This page is about my cat. Her name is Astghik that means "Little Star".
In the end of June 2001, Astghik (though I did not know that she was Little Star) fell in a tube that was about 8 m deep and very narrow. She was crying inside day and night. Many people tried to rescue her. They tried for hours, but failed. It was going on for about a week. I phoned to a local rescue group. They came and they also tried to rescue her for 2 hours ...
... but they also failed as non-professional "rescuers" did before. The kitten was crying too quitely. It was very hot on July 8 that summer. I managed to lower into the shaft food for her, but it was impossible to give her water, because the bottom of the shaft was not flat, and the water spilled. I phoned to a friend. My friend told that one person might rescue the kitten. And in some hours they came: my friend and a veterinary, Tigran, who was of the first staff of "Spitak" Rescue Group.
After two hours of endless attempts, a kitten was rescued. She was about 45 days of age, and was very weak and dirty. Sure, she could not look better after more than a week of "imprisonment" in the shaft. But when a sun ray fell on a small black spot on her back, it twinkled with golden light. "Her name is Astghik", decided I. "Astghik" in Armenian means "Little Star". It is an Armenian female name, the name of the Armenian pagan goddess of beauty. Tigran bathed and cleaned her. She turned out to be snow-white with a black and beige tabby "wig" and tail, and a black spot on her left shoulder. On that day I did not know anything about cats at all, and about Van Cats particularly.
Some days later the rescue day I noticed that my cat's behaviour was not like the cats' behaviour as the people usually imagine. She could sit for hours by the tap and look at runing water. She was fascinated with the clods of paper. She liked to play a kind of footbal with a small ball, and carry tiny sticks in her teeth. So I decided to search in the Web to find out more about cats and their breeds.
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