Volunteers Don't Give Up Until Entire Stray Family Are Rescued
Last night saw the end to several days of cat trapping 'stake outs' for CatCuddles' volunteers, as the final members of a stray feline family were caught and brought to safety.
We're now hoping to fundraise a minimum of £200 to cover the cost of their vaccinations, health checks, parasite treatments, microchipping, neutering, and general upkeep until adoption. We know it's a tough time for many, so are incredibly grateful for any donations.
The family - a mum and two kittens - were born in the garden of a seemingly empty house, just five minutes away from the charity's Abbey Wood base. Thankfully, a kind-hearted couple lived next door to the vacant home, and they provided the mother cat with food and shelter, and sought help for her from CatCuddles when they realised that she was nursing kittens.
Whilst the mother cat is extremely friendly and would be easy for our volunteers to rescue, unfortunately, she had hidden her kittens under some old, rotting decking in the empty garden. This shielded them from the elements and from predators, but made it impossible for our volunteers to access them. Since we could not remove the mother cat until the kittens were also safe, the only option was to set up cat traps outside the entrance to the decking in an attempt to catch the kittens. And then wait.
And wait we did - volunteers spent shifts of up to six hours at a time staking out the cat traps, making frequent trips back and forth to the location over several days. The only access was through the garden of the couple who initially sought help for the feline family, but thankfully they could not be more patient or cooperative throughout the rescue.
Finally, late last night, the second kitten was caught in the trap, and mum was quickly put into a carrier. They were then happily reunited in foster care. One kitten is considerably older than the other, suggesting that mum has had two consecutive litters. We are so relieved that she had been saved from a life spent in an endless cycle of pregnancies, the sad fate of so many unneutered strays out there. The couple who found mum and her babies have also promised to monitor carefully in the coming days, to ensure that no kittens or cats remain in the garden.
Since both kittens have been born as strays and have not had any direct human contact until their rescue, they will need lots of hands-on socialisation before they are ready for adoption, particularly the older kitten. In the meantime, we're hoping to secure enough funds to cover their care costs, as the pandemic has been a particularly tough time for CatCuddles, leaving us essentially without a penny to spare.
In this climate of hardship for everyone, even a pound or two is very warmly appreciated. Please consider donating at https://www.catcuddles.org.uk/donate#donate-money.
Thank you on behalf of this small but precious family.