Neutering & Vet Care for a Community Cat Called Bagpuss
Despite the current crisis, the CatCuddles team has been persevering in its efforts to help cats in need and continue work on the new CatCuddles vet clinic, even if that means making adaptations to our ordinary activities in order to adhere to government guidelines. This includes continuing to assist the public with what are often referred to as “community cats”.
Community cats are strays who’ve become well-known in a certain area or neighbourhood, and who are fed and cared for by a number of local people.
Our considerable experience in these situations has illustrated how important it is for local people not just to feed, but also to take an active role in safeguarding these cat’s well-being as soon as possible. That includes, most crucially, getting them neutered, in addition to providing vet care if the cat appears unwell or injured, and offering shelter and pursuing rehoming where possible.
Recently, CatCuddles assisted a community with providing just that for a cat called Bagpuss. He had been lurking in a neighbourhood in SE18 for years, fed by several locals who also provided him with an outdoor shelter. It’s believed he had a home once but was abandoned when his owner moved away, and due to a prolonged lack of direct human contact had become very wary of people and feral-like in his behaviour towards them.
As the years progressed, local people became increasingly concerned for Bagpuss’s welfare, and contacted CatCuddles for advice. Of course, our first priority was neutering him, as unneutered male cats sadly do not fare well on the streets. They fight with other males, contracting infectious diseases like FIV, or developing abscesses from their fight wounds that may then go untreated. They wander long distances in search of females in season, increasing their likelihood of being killed in road accidents. Their lives are often short and harsh, though they may father hundreds of unwanted or stray kittens in that brief lifetime.
For this reason, the simple act of securing neutering for a stray cat can often transform their quality of life. It’s a widely & cheaply available procedure with the capacity to prevent suffering on a grand scale. With your donations and support, we can launch our North London vet clinic and neuter many, many more.
Our initial attempts to trap Bagpuss were unsuccessful - his years on the street had given him sharp instincts. He vanished briefly, but after reappearing with obvious wounds and injuries, was thankfully trapped.
He was neutered, but also required extensive veterinary care, though the local people who had been feeding him kindly covered the cost of this. It included three tooth extractions, a deep ear clear due to severe canal infection and potential ear mites, and three long-acting antibiotic treatments for his multiple fight wounds. He is currently recovering at CatCuddles' main fostering hub.
If you have a 'community cat' in your area, we urge you to take action for him or her as soon as possible, making neutering a priority most of all. You can contact CatCuddles via our website, or find your local cat charity by browsing https://www.catchat.org/index…/cat-rescue-centres-uk-ireland.