On Monday, our neighbours moved out. They left behind them a young cat with three tiny kittens. (Lets ignore all the rude things I said about them when I found this out and concentrate on the cat-crisis shall we?)
First crisis was that I only had a small cat carrier to put them in. Kittens might be small but they need space to sprawl out and no way was this big enough for more than a few hours. I phoned around frantically and managed to borrow a large wire cage which is now in the middle of my living room full of cat and kittens.
Crisis two was that my own cat was a rescue himself and had been very badly treated. He does not like other cats, full stop. He’s been so traumatized by having kittens in the house that he’s taken to sleeping on my pillow and periodically waking me up to check I’m still really there. Lack of sleep does not help you think clearly in these situations.
Crisis three was bedding for them, and more specifically litter. My cat long turned up his nose at a litter tray and goes in and out through a small window, so no litter tray in the house. Plus we don’t get a newspaper, so I had to resort to scavenging newspapers to deal with the anticipated cat mess.
Crisis four was food. This little cat was seriously underfed, and ate her way through a whole weeks worth of cat food in 24 hours. Not that we grudged it her, just finding the pennies to buy more was a bit tricky this week.
But we weathered the initial crises, and we know she hasn’t got a bad worm infestation and seems healthy otherwise. The kittens are of course adorable.
Next, what to do with them long term? We can’t keep them ourselves, no-one we know wants a cat and kittens (believe me, I’ve called everyone, plus Freecycle, plus all the other grapevine methods). I’m hopeful we’ll find them a loving home, but we go away at the end of the week and if nothing by then it will have to be the pet rescue centre.
I hope we can do better for them than that, she’s a nice little cat and deserves a loving family, sadly whilst the rescue centers do a wonderful job they find it hard to place an adult cat when there are so many cute kittens around.
Until then, at least I know she’s being fed, has some peace and quiet, and a chance to gather her strength and be warm and safe with her kittens.
