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English Titles

THE CAT FROM KOSOVO
MARY-JANE HAMPTON
ILLUSTRATIONS: TAMARA HEIKALO
HALIFAX, N.S.: NIMBUS PUBLISHING,
2001. 40 P.
ISBN 1551093332
AGES 6 TO 8

Life was good for Olsa and her husband Bashkin in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, Yugoslavia. They lived happily in a small apartment with their cat Mishka. Olsa loved flowers and worked in a flower shop; Bashkin was an architect and worked in town. But things changed: Serbs and Albanians started fighting again. Kosovo's history was filled with war and another was starting. Serbs were in power and Albanians had to flee their homes. Olsa and Bashkin had just one hour to pack their suitcase and leave their home in the middle of the night.

Carrying Mishka in a bag, they walked for three weeks in the mountains and forests up to a refugee camp in Macedonia, a nearby province. More than 20,000 people were crammed together in the tent village, without enough food or water. Olsa and Bashkin decided to leave and go to Canada. They had to hide their cat as they went through airport security and Canadian customs. At the Greenwood base in Nova Scotia, Mishka received an immigration card -- he was the first refugee cat on Canadian soil!

A charming tale based on a true story.

-JP