RIP Pero

This past weekend brought to me a series of small wins.  For the PCVs in Macedonia, March 1 marked the first date that we were allowed to travel out of country.  Some of my good friends took advantage of that opportunity and decided to travel to Pristina in Kozovo for the weekend.  Others enjoyed the Macedonian holiday of Prochka (the equivalent of Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras) by attending the largest carnival for the holiday in Strumica.

I was invited to both excursions, but declined the invitations since I was called to attend a last-minute preparation meeting for Go Clean in Skopje.  Despite missing these cultural opportunities, I think that I enjoyed my trip more than I would have enjoyed the others because it reinforced my feelings of being busy and helpful to my organization.  Even though I was exhausted by the endless meetings and traveling in Skopje, I was also invigorated since I really enjoy working on projects like this. 

Working at the Go Clean office

From Skopje, I took a bus to Lozovo to visit my host family from PST.  My host mother in Lozovo has the same birthday as my mother (March 4), and I decided to visit her since I had missed the opportunity to travel to Lozovo for Macedonian Christmas.  Before leaving Skopje, my counterpart pushed our departure time as late as possible, even though she knew that I needed to stop at the grocery store before departing to buy food and presents for my old host family.  With the five minutes we had, we dashed from the supermarket to the bus station and luckily caught the bus just before it was exiting the lot.  We had to stand in the aisle since the bus was packed, but I think my counterpart and I pushed our luck to the edge on this occasion.  Once in Lozovo, my family and I chatted, ate some delicious sarma, and watched her grandson, Vedran. 

Happy Birthday to Jagoda!

I returned to Prilep just as the parade was ending for Prochka.  Tired and burdened with my bags from traveling, I skipped the festivities and headed home to unpack and clean my apartment.  When I became situated back in Prilep with my host family, my host mother informed me that Pero was “no longer with us”.  He had passed away on Friday in the morning.  It was very sad to hear, since he was fine for the week preceding his death.  However, when I left early on the morning on Friday for Skopje, I saw him on the terrace, shivering and giving me a painful stare, only making very weak meows.  I thought that he was just tired or maybe mildly sick, but I had no time on Friday to stop and pet him.  I feel very bad that I had no time to say goodbye.

In many ways I felt blessed to have Pero with us.  He was not my cat, so I would have no guilt about leaving him here when I returned to the USA.  However, I of course had the benefit of having a cat while serving in the Peace Corps.  But I did not think that he would die so soon.  The cause of death is a mystery to me since he was my host family let him outdoors everyday.  Once when I was hanging out in my apartment with friends, Pero was with us, and he was very sick.  After eating a bit of food, he threw up on the floor the food he had eaten along with live worms.  At times when I was sleeping, the shrill screams of cats fighting right outside our front door would wake me.  I would often hear a cat falling from the metal awning, and I only hoped that it was not Pero that fell.  Pero also likely had a female cat that he was going with, so he may have caught something nasty from her.

RIP Pero

In the end, his passing was quick, but not altogether unexpected.  Pets like cats and dogs have their own personalities, and I was very sad to hear that my “little host brother” had left us so soon.  I was even more surprised to hear that even before I returned from my trip, my host family had adopted another cat.  He is small and cute, but it is tough for me to replace a cat with another so soon.  I also hope that he does not have the same, quick fate as Pero.