The Moggie Blog

One in a Million

2011-04-15T16:53:00.000+01:00

We often use the phrase "one in a million" to describe something rare or even something we just hapen to like very much.

In Jasper's case though, he really is a cat in a million - or according to some statistics - a cat in four million.

Jasper is a very rare thing, a male tortoise shell cat. Genetics demonstrate that male cats cannot exist (see notes below), but our little Jasper is very much alive and male.

He was found living in the garden of an empty house. The kind people who found him fed him for several months and brought him to our centre recently. He will be advertised and then neutered (he is likely to be sterile) and he has been reserved in the event that no one claims him, so he has a new home waiting.

It is such a shame that someone saw fit to abandon him. In our looks-obsessed culture, we are amazed that something so rare and beautiful isn't prized, and yet, from our point of view, although Jasper's appearance has caused a stir, we would consider any cat to be "one in a million" as they are all unique with different personalities, habits and characteristics.

In cats the colour gene is carried on the X chromosome. Female cats have two X chromosomes so can have colour from both chromosmes, whereas male cats have an X and a Y chromosome, so only one (the X) has the colour gene. So in a female cat, black can be inherited from one parent and ginger (red) from the other which results in a tortoise shell cat (sometimes called calico or chintz). A male cat from the same parentage, having only one X chromosome, would be either ginger or black. Male tortoise shell cats are found to have a mutation giving an XXY chromosome set-up and are usually sterile.

I'll have chips with mine ....

2011-03-31T16:31:00.001+01:00

Hello everyone

My name's Harriet, or maybe Harry, or actually maybe it's Tigger. You see, being a cat I can't speak so I can't tell you.

Here's my story...I was found straying in a Bradford suburb in a pretty poor condition. Thin, hungry and dirty. The kind lady who found me made enquiries, but no one knew where I'd come from, so she took me in and offered me a home.

Because she didn't know my name, and because she thought I was a boy cat (perish the thought!), she called me Harry. A few weeks later, I went along to the vets for "the snip". They took one look under my tail and realised that I am a girl.

My kind friend tried very hard to keep me, but she had been rescuing quite a few stray cats and we were all getting on top of each other, so she asked Haworth Cat Rescue to find me a place at their centre with a view to rehoming me. When I got to their lovely centre, they decided to change my name from Harry to Harriet to reduce confusion about whether I am a girl or a boy.

Another thing they did was to check me for a microchip to see if anyone had owned me in the past, and yes, their machine went beep-beep (which made us all jump!) because just under my skin on the back of my neck is a little piece of fantastic technology no bigger than a grain of rice. This little microchip (or chip) has a number which is readable by the little magic machine which cat rescues and vets have, and the number is registered on a database alongside my owners' name and address.

Haworth Cat Rescue wrote to my owners to tell them I was at their centre, and they were thrilled to bits as I had been missing for over two years. They hotfooted it to the Centre and recognised me straight away - and told the staff and volunteers that my real name is Tigger!

So I am now back at home and very happy to be here.

There is a moral to my story (well, three, actually).

1. Get your cat (and dog and any animal you can) microchipped - it doesn't cost a great deal.

2. If you move house, make sure you update the details - had my owners moved and not updated the details I would never have been reunited.

3. If you find a cat who appears to have no owner, take him or her to a vet to be scanned. A vet won't charge you and it will only take a minute or two. Although I will always be grateful to the lady who found me and helped me, had she had me scanned, I would have been reunited with my owners many months earlier.

And a little plea to any vet reading this - please scan any animals that you haven't seen before, particularly if the person bringing it in doesn't know where it lived previously - microchips only work if the animal is scanned!

A Tale of Two Kitties

2011-03-11T11:12:00.000Z

Kittens are so cute - we all love their little faces peering hopefully at us as they wait for new homes. And we love to snuggle them close, play little games with them and laugh at their antics as, safe in the knowledge that they will come to no harm, they jump and pounce and chase.

