From Ramatex to Texas: Ezzy’s amazing journey

ESMERALDA, or Ezzy as she is affectionately called, is a young female cat who has had an amazing life.

She was rescued by the Cat Protection Society from a living hell at the former Ramatex textile factory in Windhoek, was considered ‘unadoptable’ and yet she has found a loving home and new life on a ranch in Texas in the United States. In April 2008 the CPS was called to the Ramatex factory in Windhoek, which had closed down a couple of months earlier. The foreign workers had all returned home but they had left behind more than 100 cats. Some were tame; others a bit wary of people and others totally wild. Most of the cats had been kept in cages or locked up in rooms. Many had starved to death in the locked rooms.The CPS rescued close to 100 cats, but about half of them had to be put down, as they were in a terrible condition or simply too wild to re-home. After most of the cats had been rescued, the CPS volunteers found a few more in the kitchen area of the factory. Ezzy was about nine months old and starving. She had just had a litter of kittens that had all died due to malnutrition. She was very weak and not suited for adoption right away. Ezzy was also not adjusting to the CPS cattery, as she had not been around people who cared for her before. She was constantly hissing and growling at the other cats and at people and the fear that she might die or not be adopted became very real. The people of the CPS were not sure what to do with Ezzy.Luckily for Ezzy, Dr Debbie LeBeau-Spence, who was a CPS member while living in Namibia before, was visiting the country again.She told the CPS that she was willing to look after any cats in need during her stay here. It was decided that she would foster Ezzy until she became stronger or until a suitable home could be found for her. ‘When Ezzy first came to stay with me, she was very frightened. She had never lived in a home and had never been in close contact with people. She was afraid to be picked up or petted, and crouched in fear when I walked past her.’’After six weeks of living in a quiet house with just me, Ezzy would greet me at the door when I came home with ‘murrrr, murrrr’, which I took to mean ‘where have you been all day?’,’ Dr LeBeau-Spence told The Namibian.Ezzy slowly became more and more used to people and even started playing and sleeping on the bed. When the six-week stay was over Ezzy was a fat, lovable cat and although the CPS promised to find her a good home, Dr LeBeau-Spence could not leave her and decided to take Ezzy back with her to the Silver Fern Ranch near El Paso, Texas. After some arrangements Ezzy flew via Germany to Atlanta where she was cleared and could enter the USA. During the flights across the US, Ezzy was kept in a sort of gym bag in the plane with her owner and after a long day of plane changes and an hour’s drive from the airport she was finally home. There are no cages, gates or fences on the 50-acre Silver Fern Ranch, which Ezzy now shares with five other cats and a dog.The four other cats are also from Namibia – Dr LeBeau-Spence took them with her when she returned to the US in 2006.She had lived in Namibia for 16 years and was a volunteer at the CPS, caring for many cats and kittens.’A typical day for Ezzy is to get out of our bed, make sure there is food and water aplenty, go outside for a morning romp, come back in and sleep (on our bed), go for an afternoon walk through the bush with me and the other cats and dog, have some more food, play catch with each other in the bushes, help with whatever tasks we are doing around the house, have more food and naps, and then chase each other around playing catch in the early evening sunset. Then it is time to go into the house for more food and naps and play with toys until time for bed,’ says Dr LeBeau-Spence.- For more photos see also page 6.* Another former Ramatex cat, Soekie, who was advertised in The Namibian last week, has been adopted by a Belgian pilot working on contract for Air Namibia. When his contract is finished, Soekie will fly home with him to Brussels, Belgium.