The cat's whiskers
2006-09-28
FOR as long as Nicolette Williams can remember, she has been surrounded by animals - cats, dogs, and also the books for her B.Sc. degree in Animal Bio-technology.
She would not trade places with anyone - Nicolette loves nature and strives to make the world a happier place for lost and unloved animals.
And that’s why the dogs and the cats of Wellington can rejoice. Nicolette (24) has been elected as president of the town’s Society against Cruelty to Animals.
Possibly the youngest president ever of an SPCA branch, Nicolette’s concern for those without voices was already apparent as a toddler.
Accompanying her mother to the supermarket, she would only be interested in the free conservation pamplets calling to “Save the Whales”, or “Save the Black Rhino”.
At the age of ten, Nicolette persuaded the grandmother of a friend to knit a clown as a donation to the SPCA. They raffled the clown, and raised R153 for the Society.
The Williams family lived in the Strand at that time, and neighbours, friends and strangers started arriving on their doorstep with sick seagulls, pigeons that flew into windows and abandoned animals.
When they moved to Wellington, the barking of a dog in distress paved Nicolette’s way into the town’s SPCA in 2004.
“This little thing was barking on a farm road on the Perdeskoen,” she recalls.
“She was a terrible sight and I thought, she has never had a life. I want to show her what life is.
“So I bathed her, took her to a vet, dewormed her and fed her with mince and mieliepap.
“She grew better and better, and cheekier and cheekier, and last year even came sixth in a competition for Mutt of the Year in Constantia.”
Last year Nicolette saw a notice about the SPCA’s annual general meeting, so she and her parents attended.
“We listened to the problems, how they were losing money. They talked of closing down,” Nicolette remembers.
She and her parents, Garth and Lorraine, joined and when the chairperson, Tony Sanders, resigned in April, Nicolette was asked to stand in. In July she was voted in as chairperson.
Nicolette is very excited about the other addition to the SPCA in Wellington - a trainee inspector.
Jenny Gerber (22) is now undergoing rigorous training and will be able to investigate complaints, educate humans about their animals, and issue court orders to remove animals or prosecute owners, if necessary.
Just so that she is never idle, Nicolette wrote her Honours in Genetics, and is currently busy with a master’s degree in Assisted Reproduction.
Not that she will ever have time to relax - strays seem to happen across her path all too often.
Mickey (as in Mickey Mouse because of a hairless tail) was found wondering near the SPCA kennels at Wellington’s Industrial Park three weeks ago.
When Nicolette picked him up, his hair came loose from his skin.
“I didn’t have the heart to put him to sleep, he needed to experience love.”
Today Mickey is well. His hair is growing back, and he is off to a good home.
There he will be given lots and lots of love, leaving his saviour free to combat cruelty to his fellow dogs, and cats, and pigeons, and whales, and rhino...
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