IMAGE SOURCE~©MELANIE NEER~PERSONAL PHOTO OF WHOOPI
(Originally published on Bubblews~Oct. 23, 2013, a website that no longer exists)
There's been a photo over at Facebook that has gone wildly viral. It's of a very skinny, small bedraggled kitten hugging a man's boot. The photo usually has a quote on it: "You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you."~~John Bunyan. A beautiful quote to be sure, but too bad the photographer who took the photo didn't do something for the kitten as an act of kindness
For a long time, no one knew who the photographer was and the question in most people's minds was, did the photographer save the kitten after photographing it? Well, I began a search and for awhile there I didn't come up with anything, that is until just today. The photographer's name was Graham Lavery and he took the photo while in Hoi An, Vietnam during one of the worse floods. Not only did I track who the photographer was, but found a website in which he gives a rather lengthy explanation about the photo, and consequently the fate of the kitten. The kitten's fate is not positive. Did the photographer, Mr. Lavery take the kitten, did he help it in anyway, did he at least give food to it? No, he didn't. He walked away from the kitten to leave it to it's "fate."
Here's a short quote of his explanation:
"After a brief discussion, it was decided to let nature take its course and leave the kitten to its own devices, whatever the outcome. Some will agree, some will not, but that was our decision based on our collective experiences of this planet over the years. What became of it ultimately? I can’t answer that with certainty, but I can guess." (1)
Well I'm sorry, his explanation doesn't wash with me. To my mind this was a photographer merely interested in photographing something for personal gain and turned away from possibly helping an innocent animal. I say this as I'm a photographer as well, and yes, while many of my photos have been published in the past and I did earn money from them, if I came across such a scene I couldn't simply walk away from such a similar situation, and in the past, I did indeed come across a situation, and no I didn't simply walk away.
It was very late at night back in June of 1992 and there was a torrential downpour. All through that night, I was aware of the pitiful sounds of some young kitten crying somewhere outside and it was heart-braking to listen to. Since it was so late, there was nothing I could really do, since at that hour it wouldn't have been safe for me to go out and try and find the kitten. Very, very early the next morning, it was still raining quite hard and I made the decision to try to find the kitten to at least, if anything, give the kitten some food. I went up and down my block searching and I did indeed find the kitten. She was bedraggled, rain-soaked, thin to the bones and a very young tiger-striped with white kitten, perhaps not even a month old; how she came to her homeless fate, I'll never know. My original intention was to leave some cat food for her, however one look at her changed my mind. I gently scooped her up, reassuring her that everything was all right now, and that she would be safe from life on the streets and have a home, my home. I named her Whoopi after Whoopi Goldberg and over the years, I did indeed photograph her, but in the safety and warmth of my home.
The point however, I wish to make, was that I in many ways I came across a fairly similar situation as that photographer, that is coming across an innocent creature just as bedraggled and needing some love and kindness, instead, he walked away, leaving the kitten to it's fate. How could he? How could anyone with any decency or a heart?
Image Source: ©Melanie Neer~~Photo of Whoopi, who is now in "Rainbow Bridge" UPDATE: I did a search of the website address I give below...it seems the original article has vanished as I suspect the person involved was getting a LOT of messages to him. I did manage to find this over at Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/PN.DBN.SA/posts/692623074086653
Website about the Fate Of The Kitten Begging To Be Saved In Vietnam (Includes photos of the kitten in question)
http://www.kittyarmy.com/the-fate-of-the-kitten-begging-to-be-saved-in-vietnam/ (1)
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