But what of their less fortunate cousins? Those baby cats who are born away from loving homes, out in the wild in old dilapidated buildings, under bushes, behind broken fence panels. Cats are such a hardy species that their survival rates are high, and their mums are such good hunters, catching mice and other rodents that usually most of the litter will survive.

The main issue with kittens born away from homes, is domestication. It is essential that kittens are handled in the first months of their lives so that they quickly learn that human hands are kind. Because kittens born in the wild are hidden by their mothers until they are able to walk out of the nest, around 5-7 weeks old, people are often not even aware of their existence until they are big enough to run away. And that makes taming them much much harder.

Whenever possible we would encourage people who notice such kittens to catch them, handle them and play with them - the earlier they are caught, the sooner they learn to trust, in fact in some cases it can be as little as four or five days. If they are left until they are bigger - they take much much longer to tame.

Take Nessa and Hettie, pictured above. They were noticed at about eight weeks of age by a kind lady who started to feed them. Because their mum was tame and friendly, the lady assumed that the kittens would learn by example - but this isn't the case with cats - they let their instinct drive them, and their instinct says "DANGER!".

Nessa and Hettie were about four months old when they came to us, and they were absolutely terrified. We had to put them in indoor cages for a few weeks to get them used to being handled, and gradually teach them to trust. At the time of writing, Nessa is almost ready for rehoming (to an experienced owner), whereas Hettie will be some time before she is confident enough.

The person feeding them did well, and meant well, but had she caught them and handled them, they would have been far tamer.

Contrast this with Mary, who came from a similar background. In her case, the lady feeding her mum knew that Mary had to be caught and handled. When Mary came to us for rehoming she was used to being handled, and used to people being around, and although she was nervous in crowds of people, we were able to rehome her to a relatively quiet home very soon after she came to us.

If you spot tiny kittens playing in your garden, don't be afraid to catch them and play with them - the few weeks of handling you can give them at the start of their lives will make a huge difference to all their remaining years.

Botox for cats? No, not really!

2011-02-17T20:31:00.001Z

Aslan is a big hunk of a cat who came to us in the wintertime after being spotted hanging around a local housing estate for several months. He was a big lad, with an enormous head, and rather jumpy and nervous if approached, although not unfriendly.

It was immediately apparent that there was something wrong with his eyes - cat flu was suspected by the person who brought him in, but the eye discharge was not accompanied by any sneezing or other symptoms.

An examination by our vets revealed that Aslan had ingrowing eyelids, which were rubbing on the surfaces of his eyes, causing them constant irritation and making them sticky.

An operation was called for, and duly carried out. Tiny strips of skin were removed to open his eyes a little more and to remove the excess skin which was folding in and causing him such irritation. ("Botox for cats", as one of our volunteers called it!). He was also neutered and had several teeth removed or cleaned.

Aslan has a very large head which is normally caused by a build up of testosterone due to him being un-neutered until we got him - by which time he was already middle aged.

The transformation from a squinting, smelling, sniffing scared lad to a big clearsighted, sweet-smelling, clean-breathing softy has been a joy to behold. The nerves which caused the aggression disappeared quite quickly and we believe that they were simply due to the poor vision that his condition caused.

It is easy to fall prey to the belief that any cat with runny eyes has cat flu - and indeed this may often be the case - but Aslan demonstrates that other conditions may be the cause. Any cat with runny eyes should be examined by a vet who will be able to advise the best option.

Return to sender - not this time :(

2010-02-23T12:49:00.003Z

With the number of stray cats who come to our centre, you'd think that a reasonable proportion would end up being reunited with their owners.

One great way to reunite lost cats is the microchip, a small implant put under the skin in the cat's neck, which contains a unique number. The number is then registered on a central database along with a description of the cat and the name, address and other contact details of the owner.

One of the biggest highs for our volunteers and staff is when we take in a stray and are able to reunite him or her with loving owners who have been looking for him. Sometimes the cat is found quite close to home, other times it can be many miles away, always prompting the question "how did he (or she) get that far?"

