The story of Nebukatneser is not just any old tale about a cat. It is a story about the fierce fighting spirit of a truly feral animal and her ultimate acceptance of living with humans. It is also a story about the incredible patience and ingenuity of her adoptive mother, Marian van Wyk of Sea Point, Cape Town, and nowadays also Plettenberg Bay.
In the Winter 2017 issue (#15) of Platteland, Marian wrote about how, during a hairdressing appointment with her head covered in foils, she came across the tiny animal in a bricked-up Sea Point alleyway. Alone and frightened, screaming with hunger, surrounded by building rubble, dirty water and darkness.
Marian and her husband, Louis Botma, didn’t plan to adopt the animal. After all, they lived on the seventh floor of an apartment block and had long ago made peace with a life without pets. Louis wasn’t particularly fond of cats either. What’s more, feral cats don’t just allow themselves to be adopted.
But thanks to several lucky breaks – a
