Mikesch came to us on the 3rd of October
1997. My husband found him on his way back from a pub. An old gentleman was stroking a cat and my husband asked
whether the cat was ok. The gentleman replied that the cat had just been run over by a car and
was bleeding out of nose and mouth. They put him on a safe spot, but when my husband came home I urged him to
go back with a box and bring the poor cat home to us. As the cat could not drink my husband spent all night
wetting his mouth and looking after him. The cat crawled on my husband's chest and slept there purring away. The next
morning, a Saturday, we took the cat to our vet and he was diagnosed with a broken jaw. We informed the local
vets to contact us in case someone was looking for a cat. Since nobody asked for him the tom-cat stayed with us
and we called him Mikesch, after the cat hero of a German children's story - Kater Mikesch.
Mikesch was operated on the following Monday, the vet thought that he was at least 8 - 9 years old.
On Tuesday evening we brought him back home and from then on we had an upstairs / downstairs household. Cat upstairs,
dog downstairs. Our GSD Bonnie, who had joined our family
1/2 year prior to Mikesch did not like cats, however she could not walk up the stairs. Mikesch was still so traumatised from his accident that he did
not dare to leave his room or come downstairs. He stayed upstairs in his room (he occupied the second biggest bedroom
in the house - our previous guest bedroom) and in my home office (the biggest bedroom in the house).
His physical problems went, but he stayed very shy and did not show any initiative to go anywhere else than in these two rooms.
For hours he would sit beside my office chair or sleep on a second chair by the window in my office.
His life only changed after Bonnie went back to Spirit and Ben came into our life.
Ben and Mikesch developed a deep friendship. Mikesch brought the little puppy up and taught him how to
behave towards cats. Ben in returned showed Mikesch much love and eventually after a few months Mikesch started
to follow Ben downstairs and a few weeks later even into the garden. From then on he went outside every day for his
personal hygiene and also went to the children's playground for cuddles as the neighbour's kids told us.
Ben and Mikesch loved to share their pieces of fish.
In winter 2000/2001 Mikesch sadly fell ill with a tumor in his lower abdomen. Ben watched over him
on Mikesch's last days on this earth and cleaned his coat for the journey back to Spirit.
Mikesch returned to Spirit in the evening of the 24th of March 2001. Ben was the first one to notice
that Mikesch had gone and I could feel it by observing Ben's reaction.
Ben fell into a deep depression after his beloved Mikesch had gone. In order to lift his spirit we adopted
Lea in November 2001. Ben loves Lea very much,
but I feel that he has only really been happy again since the two
kittens Rosie and Jacob have joined our family.
