Philippines Hospital Cat & Mouse
My mother-in-law got sick last week and we ended up taking her to the hospital on Thursday, April 12, 2007, at 4:00 AM in the morning. She had some abdominal infection that cleared up pretty quick once she was treated, but I was woken up by her cries of pain as Papa got her loaded into a taxi.
This was not my first experience with Philippine Hospitals. They are certainly not like American Hospitals. First of all, they hook up virtually all patients to an IV drip, and from what I could tell they do this to everyone, whether they need it or not. Broken finger? IV drip.
In the Philippines, when you check into a hospital you don’t check out until you’ve paid your bill. I think the universally given IV drip is essenitally a chain-and-ball way of keeping most people from trying to check out before they’ve been released and the IV needle removed by qualified medical personnel.
When I first visited my mother-in-law in the hospital I was amazed at how many cats were around the building. Since the hallways are not air-conditioned, only the room, the windows in the hallways are kept open to encourage a breeze to blow through. The cats simply climb through the windows. I saw one cat jump through a 5th floor window when I approached the end of the hall going to my mother-in-law’s room.
What are cats doing doing in the hospital? Good question:
This kitten spent at least thirty minutes playing with this mouse before I got bored of watching and left.
The cat woud intentionally look away from the mouse, like “I’m not watching you, this is your chance to escape” and then when the mouse did take off the kitten would let it get a couple of feet before it would take off after it and swat it like a hockey puck, sending the mouse slidding, sometimes rolling across the tiles.
While the mouse was still in pretty good shape when I got bored and left, I don’t think the mouse survived the night.
May 2nd, 2007 at 11:47 am
About the cat and mouse in the hopsital, isn’t this animal population unsanitary for a hospital? The hospital staff allow animals in? I am glad that I don’t have to go to a PI hospital! Is your Mom-in-Law feeling better? Why do they allow cats in the hospital? Sounds very unsanitary to me!