and try to reach the Animal Rescue. The kitten obviously belonged to somebody, because it was at ease with people and hat a flea collar around it’s neck.

I just received a phone call from the people who took the cat, and it has been taken to the local animal shelter. Hopefully it will find it’s rightful owners, or another loving home. People, if you let your cats run outdoors, at least put on them a collar with your phone number. Returning the cat would have been so easy, if somebody had done that.

Here are some pictures of Laila, the cat