Carri-Anne Jane had no clue how far she would go to come home with some very crucial additional luggage when she moved to Dubai for an internship in the fall of 2017.
Jane observed a little cat loitering outside the door to her apartment building in October, immediately after she moved in. She bent down to feed the cat, assuming the frequent visitor was searching for a meal, and received an unexpected response.
The white cat with brown markings rejected the food and preferred to interact with people.
“I sat down to try and show [the food] to him and he hopped up on my lap, snuggled into a ball and contently started purring,” Jane told The Dodo. “That was a definite, ‘Houston, we have a problem’ moment. No other street cats I’d encountered had ever done that.”
Jane and the cat immediately formed a bond and settled into a new routine — the little cat would run up to greet her with a friendly meow whenever Jane returned from work. Jane started calling the cat Eleven, a reference to the character from the Netflix show “Stranger Things,” but the name never seemed to fit the cat’s affectionate personality.
The small cat had a heart-shaped marking on his side, which Jane’s roommate noticed one day. When the cat snuggled up to cuddle Jane, the heart became even more obvious. The cat’s exterior completely mirrored his inside, which astonished Jane, prompting her to swiftly alter his name.
He had the largest heart a kitty could have, added Jane, adding that he was really loving and friendly. He developed the quality of bravery because of his willingness to put his love and heart in me.
By December, Jane knew she couldn’t leave Braveheart behind, and took him to the vet to make sure he was healthy enough to bring back to South Africa. While Braveheart was found to be slightly underweight, he was deemed ready to fly.
“I realized that I wouldn’t be able to leave this soul behind and would spend the rest of my life wondering about that cat on the street in Dubai,” Jane said.
However, transporting the former street cat to her home in Cape Town would be far more difficult than Jane expected.
“My first quote from a South African company was R 44,000 [$3,095],” Jane said. “I did cheekily respond to that with, ‘Is he flying back in first class?’ That moment, however, cemented what he meant to me. I was devastated as R 44,000 was simply not in our budget and I couldn’t leave him behind.”
Without using an expert animal transport company, Jane started to look into what it would take to get Braveheart from the United Arab Emirates to South Africa.
Although Jane’s own research would reduce the cost of Braveheart’s flight and export charges, she still needed to find a method to pay for everything, so she turned to social media and launched a crowdfunding campaign for Braveheart.
Midway through January, as the time for Braveheart’s immunizations drew near, Ray Leathern, Jane’s husband, sold his mountain bike to assist with meeting their minimal goal. By the time we stopped the campaign for Braveheart on February 28, 2018, we had raised slightly under R 20,000, according to Jane. “On March 1st, he boarded his journey home.” Braveheart arrived at home after 16 hours of arduous effort.
Although Braveheart’s parents are overjoyed to have him as a permanent resident, they are taking their time acclimating the cat to his new surroundings. Braveheart’s adjustment to his new life as a spoiled pet and to his cat sister has taken a few months, according to Jane.
After living on the streets for a while, Jane said, “it’s been an adjustment for him to be brought inside and flown on [his] own for nearly half a day to arrive at a strange new environment with different flora and wildlife and a resident cat.” “
“If we treated a human as such they’d be in the fetal position rocking in the corner, so we give him the time and respect to get to know his new home.”
After living in South Africa for seven months, Braveheart has finally begun to acclimatize, surprise his parents with his upbeat, jovial disposition. When he sets his mind to anything, he is little obsessed, talks a lot, and is really energetic, according to Jane.
He is drawn to heat sources of all kinds he has no undercoat to deal with the heat in Dubai. He enjoys using a cunning side-paw movement to get food off your dish.
The small cat still wears his heart on his sleeve, or more precisely, his hair, despite all the changes.
Helping Braveheart get to South Africa was stressful, but Jane felt that it was well worth it. “It was never intended to make our lives better. His needed to be improved, Jane stated. “I want to give him the greatest life I can. By providing him with a safe environment and all he needs to be happy, including affection whenever he wants it, his fundamental needs will be addressed.
