Mercy Mission

May 20 cont...

I got to the bottom and came to yet another fork that had no markers.
I figured I needed to go sideways across the valley – according to my interpretation of the map anyway – but when I finally got to a road and asked someone where I was, they pointed to a place on the map that was radically off track!

I was hobbling along, shaking my head and asking myself and Kobo Daishi, yet again, how I could have got it so wrong, when I heard some screechy animal sounds.
I went toward the noises and found two adorable but obviously abandoned baby kittens beside a bus stop. They would have only been a few days old and were very clearly hungry, and one had mucky eyes.
I looked around. There were no dwellings nearby and certainly no Mother cat.
I picked them up and carried them with me wondering what the heck I was going to do now.

I saw an elderly couple walking dogs and when the woman started talking to another woman in her frontyard, I approached the man. I indicated to him that I had found the kittens, that there was no Mother and I didn’t know what to do. He just looked at me vaguely and I realized there was no way he was going to get engaged in this drama.

As soon as I had picked them up, they stopped screeching and even though they snuffled and looked for milk, they seemed quite content – as if they had complete faith in me.

I tried to think of options and decided I had no choice but to leave them somewhere ‘kind’ looking and hope for the best.
I scoped back yards and doorways but with no luck.
It was now really hot, my feet had a contract out and were killing me and I still had no idea where I was but, strangely, it had become very quiet and peaceful and there was not a soul around.

Eventually, in the distance, I could see a person bent over tending a large roadside garden. The car the person had was small but new and the garden was very well kept and orderly. I spied a small garden shed a little way from the gardener, who was intent on what they were doing. The door was slightly ajar.

With a mixture of nervousness and rightness, I snuck over to the shed and placed the kittens gently in a triangle of sun just inside the door of the shed. Oddly, they didn’t make a sound as I left them and quickly went back onto the road.

I didn’t dare look over toward the gardener as I passed but put my hands together and said a Gya Tei and prayed that I had made the right decision and that the dear little things would be looked after.

Gambette Little Ones...