Sadly, the reality is, that most cats who come in as strays aren't microchipped, and very very few end up being reunited - once they're advertised in the paper local to where they were found we rehome them. Of course, there may be a desparate owner searching frantically in the next town for their much-loved pet, but we have no way of knowing where the cat may have originated from, and so we cannot advertise in the correct town.

Almost worse than that, though, is the cat who comes in as a stray, turns out to be microchiped but to our disappointment is microchipped to the wrong address. Presumably the owners have moved and declined to pay the small administration fee to have the address details updated.

In these cases we have a small advantage - we can advertise both in the location where the cat was found, and in the location where the cat is registered as living, but sadly very very rarely does this result in a match.

This is exactly what happened with Charlie, pictured above. A lady had been feeding him for some time, had made local enquiries to see if anyone knew him, but had drawn a blank. She brought him to our centre and we were delighted to find his microchip, but hugely saddened when his owners could not be traced from it. We have advertised locally and are trying to contact all people in the phone book with the same surname - luckily it is not too common! But the chances are slight that we will locate them.

We would love to see all owners taking responsibility for their pets. Microchipping them and then keeping their details up to date when they move. It would help cut down the number of strays, and the heartbreak that owners feel when their pets go missing.

As for Charlie, he will probably be with us for a couple of weeks whilst we try to find his owners, but failing that we will have no option but to put him up for adoption. Hopefully his new owners will keep his microchip details up to date.

A Wandering Minstrel I Shall Be

2010-02-15T13:32:00.003Z

You would think, wouldn't you, that the neutering message should be starting to filter through by now, but there is still a large percentage of cat owners who through ignorance, arrogance or sheer laziness don't get their cats neutered.

Some people think that it isn't fair - that a cat should be allowed to "enjoy" the opportunity to mate, but in fact what they are doing is imposing human feelings onto something which, for cats, involves no element of choice.

Female cats come into season whether they'd want to or not, and for several days until the season ends, they are relentlessly pursued by tom cats, determined to mate with them. For the female cats, the actual act of mating is very painful - nature's way of stimulating ovulation to produce as many kittens as possible. This is one reason you may hear screaming from mating cats. That's without the risk of disease, bites and the possibility of getting lost or injured as they run from the waiting toms. A queen (female cat) can be mated many times during her season, and she can produce kittens from each mating. For female cats, this is repeated at least twice and sometimes four times each year.

Tom cats don't get a much better deal. To successfully mate, he firstly needs to find an in-season queen (and this may involve a journey of several miles) and once he finds her he needs to fight all the other tom cats to get himself at the top of the pecking order and first in the queue. This is another reason that you may hear screaming when there is a queen in season. After he's mated her (sometimes several times) he will go looking for another queen, and so on. Of course, like the queens, he is exposed to disease, danger from becoming lost and injury and accident. Gradually, most tom cats forget where they live, they establish a territory with places to sleep and eat (if they're lucky) and become less and less used to going home and interacting with people.

The tom has absolutely no choice in this behaviour, his hormones dictate his behaviour and he has no possibility of denying his actions.

We see a number of youngish tom cats each year, who have embarked - without intent - on such a life. Generally speaking these are friendly cats, although they may be initially nervous, and they often come in with injuries and/or parasites. They are normally reported to us as strays or nuisance cats - cats who enter homes through cat flaps and steal food for the feline residents. They may nest in gardens - greenhouses or sheds - or make use of open windows or cat flaps to access a home - and of course worst of all from the home owners' point of view is the smell they leave when they spray urine to mark their territory.

Freddie, pictured above, is a typical example. He's a young-middle aged lad, un-neutered who was found straying in someone's garden. He'd been visiting her for six months, and she'd been feeding him, but couldn't keep him as he did not get on with her cat.

He came to us with a large abscess on his head caused no doubt by fighting, dreadful earmites - his ears were almost solidly filled, and the usual complement of worms and fleas. He wears an aroma of tom cat which would make all but the most hardy faint, and he eats as though every meal is his last.

