Mr. Kittles

My husband and I were walking down the hill from our hotel in Spain. It was sunny and warm that day (don't be fooled, it was winter) and we decided to have a look around. Suddenly, I spotted a little black cat walking along the wall on the other side of the street. I previously had some bad luck with another cat that hissed at me when I approached it on our first day in Benalmadena. But nonetheless, I walked up to this one without any fear as it was much smaller. He meowed and let me pet him. I was so happy! I'm very fond of animals (ok that's an understatement) and was glad he was friendly. I don't know if he was a boy or a girl because I forgot to check but I immediately dubbed him "Mr. Kittles" like I do with so many cats (every cat).
It saddened me when I pet him, he was very thin and hungry. Strays are quite common in Spain, really we only saw cats. I could feel the vertebrae in his back. Of course I wanted to feed him but we had no food for him. So we decided that we probably wouldn't see him again and we would have to leave him be.

I know this sounds mean and it was hard for us to do, but we both agreed that we couldn't save every stray as we were just tourists and we had nothing to offer him. I so badly wanted to scoop him up in my arms and take him to the hotel. We would have let him have a warm place to sleep and food to eat until we could find a good shelter for him or at least have him undergo the TNR (Trap-Neuter-Release) program.
However, our hotel did not allow pets so we had no choice but to leave him where he was. He seemed chipper enough, although he was too skinny for how young he was. I wish we could have done more for him.

A couple of days went by and I would call for him when we went walking about, but he never showed up.
We talked about how funny it would be if we were to see our little friend while we were out. We then decided to try this grocery store we had passed by several times. We were hesitant to go in because we didn't know if you had to be a member to purchase items. Our delay turned out to be for the best...
All of a sudden, a little black cat walked up from behind the corner and looked at us. It was Mr. Kittles!
We were both surprised as we weren't expecting to see him again, but there he was, friendly as can be.
And very hungry.The automatic doors opened as we were about to walk in and Zoom! Mr. Kittles dashed in before we could stop him. I ran after him as the cashiers and a woman were trying to get his attention.
Finally I was able to catch up to him because he walked up to who I believe was the manager and began meowing. I picked him up and the man asked me if it was my cat but I tried to tell him no even though I didn't speak Spanish very well. I took him outside and the woman who was trying to get his attention was waiting out there with my husband. She was holding a bag of cat food and some little containers of wet cat food as well. She opened one of the containers and set it down next to him. I have never seen a cat eat so fast in my life. My husband and I were so happy and told the woman "Thank you". We walked away and let him enjoy his meal. We hugged each other and smiled and hoped that he would be alright.

I'm very grateful, and still am, to this wonderful woman. Kindness is not something given out spontaneously, even though it should be. So few people in this world would have done the same for this hungry little cat.
To be kind, just for the sake of it, is one of the best qualities a person can have. That woman had cats of her own and she was able to be sympathetic to this poor kitten because of that. I cant say if she would have done it regardless, but of course having cats of her own might have made her all the more sympathetic towards him.

We never saw him again, but I hope he is doing alright. I hope that people are being friendly towards him.
I hope he knows that even though he's what so many would call "just a stray", I love him and there are many of us that feel the same.