The Kitten Who Was Almost Left Behind - A Dramatic Cat Rescue
To say that it has been a tense few days for CatCuddles' volunteers is an understatement!
You may have seen our recent story about a rescue just five minutes from the charity's Abbey Wood base. A stray cat - now named Roselea - had given birth to two kittens beneath the decking of a garden in a vacant house. Last week, after several long days spent 'staking out' cat traps and with the help of a couple living next door to the garden, our volunteer team managed to round up the entire family and bring them to safety. Or so we thought.
Only two kittens had ever been seen with Roselea, both by volunteers, and by the neighbours who were assisting CatCuddles with the rescue. However, when the second kitten was caught, he was found to be quite a bit older than the first, and clearly from an earlier litter. This led to some niggling doubts about whether there could be three kittens after all - two very young babies, and one 'teenage' kitten. Since only two kittens had ever been seen however, we believed that we may be being overly-cautious.
We asked the neighbours to keep monitoring the garden, just in case. A day or two passed, and there was no sign of a third kitten. The team began to relax, believing that we had rescued the entire family after all. That is until Tuesday evening, when the third kitten appeared, and we were thrown into instant turmoil and anxiety.
The third kitten, like the first, was very young, and would struggle to survive without his mum and siblings. Volunteers were desperate to capture him and bring him to safety quickly, and failure to do so might have meant the charity having to neuter and return his mum Roselea, who was settled and happy at CatCuddles, awaiting a new life in an adoptive home.
The next few days were stomach-churning, as traps were set up around the clock in the garden, to no success. Just as things were starting to look really desperate, he was caught.
Meet little Tolkien, a very scared and malnourished boy who was greeted by some extremely relieved volunteers upon being rescued this afternoon. We're so, so pleased that he is safe.
Tolkien's family are currently at our North London clinic, being vaccinated and neutered, so he will be reunited with them tomorrow. For now, he is warm and safe and fed in temporary foster care, being fussed over non-stop. Soon, this ordeal will be a distant memory, and we pray that it will be a small price to pay for the loving family that he will one day have.
We are hoping to raise some extra funds for Tolkien's upkeep, health check, vaccination, flea-treatments, worming, neutering, and microchipping. It is an extremely tough time for CatCuddles financially, as we struggle to get our North London clinic off the ground during the pandemic, and it's only with your donations that we can continue to carry out hands-on rescue work like this. You are helping us to help them.
So please consider donating towards Tolkien's care, or donating for the next little Tolkien to stumble into one of our cat traps - and into a new and better life.
Donate @ https://www.catcuddles.org.uk/donate
(Please note, will be accepting adoption enquries for this family in 2-3 weeks. Our priority for the moment is getting them healthy & socialised).
