We officially love Kimchi.
Naturally, we also have developed an affinity for the korean variety of spiced and fermented cabbage that anyone who knows anything about Korea knows about, but what I am referring to is this:
This is a Kimchi. More precisely, this is Kimchi (with a capital K). At the time of writing, we have had her for just over 10 days. She has just started to warm up to us, which is to be expected.
Here's the story: as some of you know very well, Hannah and I (especially Hannah) have been looking for a pet kitty for some time. The difficulty, however, was finding a mature cat (over a year old) that has been neutered. Bonus points for difficulty: NOT a pure-bred cat! What we wanted, ideally, was a stray cat that was fixed at a shelter... however, the only animal shelter in Busan (more precisely Gimhae) deals only with dogs. No cats. At all. The nearest cat shelter is in Daegu- 3 hours to the both by Korail, and even then it's no guarantee!
We have tried a number of animal hospitals around our area, including the one with the French-speaking vet, and even went very far afield to Gimhae City (2 hours away by Busan transit) to see a cat breeder, only to find tonnes and tonnes of WAY too tiny kittens and overpriced, sexually functional pure bred cats. Not exactly fulfilling work, but we did see a surprising amount of the city through our searches.
Eventually, I got annoyed from expending all of this effort for no gain and emailed the aforementioned animal shelter (BAPS: Busan Animal Protection Shelter) to inquire about cats. After all, maybe they had some that were not mentioned. After a mere 3 hours, they replied and affirmed that they had no cats. HOWEVER, they are associated with a vet near Dongeuil University who might have some info about cats. So, YAY!, now I had an "in", as I like to say.
About 4 days later, I was put in contact with the vet who, as luck would have it, had a client with a stray cat that she had taken in. The cat had been neutered only 7 days prior and had recently finished weaning her litter of kittens. After very short deliberation with Hannah (who was thrilled), we arranged to meet that weekend.
Shortly after arriving at the vet's office, the lady with the cat arrived with a bright yellow pet carrier. We were both excited and nervous. Now, I won't go into the minutia of our first impressions of the cat we would later name Kimchi, but suffice it to say she was quite nervous too. By this, I mean she was terrified and ought out every hiding place available in the vet's office! I said that "Maybe she's a racist cat", which the vet found highly amusing! After hearing her story, her behaviour was not exactly a surprise:
Kimchi is a former stray cat who was living in a storage locker somewhere on the opposite side of town from us. Apparently the lady inherited the locker from a relative and had been feeding the cat for the better part of a year. We heard from the vet that out Kimchi was "very famous" in her neighbourhood for being a very friendly and social cat; so much so that the owners of the storage complex gave special permission for the cat to live in the locker. In this locker the had a litter of four kittens about four months ago and had been tending to them in there.
Home, sweet house
However, the winter (until very recently) has been much colder than usual in Busan and the storage complex owners insisted that the cat had to be removed... so the lady renting the locker took the cat in and gave away the kittens. She kept the cat for 10 days and got her neutered with the intention of keeping her as a pet; however, she was very hostile toward her other two pet cats, so she decided to give her away for adoption. So, really, at the time of meeting her, Kimchi had been through a lot in a very short time period! Separated from her kittens, taken to a new home, neutered, and being given away to another home in under two weeks. Poor bugger.
Once we got a good look at her, my biologist/future medical doctor "instincts" came out and I gave her an examination. No infections, no mites, no exoparasites, well-nourished.... just scared as all hell. Hannah and I eventually decided that she would calm down after a while and agreed to adopt her. Here's the extra-special late-Christmassy part: the lady agreed to give her away for 100,000KRW (about 85$ CDN), however, she loved her so much that she did not want any of this money for herself! Rather, she would GIVE Kimchi to us with the condition that we spent 100,000KRW at the vet for supplies for the cat- stuff that we were going to buy anyway! How could we refuse that?!
And so, we loaded up with food, toys, and litter, and went to the subway. We got a LOT of stares from the other people on the subway! Eventually, we brought the cat home and, before unleashing the cat on our apartment, I insisted on some christening words: "I DECLARE THIS THE NEW APARTMENT FOR OUR WAYWARD KITTY! RELEASE.... THE KITTY!!!"
...for those who do not understand the reference. ((NOTE! Do NOT watch this if you are easily frightened or suffer extreme vertigo))
And so, with great fanfare and rejoicing, our new kitty.... stayed in her carrier for the next 3 hours. A little anti-climactic. After a while, we fished her out.... and she ran under the TV stand for ANOTHER 4 hours. Then, we got annoyed, fished her out, and blockaded the spot... but she found another: a small cubby hole in the shelf. "Fine", we thought, and let her wait it out there for the next 6 hours. Some time in the night, she EXPLODED in her litter box and devoured her food. She would remain in her cubby hole for the next 2 days.
...and every other possible hiding place in between
Now, she will let us pet her without flinching and even plays with her mouse-on-a-rope! She is still a while away from coming up to us for affection and cuddling us at night, but at least she is out of her cubby hole!
Of course, now she's always on Hannah's chair in the corner
So, to conclude, we now have our kitty! Sometimes, you just have to ask! If any expats reading this want to get their own kitty or puppy in Busan, make sure you contact BAPS (or ShinDOGS). They are run by expat volunteers and so speak English, which makes things a hell of a lot smoother! I totally intend to give them a cash donation.
Hannah in a moment of elation