But he is such a friendly lad, loves to be stroked and petted and will curl up and sleep on a comfy lap if anyone sits in his pen for more than a few moments.

The really sad thing about Freddie, is that at some point in his past he has been loved. Some family, couple or individual will have been thrilled to bits with their new baby kitten - all fluff and breezes and chasing his tail, the things that all baby cats do. They will have taken photos, told all their friends about his latest antics and maybe put his picture on facebook or other social media sites.

Then, one day he will have gone out - missing for a couple of days and they will have worried themselves daft, wondering where he'd gone. But hey! It's OK, he's back and he's safe. A week or so later he will have done it again - they would have been concerned but not quite as much because, after all, he came back last time. And sure enough, after a week or so, he's back. Tired, a bit bedraggled and hungry but OK. And so it goes on. Gradually he stays away longer; gradually his owners get used to it, and stop worrying. In fact after a time they don't notice when he's gone - in fact they're surprised when he comes home. And eventually he doesn't come home at all.

The owners don't care, he'd stopped being loving to them some time ago. He didn't have time for cuddles and purrs, he just wanted to sleep and eat - regain a bit of energy before his hormones pulled him out back on the treadmill again. But they still want a cat, so off they go and get another one - again usually a male because after all they don't want to be irresponsible and have kittens - and the cycle begins all over again.

Meanwhile, their previous furbaby/bundle of fluff/cute kitten is sheltering from the rain under a hedge while he fights off other tom cats for a few seconds of testosterone-driven pleasure with a queen.

Wouldn't his life have been better if he'd been neutered, remained that "love sponge" that he was in his kittenhood, and slept by a radiator or on the foot of a warm bed every night?

Freddie has been advertised as a found stray. No one has responded. He will be neutered very shortly and then we will find him that loving forever home that he so greatly deserves.

Wild thing - I think I love you :)

2010-02-01T15:30:00.005Z

As many of our readers will know, the primary role of Haworth Cat Rescue is that of a rehoming centre. We take in strays, and cats who are no longer able to remain with their owners and find them new homes.

Most cats are in and out of our centre within a couple of weeks, undergoing neutering, microchipping and any other veterinary treatment beforehand. Stray cats tend to be with us slightly longer as we need to advertise them first, in case their owners are still looking for them.

In most cases, it is a relatively quick process and the cats aren't unduly troubled by their enforced holiday at our Cat Rescue.

In some cases, however, cats can be with us for many weeks and sometimes months. Typical cats in this category are elderly cats, cats with chronic medical conditions, cats with behavioural issues and feral cats.

Feral cats are quite simply cats that have not been domesticated. They are usually the result of a domesticated cat being dumped or getting lost, then getting pregnant and having her kittens in a quiet place away from humans. The kittens grow up without any trust in people, and see humans as an enemy. It is learned behaviour, not inherited, so a domesticated cat can give birth to a litter who become feral, who in turn can give birth to a litter who (if handled) can be completely domesticated. Sometimes adult cats can be domesticated but it is a difficult and long process, and not to be undertaken lightly - the success rate is very low.

Kittens under about 3 months can usually be domesticated if they receive intensive handling, but older cats take much longer and many never tame. What they may do, however, is become comfortable with certain people, so although they may not become lap-cats or allow themselves to be stroked, they may approach certain people quite closely, and even take an interest in whatever is going on.

Many people fear feral cats, and think that they will attack, however, like may wild animals, their instinct is to flee, not fight. The only times people are at risk from feral cats is when the cat is cornered - and may inflict injuries on people as they try to escape - or if a mother cat has a litter of kittens she is protecting.

Some organisations euthanase feral cats, however, we aim to give them a chance of a life with some quality, and so we look for suitable outdoor homes on a farm, stables, smallholding, or even a nursery or public gardens etc. Anywhere where they will have shelter, food and not need to mix with people if they don't want to. We have rehomed feral cats in the past to safe factories and light industrial units too - where the cats do a great job at keeping rodents at bay - and probably amuse the staff too (just don't tell the boss!).

