After 3 hours on the bus from KL, we arrived in Pekan. Having only had communication via Facebook we were a tad nervous that we wouldn’t  get picked up from the bus stop on arrival. I managed to speak to someone, who told us to hang ten, so we sought refuge from the sun in a local cafe. When it came to paying the bill our money was refused with a smile, and the local lady with her hand on her heart intimated it was a gift to us.  A lovely touch and it gave us a good feeling about the ensuing fortnight in Pekan.

A pick up truck came to collect us and we met another volunteer, a local Malay girl Alicia, and Izan, the sister of Luke the owner of the shelter.

Becky had read a few reviews on a volunteering website regarding the Dato Shamsiah Cat Shelter Park in  Pekan, and all the reviews had been good. Despite being very adaptable and versatile, it’s sometimes easy to forget that we are more than 20 years older than a lot of people travelling who write these reviews, and we have a little bit more baggage than them in the form of two children, so when it comes to roughing it we aren’t as robust as they may be!

As we pulled into the driveway of our homestay there were two french girls also volunteers, who greeted us. On entering the premises I quickly realised that this was basic at it’s most primitive. The house comprised of 4 adjacent rooms with a shared kitchen. The bedrooms were open face brick and painted in garish colours that had faded over the years. They were dimly lit which gave them a prison like feel, and comprised of ancient sagging beds  with paper thin mattresses that looked like someone had died on them. Both bathrooms had leaking cisterns and wet concrete floors.

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I really wasn’t sure how long we’d last in these conditions. As timing went you couldn’t have made it up: As I was unpacking my bags I got a message from my mate Steve bragging about eating caviar and drinking Dom Perignon  in first class flying to New York, and was he  just about to take a shower..on the plane! Here I was 10,000 feet below him on terra firma and I had a shower akin to a rusty watering can. I tried get into my ‘ ..but this is such a great life experience’  mindset, but I would’ve  given my right arm at that moment to be dining on caviar and sipping DP!

The shelter was started by Luke a few years back to look after abandoned and injured cats, but along the way he also taken in dogs, geese, chickens and goats. Sadly Luke had been stuck with a very rare skin disease which caused him to be bedridden, so the shelter was really in the hands of the volunteers. Luke had also managed to get some land from the government  – it was a small island where the volunteers were building some basic huts and the ultimate dream was to house all the animals on “Meow Island”.

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The cat shelter was a small walk from our homestay. There was one big cat area where there were about 30 cats; some were in a separate enclosure due to illness. There were cats of all shapes and sizes, two that only had 3 legs, one that was dragging a broken leg behind it – it was  like dawn of the dead but the cat version, not quite the cute little kittens and cats we’d experienced at the Animal Welfare on Tioman Island.

We quickly saw that the shelter really was in vital need of some veterinary expertise and some continuity and guidance regarding help.  The work consisted of cleaning all the animal enclosures, preparing food, feeding and watering, and most of all medicating the sick animals which was the hardest part. Medication wasn’t in great abundance and we weren’t professional vets. We did a morning and an evening shift, each about 2 hours and then had to man the second hand shop during the day.   The kids saw through the squalor of our surroundings and enjoyed caring for the animals – again a lesson in the resilience of kids compared to us adults and how different perceptions of situations can be.

On our first day a very sick kitten was brought back to the homestay as it wasn’t in great shape, and died later in the evening. Unfortunately it wasn’t going to be the last cat we buried over our stay.

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There was a shift in personal after two days. I think Rico was sad to see the French girls go as he had coped an eyeful of one of them topless as he passed their room and was left wide eyed and speechless!

It was just the four of remaining, along with a fantastic couple: Vince who was a French, and his Spanish fiancee Maria. It was quite daunting as we weren’t entirely sure what we were doing. To add to this I wasn’t feeling great; feverish, lethargic, lack of appetite, and had to sit out the afternoon shift. I had an awful night: sweats, all over body aches and a bit delirious. The following morning I took myself to the local hospital for blood tests which showed my white blood cell (WBC) count was low as was my platelet count: pointing towards dengue fever.  Izan gave me papaya leaves to boil up and drink and I was made a pot of crab and citronella soup – both local remedies for dengue. I rested and drank loads of water and felt slightly better.  Further blood tests at the hospital had confirmed it was dengue fever, but my WBC readings were steading which was a good sign.

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It all got too much for Becky. The lack of sleep, the heat, the grimy conditions and above all the amount of energy, mainly emotional, invested in the project; she was worried about what could happen to me, and on top of that Tiana’s numerous mosquito bites had become infected due to her scratching.  I just wanted to get out, but Becky being the person she is, was  torn, because if we left it would have put a lot of pressure on Vince and Maria, and there were some very sick cats – one of whom Becky was personally caring for throughout the night. Becky is normally the stronger one between us, and it was horrible seeing her breakdown.

Whether it was the revolting papaya leaves, the crab soup or my immune system, something was working, and  I felt I had turned the corner, and despite my symptoms being the start of dengue with apparently the worst yet to come I felt stronger. My WBC and platelet readings started to recover and the Dr said I should be fine.

We were seriously being tested on many levels, but we persevered and plodded on.

Each day brought new challenges and problems. The shelter also housed 7 dogs: 4 males and 3 females which were kept separately in fairly small enclosures, but the only alternative was that they were on the street and likely to be shot as they are not regarded as domesticated animals in Malay culture. 3 of the dogs were very timid and couldn’t be touched or approached. The others were walked for 10 minutes each morning and evening around the surrounding alleyways and understandably the dogs went berserk around walking time and had to be kept on a tight leash. We had one instance of a dog attacking a cat and had to prize the poor feline out of its mouth and on another occasion a duck was on the receiving end but got bitten quite badly with us requiring to perform a patch up job.

Tiana had been nursing a kitten, the runt of the litter, but he seemed to be deteriorating.  It was decided to bring him back to the homestay which was becoming an extension of the sanctuary! Tiana fed the little guy goats milk through a tiny syringe. He appeared to be getting better, but the following morning we found him out of his little bed and was lying in vomit. T cleaned him up and sat with him for the day, but it was clear he wasn’t going to make it. It was heartbreaking watching our little girl cradling this helpless kitten in her hands, tears cascading on to it until he took his final breath. We explained to her that the kitten could not have had a better send off than what she gave him, and he had died feeling loved and not alone, but Tiana was inconsolable…another harsh life lesson.

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I got stronger by the day, but Vince took a turn for the worse, and it was his turn to carry the sick baton. Blood tests were inconclusive and he was worried about Malaria after having had it in Mozambique several months earlier.

Despite all the illness and  sick animals, there were some good times in-between! The kids loved bonding and playing with the cats, and they struck up a great relationship with Vince and Maria. Evenings we all cooked together and could lament on the days goings on.

Over the course of our stay we saw Luke a bit more. He really was a marvellous man with a heart of gold, and he broke down telling us how helpless he felt with his disease and how much the shelter meant to him.

We were due to stay for 2 weeks, but decided to cut 3 days off our stay once we made sure there was a proper hand over to 2 new volunteers. It was sad to leave, and Luke and his sister were eternally grateful for our work, but we couldn’t wait to sleep in a proper bed and have a decent shower, after a very testing time.

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