Eco Hvar

Miki, A Happy Rescue Cat

Published in About Animals

Miki, a very special kitten, tells the heartwarming story of how he found his ideal family.

From the first days of happiness From the first days of happiness Private album

I am Miki, born on July 1st 2020 in the Banski Dolac quarter of Jelsa. My life had a very stormy start. I could hardly walk, I dragged myself around slowly and helplessly. I think my mother abandoned me, but I don't know for sure. Some tourists found me crossing the old street in Banski Dolac, a lady with three children. They took me home to their rented villa, where they had a small dog. When he saw me, the children's father was horrified and wanted the family to put me back straight away where they found me - I have to admit I was ugly and puny, so I was not an attractive sight. That evening they took me back to Banski Dolac, but left me near the first houses below the road. The night was cold, I had been born not long before and I had nothing to eat.

My saviours

The next day my life turned a full circle. In the morning while I tottered around, hungry and helpless, one woman pushed me away with a broom and another wanted to throw boiling water over me. But at that moment, luck was on my side. A small boy was looking out of a window and saw what was about to happen. He immediately shouted to his grandfatherr "Grandpa, quickly, we must save a tiny kitten!" And then the boy raced out of the yard himself and took me in his arms, I had a welcome feeling of wellbeing.

My warm bed to snuggle in. Private album

Happiness was mine from that day on. The next morning they took me to Dr. Prosper Vlahović, the vet in Stari Grad, who checked me over and gave me all the medicines I needed. Special 'mother's' milk as well.... I slept with my new family in the bedroom, I had my own warm basket just as if I was lying in the warmth next to my mother. They petted me every day and followed my every move. The young boy was always with me, I was given a little ball and plenty more besides.

Endless love. Private album

A big change of scene

Then came the day when school was due to start again. For that reason, my boy's parents were against taking me to their other home. As they explained to him: "Daddy and mummy have to go to work, you'll be going to school, leaving the cat all alone at home." My saviour's answer was resolute: "I am not going anywhere without my cat". His decision was so firm, nothing could stop me travelling. Dr. Prosper issued me with a Croatian passport and we set off on our journey. It was very exciting, I was given a leash. When we were in Split waiting for the next part of our journey, I was calm, always held in my little saviour's arms. On the aeroplane I was in my carrier beside my family, so the journey was fine.

Comfort and safety. Private album

And then we got to Berlin...

Ah, that was something else...My young saviour's daddy was there to meet us and he looked at me rather critically. Although he didn't say anything, I could feel his disapproval. It's true, I wasn't very pretty then. Howver, it didn't take long for him to fall in love with me, and after that  everything was wonderful. I got a villa as my new home, with several floors, and I could be wherever I wanted. I knew I was safe.

Watchful but trusting. Private album

There are no limits or forbidden places in our abode. And I have to say I am very good, very well-behaved. I run after the ball when they play table tennis and there's plenty more fun for me to join in with. 

I enjoy table tennis. Private album

As you can imagine, I am extremely well fed, with salmon, duck, chicken and more, too much to mention...Thanks to all the care I received, I have developed into a beautiful feline specimen.

I am now handsome, thanks to my family. Private album

Curing a private worry 

But deep inside I was carrying a sadness. My family sensed this and one of them contacted a lady with a rare gift. She somehow could tell that I was grieving for my brother, wondering what had happened to him. And, miraculously, she managed to communicate to me that he was alive and doing well, just as I was. That cured my sadness. My happiness was complete.

Peaceful sleep. Private album

This summer I was back in my birthplace. I'm excited, it's the aeroplane and the ferry again, and then here I am in Jelsa once more, happy and outdoors! I'm in the house and the yard, and they make sure I don't venture out of the premises. They take special care of me, because there are some people around who don't like cats.

To follow my further development, you can find me on Instagram: theoneandonlymiki

My hope

There is just one thing I wish for, that other lonely abandoned kittens find the good fortune that I have!

No worries any more! Private album

Translation: Vivian Grisogono, MA(Oxon), September 2025.

We at Eco Hvar are extremely grateful to Miki's family for sharing his uplifting story with us.

back to top
You are here: Home about animals Miki, A Happy Rescue Cat

Eco Environment News feeds

  • Firework noise limit should be drastically cut to protect wild animals, UK government told

    Ministers urged to go further than proposed cut to 110 decibels to ease acute stress on birds and others animals

    Campaigners are calling on the UK government to protect the welfare of wild animals by cutting the maximum noise level of fireworks sold to the public from 120 to 90 decibels.

    The Center for Wild Animal Welfare (CWAW) has said lowering the limit to 90dB – which is about one-eighth of the loudness of 120dB – would help to protect millions of wild animals from acute stress by reducing the area over which a firework disturbs surrounding wildlife.

    Continue reading...

  • Great Britain’s worst-ever bluetongue season ‘a major animal welfare crisis’

    British Veterinary Association president tells MPs surge in cases putting farmers under severe pressure and stress

    The worst bluetongue season on record has been a major animal welfare crisis in Great Britain, MPs have been told, putting farmers under “severe emotional stress”.

    Bluetongue, a viral disease that affects sheep, cattle and goats, can cause fever, lesions, stillbirths and death. The tongue may go blue and protrude from the mouth.

    Continue reading...

  • How penguin poo is making Antarctic snow melt faster

    Researchers find the birds’ guano feeds algal blooms that absorb significantly more solar energy

    Penguin poo is making the Antarctic snow melt faster, a study shows. As temperatures rise, penguins are waddling closer to the south pole, with potential for this previously unrecognised phenomenon to affect a wider area.