Eva and her mum Gracie, pictured above are two young female cats who are both feral. It is likely that Gracie's mum was abandoned, and managed to raise her so that in turn she had kittens of her own. Eva is only about 6 months old and we don't think Gracie is much older. Both ladies, now neutered, have been with us for some months now, they aren't as happy in their current situation as they would be in a safe outdoor home, so we hope that before long someone with a mouse problem decides to get the best deterrant nature provided!

We are currently fundraising to build a new centre and we intend to have a feral sanctuary attached to this, so that feral cats waiting for new homes can at least have some freedom whilst they wait, and don't need to live in cat pens.

A Tom Thumb kitten tail!

2010-01-25T15:18:00.004Z

As a rehoming centre we get our fair share of kittens, most of whom are either fostered out for a brief period until they're old enough to be rehomed, or who are old enough to go to new homes almost straightaway. Usually the former have a lovely mummy cat to nurse them, and to teach them the things that all grown up cats need to know, and the latter are usually old enough to have left their mum, full of cat-lore and knowledge to enable them to live long and happy lives.

There is another group of kittens, a small but select group, and these are the orphan kits. These are the kits who no longer have a mummy, and come to us aged anything from 1 day upwards. They have usually become orphans either because somethinghas separated them from their mum (she may have died or they may have been removed), or because she has rejected them.

It's hard work, but usually if something has happened to separate them from mum they have a good chance of survival. Sadly if they have been rejected by their mum, their chances of survival are less - mummy-cats are very good at sensing if something is wrong. So if we're given a litter of orphans, we usually reckon that their chances are good, but if we get a single kitten, particularly if it is found in an unusual place, such as the middle of a garden, or car park, or just out in the open somewhere, there is a strong possibility that there will be something wrong with it and it won't survive.

Such is the story of Remus, who came to us on Hallowe'en 2009, aged about 10 days having been found on his own in someone's garden. We hoped that his mum had been moving him and been disturbed and dropped him, but only time would tell if he was well enough to survive.

So began the routine of feeding him every two hours or so. The amount they eat at that age is miniscule (about a teaspoon full), and you are hard pressed to believe that it is going to be of any benefit. As time progresses, however, the amounts they eat do increase and bit by bit they start to grow. It is usually around the five weeks stage that any problems manifest themselves, as the kit becomes more active.

Here are some photos of Remus shortly after he came into our care (the ginger kitten, Freddy was about 10 weeks old, Remus about 2 weeks old).

Remus did really well until the dreaded five weeks milestone, at which point he simply stopped growing - for about three weeks he hardly grew at all (apart from his stomach which seemed to be huge!), and we were concerned that serious health problems were starting to manifest themselves.

At about eight weeks, he suddenly began to grow again, and grew steadily until he reached the required weight for neutering - three weeks behind schedule.

Despite his shaky start, Remus has grown into a lithe healthy kitten, rather over-confident (which is often a side-effect of hand-reared kittens), and we were delighted to be able to rehome him at the weekend. We think that he will finally grow up to be a big cat.

We wonder what happened to his poor mummy...

Thrown out with the rubbish!

2010-01-19T14:42:00.003Z

Many of our local readers will have seen us on Yorkshire TV before Christmas, when we were featured because of a story that appeared about us in The Keighley News.

The story was about Snudgie, a white and grey cat with four kittens who came to us after suffering a terrible ordeal.

Snudgie's story began one cold night in November last year when a householder in Leeds went to throw some rubbish into a nearby skip. Just as he was about to let go of the bag he heard crying from inside the skip and fortunately his curiosity got the better of him. Looking inside the skip he saw movement from underneath some material, and further investigation showed that the material was a curtain tied up with something inside it.

The "something inside" turned out to be a mother cat and four tiny newborn kittens. Needless to say, he took them back with him. What a lucky escape that he didn't throw the bag away - it would in all likelihood have landed on the cat and injured or killed her and/or the kittens.

