By Amelia Kincade

What would it feel like to be confined to a jail cell?

What would it feel like to be serving a life sentence in the most dangerous prison in Africa?  Imagine being alone every night with your guilt and regrets, frustration and fury, lost in a wasteland of despair. There would be no safe place for your mind to rest if your future was bleak and hopeless and your past filled with nothing but painful memories.

But suddenly, someone came into your life to change all that, someone you smuggled into your cell in your laundry.

Now, in the darkness of the night, you can reach under the covers and pet a warm little body that snuggles against you.  Her tiny sand-paper tongue licks your fingers, her rhythmic purr sooths your mind, and her soft silky body climbs up your chest to sleep in your arms.

Someone loves you unconditionally - maybe for the first time-and suddenly you have someone very unexpected to love – someone to play with, someone to talk to, someone to cherish and adore, someone vulnerable and fragile who needs gentle care.  This heavenly ball of fluff has a huge personality, a terrific sense of humour, and a fierce attitude.  Inside her soft marshmallow paws, she wields tiny sharp claws and she’s not afraid to use them in order to teach humans about boundaries, which always brings a few smiles to the faces of animals ten times her size.  She demands your love, respect, and constant attention – not to mention food – but in return, she gives you her unfailing devotion.  She has claimed you as the person she will love for the rest of life.  No one has ever loved you like this before.
             
What would your jail term be like then?
The nights wouldn’t seem as long, the days would be a little bit brighter, and the very idea that someone was purring in your arms and excited to see you every morning, just might change everything forever, wouldn’t it?
           
I flew to South Africa last February to find out.  There I had the incredible honour of not only speaking to the cat-loving inmates in Pollsmoor Prison, but speaking to the cats themselves.These men feel very alone in their struggle and so does the Rita Brock who is now single-handedly running and funding a programme that has spayed and neutered over 300 feral cats.          
            
I was accompanied by Carte Blanche, the most marvelous national news programme in the Southern Hemisphere.  We have yet to complete and air the piece, and now there are some new snags about bans on film crews within the prison, so the project in is particularly dire straights.

Here is the story published in the Cape Times newspaper, written by another animal advocate as she interviews Frankie, about his unlikely love for kittens.

 

Pollsmoor Inmates Feline Groovy:
A Colony of Once-feral Cats is Helping to Rehabilitate Prisoners

      By Fransje van Riel

Its busy as I pull into Pollsmoor. A steady stream of delivery trucks and passenger vehicles with uniformed officials pour into Cape Towns infamous maximum-security prison and, blending with the traffic, I prepare myself for an insight into prison life.

For me, its cats and more notably the efforts of Rita Brock and Mandy Wilson of the Cat Assistance Team (CAT) that brings me to this correctional facility today. When they initiated their project in October 2005, neither Brock nor Wilson realized that cats were playing a big role in the transformation and outlook of many prisoners. The close bonds that some of the inmates and the wardens had formed with furry felines have resulted not only in a more compassionate and caring attitude towards the cats, but to other inmates and life in general as well
     
Most of these inmates come from extremely disadvantaged and desensitized backgrounds,Brock explains. These kids grow up in an environment where survival is on top of the list and concern about animal welfare is not high on the agenda. Life is tough, gangs and drugs are a reality

We drive through the security gates and head towards maximum, a large brick building that is surrounded by fences mantled by razor wire. Windows are hidden from view behind dull looking fiberglass slates and I spot a ginger and white cat amongst some
dustbins and discarded equipment.

Gesturing towards a black and white tabby lying contently in a ray of sunlight behind the wire fence, Brock explains that cats had originally been introduced to Pollsmoor as a means to curb the explosive rodent population but that due to uncontrolled breeding, they soon became a problem themselves.

Wed heard some terrible stories about how cats were disposed of in the past, she says. There simply was no time to waste. Once necessary permission from the prison authorities had been obtained, Brock and Wilson began the almost insurmountable task of setting traps for an estimated two hundred feral cats.

Most of our weekends were spent crawling under dumpsters, rummaging around rubbish bins and checking out the drains, she says. I couldnt believe it. There were cats everywhere! But there was another aspect to the Pollsmoor felines.

When we were first alerted to the cat problem, we were not yet aware that a small number of inmates were actually keeping cats in their cells, says Brock. They were very wary of us and our cages because they worried that we had come to confiscate their cats.
 
She laughs. A lot of inmates chucked leftover food and all sorts of other rubbish through the gap down the window at us as we were busy setting the traps. Only when they realized that we were tually trying to assist them did they start helping us to find cats that still needed to be sterilized. One particular inmate was very suspicious of us when we first entered his cell,she says. But when he realized we were there to help instead of taking his cats away, he proudly pulled the blanket away and there, huddled together and purrrrrfectly content, were four cats. They looked up at me as only cats can do when you disturb them when they sleep.
       
Frankie*, who was recently released after serving a six year sentence and now works in the animal welfare community, was a self-confessed cat-hater whose life was turned around in 2003, when he came across a dying kitten lying on the cold wet prison floor. It was just after breakfast. I was asked to clean the floor in one of the single cells so I went to the toilet to find a mop."

"Suddenly I noticed that there was an awful smell. I looked around and then I saw a dead kitten lying on the ground. Next to it was another one that was still breathing and a few meters away there was a third one, crawling around looking for its mother.He smiles. I walked over and picked the little kitten up and as it looked into my eyes I just knew something had to be done. Something inside my heart said: Frankie, if it was your own child lying half dead what would you do?

Enlisting the help of another inmate, Frankie got hold of some gloves, a box, and a soft blanket. We had a library room, where it was always warm and quiet so I put the box in the cupboard. I knew I wanted to name him Miracle because he survived when his mother left him to die with his brother and sister.
     
The kitten was rushed to a nearby Veterinary Clinic, just around the corner of Pollsmoor prison and survived against all odds, which in turn was the beginning of Frankies transformation Afterr Miracle there was Hope and Coby and Oubaas. Then Georgie and Zorro and Tiger Frankies eyes light up and with a fond smile he remembers how he extricated and rescued Tiger from being caught up in barbed wire. Ja, he says. I had a lot to patients to look after. Many died but many also made it and have since been given homes.

Not all inmates shared Frankies newfound passion. Some of those gangsters made fun of me and I really felt like fighting them and doing something awful, but I just went back to my cell to be with my cats instead.

Although most of the Pollsmoor cats live outside the cells, there are approximately 40 inmate cats, all registered, monitored and cared for. They have easy access through the windows and freely wander around certain sections by slipping through the iron bars that separate the individual cells.

According to Dr Nadine Nef, who has done research, inmates at Saxerriet Prison for men in Switzerland cope better with feelings of loneliness and she has discovered that cats provide prisoners with a sense of trust without the fear of being betrayed. Nef writes in her report, In the prison world, where one does not show ones feelings, the pet offers to these men the possibility of showing and giving affection The cat allows satisfaction of a basic human need for tenderness and warmth.

            Or as one of the inmates said to her, You know, the cat helps me to survive here.

 *Name has been changed to protect Frankies identity

                  
There is a long road ahead for Rita’s team as they are still looking for support for Flea treatments, dewormers, medical supplies, vaccinations, dissolving suturing materials, bowls, toys, collars and brushes – all well cared for cats need and deserve. Financial resource is urgently needed to organize shelters for the outside colonies and help with veterinary bills.

Please help Rita help these cats!  Contact her by email:       
Cat Assistance Team: email: rijo@icon.co.za

Amelia will be back in South Africa in August 2007. For upcoming workshops on animal communication please visit her schedule page at: www.Ameliakinkade.com.