    Snow algae are tiny single-celled plants that make a home in some of the coldest places on Earth. When nutrients are scarce, the algae produces red pigments to protect itself from the sun and slow growth.

    Continue reading...

  • Kashmir’s potato pits are vanishing – and generations of knowledge could be buried for ever

    Farmers in Gurez store their harvests underground to last the Himalayan winter. As the practice fades, local varieties and handed-down skills are disappearing too

    Hajra Begum rolls a potato in her hands, checking its skin for cuts, soft spots and signs of rot. After a day harvesting in her family’s field in Chorwan, a remote mountain village in Gurez, Indian-administered Kashmir, she is sorting the crop for winter storage. Some of the potatoes will feed her family through the cold months; others will be saved for planting in spring.

    “It should be perfect for planting,” she says. “If you keep a bad potato, you will waste the whole next year.”

    Continue reading...

  • Country diary: This small bridge is becoming the site of so many stories | Derek Niemann

    Frome, Somerset: Dippers and fritillaries and pink campion … there is a deep satisfaction in accumulating associations with a regular haunt

    Enchantment surely fills the eyes of first-time visitors who come upon this little stone bridge over the stream. Do they marvel at the judgment of hands in building, wedding rock with rock, face against face? Do they arrive on a brighter morning than this, one on which sunbeams chase each other under the arch and cast sparkling reflections of water on the underside? Does their pulse quicken watching the brook breaking out of its tunnel and skittering over the pebbled bed, hastening through even in times of sluggish drought?

    Me? I see a bird that isn’t there.

    Continue reading...

  • UK ministers told not to engage formally with Indian mega-zoo after lobbying

    Guardian and Mongabay reveal approaches to officials and MPs on behalf of Vantara zoo ahead of UK-chaired Cites meeting on endangered animal imports

    British government ministers were told not to engage formally with Vantara, the controversial mega-zoo run by the Indian billionaire Anant Ambani, after lobbying efforts by the private animal sanctuary in the run-up to a UK-chaired meeting on the trade in endangered species, according to documents.

    This week, the UK heads a 32-country committee meeting in Geneva of Cites, the United Nations body that regulates trade in endangered species. The meeting will examine how India has responded to compliance concerns about imports of endangered animals.

    Continue reading...

  • Brazil publishes first global ‘roadmap’ for phasing out fossil fuels

    Cop30 host sets out steps to break link with coal, oil and gas as it aims to move focus from negotiating to implementing

    All countries can start to break their dependence on fossil fuels now without needing to wait for new technologies or economic changes, Brazil’s government has said ahead of a global climate summit.

    Brazil, the host of last year’s UN climate conference, set out the world’s first global “roadmap” for phasing out fossil fuels on Tuesday, showing that countries could boost their economies and pull people out of poverty while breaking the link with coal, oil and gas.

    Continue reading...

  • World’s wettest rainstorms are getting wetter, affecting flood and drought risk

    Events that deliver about half of global rainfall are getting shorter but more intense, with wide-ranging implications

    The world’s wettest rainstorms produce about half of the global annual rainfall. Now a study shows that these intense downpours have become shorter in duration and fewer in number, compressing the same amount of rain into quicker and more extreme events, with implications for flood and drought risk.

    Chiyuan Miao and colleagues from Beijing Normal University in China analysed daily measurements between 1980 and 2022 from more than 19,000 rain gauges around the world. They found that an average of about half of the world’s rainfall fell during about nine multi-day storms, delivered over a cumulative time of about 28 days.

    Continue reading...

  • Lab-grown meat was supposed to save the world. What happened?

    We were promised a panacea for the climate crisis and a way to save our food system. So why is nobody firing up the chicken vats? I went to find out

    On 5 August 2013, a man and a woman ate a burger. Not just any burger: a world-historic burger, made from cattle cells grown in a laboratory by Mark Post, a professor of vascular physiology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. The burger had taken two years to produce and cost €250,000 (about £210,000 at the time), money furnished by the Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Now it was being tasted in public for the first time at Riverside Studios in London, at an event attended by 200 members of the press and livestreamed to thousands.

    To make this particular burger, Post had extracted stem cells from the shoulder muscle of a living cow, then cultivated them in plastic containers filled with a nutrient-rich supplement called foetal bovine serum, which is derived from cow foetuses. The cells eventually became 20,000 strands of tissue, which in turn became a single 140g patty. Post believed that beef produced this way had the potential to dramatically reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and slow the climate crisis. Raising cattle for consumption requires massive amounts of land and water – and massive amounts of feed grown at a high environmental cost. He projected that global demand for meat would soon outstrip our ability to produce it the old-fashioned way, at which point our food systems would become unsustainable. But that didn’t have to mean a mass recalibration of our consumption habits or a global shift away from red meat. Post and his team had found another way.

    Continue reading...

  • From the archive: The trials of Robert Habeck: is the world’s most powerful green politician doomed to fail? – podcast

    We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors

    This week, from 2023: A year ago, Germany’s vice-chancellor was one of the country’s best-liked public figures. Then came the tabloid-driven backlash. Now he has to win the argument all over again

    By Philip Oltermann. Read by Sam Peter Jackson

    Read the text version here

    Support the Guardian today: theguardian.com/longreadpod

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds

Copyright © 2026 Eco Hvar. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Orion Informatika.