The finder contacted a veterinary surgeons who put him in touch with West Yorkshire Animals in Need. This organisation (amongst other things) does valuable liaison work between animal rescue groups, vets and other animal groups. They were able to contact us and we luckily had a fosterer available who could take them.

Snudgie and the kittens came to us via WYAIN and were placed in a foster home, where they have thrived, luckily none the worse for their ordeal.

It is terrible to think of the dreadful death Snudgie and her kits would have had, had the householder not been there. There are many ways to rehome an unwanted cat, but throwing them into a skip is not the way to do it.

We believe that Snudgie actually gave birth whilst in the skip, or very shortly before, and of course the cold alone might have been enough to kill the babies.

Snudgie is now ready for a new home, and her kits will be neutered shortly and will be ready soon. At least their futures are secure, we shudder to think of other cats and kittens in similar situations through no fault of their own.

Please encourage anyone you know to have their cat neutered.

The not-so-dirty dozen >^..^<

2010-01-11T15:15:00.004Z

It's not uncommon for us to be asked to rehome a pair or a small group of cats - usually a family group such as a mother and her kittens or a group of siblings.

We were rather astounded recently when we were asked to rehome a household of twelve cats. Their poor owner had recently been diagnosed with a severe illness, and this, compounded with a change in his domestic circumstances meant that he could no longer keep his cats.

He actually had nineteen altogether, but had managed to find someone to care for five of them whilst he was in hospital and had rehomed two directly himself.

The tragedy of this situation is that these were very much loved cats - all neutered and up-to-date with medical treatment - and in normal circumstances their owner would have expected to keep them for the rest of their lives.

It is such a shame that he did not make arrangements long ago for the cats to be cared for "should anything happen". Too many people either think that they will be alright and will be able to keep their cats forever, or they assume that in the worst case scenario, a relative or friend will take responsibility for their cat. We often hear "I would never let my cats go to a rescue centre" - but sometimes, this is the only option. The best way to ensure that your pets don't end up in a rescue centre, is to make concrete arrangements for their well-being, even when all is well in your world. Hopefully you will never have to call upon these arrangements, but if ever your situation should change for the worse, you will have a fall-back solution for your cats.

Take these simple steps:
1. Ask someone to care for your pet - repeat this for each pet you have, even if different people take different pets, at least they will be safe and cared for.
2. Make a clear note and put in somewhere prominent in your house "In case of emergency ...XXX... will take care of my cat [name]. Put a copy with your legal papers too.
3. Check every six months or so that the arrangement is still valid - remember, other people's circumstances change too.
4. Make a reciprocal offer to a friend or relative - but remember to tell them if your circumstances change.

The rescue centres are there to help, but particularly in these hard-pressed times, they are struggling to keep afloat, and quite a few rescue centres in our area have closed, or are temporarily not taking pets in. This is one way to try and ensure that your pet doesn't end up in a rescue centre, or worse.

Hopefully, you won't need a friend, and you and your pet will live happily ever after, just as Pamba, Taiba, Polgara, Jacob, Henry, Kheldar, Bazo, Aboli, Tungata Zebewe, Dufford Charliewood, Rumbo and Sarah are now doing.

The Rocky Road to Success

2010-01-04T14:15:00.008Z

As a rehoming charity, we generally only see cats for a relatively short period of time. Most cats who come into our Centre need only basic medical treatment, such as neutering and dental work, and are then ready for new homes.

Sometimes, however, we have cats who need a lot more attention and care. One such cat is Rocky.

Rocky is a black and white tom cat who came into our Centre some months ago. His owner no longer wanted him and two other cats due to changes in the household, and asked us to rehome them all. As he left, Rocky's previous owner mentioned that he could be a bit bad-tempered at times.

That proved to be an understatement! Rocky was so traumatised that he would leap at the heads of any of our volunteers who approached him. This behaviour is extremely rare in cats, most frightened cats flee rather than attack. He also sat in a permanently hunched up state, eyes wide, ears flat to the head and his body poised to spring. This was much much more than a bad-tempered cat, this was a very traumatised cat.

