A Little Cat Can Change a Campo

A Little Cat Can Change a Campo
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: What I Learned from the Cat
By Mei Emerald Gaffey-Hernandez

Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose.
~Garrison Keillor

It was my first week in my new Peace Corps assignment in a small campo in the Dominican Republic. I had just moved in with my new host family, and was feeling fairly alienated by my less than mediocre Spanish. Communication was difficult and frustrating. I had never been a cat person before, but the family had a kitten that was a few weeks old running around the house; it was a small boney thing of fluff that had just shown up one day. It was white, with a black patch over one eye; very sweet. It didn’t speak Spanish either... we bonded instantly.

That week, on my trip into the local town, I purchased a bag of cat food to bring back to the undernourished kitten. I thought nothing of this action, as I assumed the cat was small because my host family was too poor to buy food for her, and that they would be pleased by the contribution. I had no idea the repercussions of this action would reverberate throughout the entire community. (Keep reading)