Today's opening hours: Gut Aiderbichl Henndorf: 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p. m. | Gut Aiderbichl Deggendorf: 9:00 a.m. - 6: 00 p.m. | Gut Aiderbichl Iffeldorf: 9:00 a.m. - 6: 00 p.m.

Farewell to Cat Luka

Monika Ruzicska, the manager of Gut Aiderbichl Traisen, contacted us at the administration office in Salzburg with a strained voice. The shock was still in her bones, you could clearly hear that in the conversation.

"We had to say goodbye to our friend today: Luka has passed away!" were her words and an awkward silence followed on the phone.

We like to remember the day of his birth. His mother Patsy had been rescued a few weeks earlier together with Ruby and her puppies by an animal welfare activist and brought them to us at Gut Aiderbichl. In our care, the cheeky little tomcat saw the light of day. After the completion of the donkey house with its animal living room, he became the first inhabitant of the cat enclosure together with his siblings, cousins and conspecifics. Even then it was noticeable that he got along better with people than with his own kind. Over time, this became worse and worse and he began to terrorise his family massively. In order to defuse the situation for everyone, we decided to move him to Gut Aiderbichl France. Here, he would have much more space, more room to run around and could easily avoid the other cats.

But 60 hectares surrounded by a 2.5 metre high wall was not enough for Luka, here too he began to terrorise and attack our cats. Maybe he felt misunderstood? Did he want to be a single cat? In addition, he kept having problems with his bronchial tubes, which was an additional hurdle.

We couldn't help it: Luka had to move again, but where to? When Monika Ruzicska and her team heard about him, they wanted to take up the challenge and took on the project "Make Luka happy".

 

He quickly got used to being there. Our carers did everything they could to make sure that he was well, that he was busy and that he got the love he needed. His lung problems could also be treated well there and he seemed to enjoy "walking on the leash". He was always a docile pupil.

 

At no time in the last few months he had any serious health problems that would have been cause for concern. All the blood tests were also unremarkable, so we were all the more shocked when we found Luka sitting in his cardboard box. He didn't seem to react to anything. Immediately, Monika Ruzicska's team packed up the cat and took him to the veterinary hospital. The shocking diagnosis followed immediately: a ruptured liver tumour and acute kidney failure.

There was no more cure for our beloved Luka and with heavy hearts we now had to say goodbye to our little rowdy. "Luka was something special. Somehow he was more human than cat. He was always friendly towards us, was curious and was always happy to be petted. Every day he told us "stories" and always made us laugh. We will miss you very much, little Luka" (Monika Ruzicska, about Luka the cat).

"Darkness is now around you, from this hour we bear your light."

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