Our initial approach was to let Rocky have time to settle and to get used to life at our Centre. He was in a pen on his own and although he could watch people and other cats, he could not be easily approached by them. When - after a few weeks - this didn't seem to be making a difference, we decided to create a completely safe space for Rocky by surrounding his pen with "curtains" and giving him plenty of boxes to hide in. We also limited his contact with humans, allowing only one volunteer to clean his pen and feed him.

This reduced his wariness to an extent, insofar as his ears stopped being flat to his head and he stopped jumping at heads! His progress was much slower than we hoped, however, unlike other cats who had gone through a similar rehabilitation process and had relaxed in a matter of weeks. After three months Rocky was still showing every sign of being traumatised.

At this stage, we felt that the only option to ensure that he had a quality of life was to enclose him indoors in a very small cage and to teach him by association that humans could be his friend. So this is what we did.

It became apparent very soon that he hadn't been neutered and after a trip to the vets to have this operation performed his rehabilitation proceeded in earnest.

At first, the cage was completely covered, but we realised quite soon that he was less stressed if he had some visibility.

At first, we left Rocky to his own devices, but once we noticed that he was looking out and taking an interest, we started talking to him. We noticed that he allowed us to put food into his cage and to remove empty dishes without striking us, so for a few weeks we gave him several small meals each day, which reinforced for him the fact that human hands could be kind.

Along the way our volunteers were quite badly scratched in the process, but we persevered, and gradually Rocky came to welcome attention and started talking back. After a couple of months one of our voluteers, wearing gloves, started to stroke Rocky, and within a couple of days of this, Rocky started responding, looking forward to being stroked and even grabbing the hand as it retreated to try and obtain more strokes!

We are now at the stage where we are considering letting Rocky out of his cage. He has been there for some time now, a situation which is distressing for the volunteers who deal with him, but we can't believe the turnaround in his behaviour. He is really starting to tame up, and we are even thinking that at some point this year we may be able to do what we planned originally to do for him ...find him a loving forever home.

Lonely Lois

2009-09-29T15:54:00.002+01:00

Good afternoon friends,

We were alerted to the plight of a little black cat who seemed to have no owner. She spent her days shivering in a garden, grabbing whatever mouthfuls of food she was able to scrounge from the resident cats.

The owner of the garden asked us to take her as she was concerned that the little cat wouldn't survive long out on her own. Lois came to us in a very poor state, very emaciated with severe gastro-intestinal problems, areas of fur loss and full of fleas. Her body was also covered with dirt.

To our immense delight, she was micro-chipped and we were thrilled to think that we would soon be able to reunite her with her owner. Sadly however, we soon discovered that the phone number registered on her micro-chip was unobtainable and there was no reply from the registered address - which was some distance away from where she'd been found. It seems likely that her owners had moved house and not updated their contact details.

The micro-chip details gave us her age - 14 years - and we felt at her age she would struggle to improve. However, to our joy, blood tests revealed no major problems and after a bath and flea treatment, she looked a lot better, and is now gradually gaining weight. We really hope that in due course an understanding and kind person will come forward and adopt her.

It is such a shame that many people don't know that it's their responsibility to update the micro-chip details should they move house or change their phone number. It's not the responsibility of the vet or rehoming centre - and now her owners are probably wondering what happened to her, and she has very little chance of being returned to her original home.

We are hoping to attract more people to make regular donations to us by Standing Order. If we can have the guarantee a of certain income each month, it helps us to plan and to focus other fundraising events towards our appeal to build a new centre in the Keighley area, which will help many more cats in Lancashire and North & West Yorkshire. Would you be willing to make a donation to us on a regular basis? This link is to our online standing order form. Please print it off, complete it and return it to us. We are very grateful to everyone who helps us in this way, every penny you donate to us makes a difference.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the summer months. Your support has meant a great deal to us and enabled us to help poor cats like Lois.

And they all lived happily ever after ......

2009-04-07T13:47:00.004+01:00

It's not often an injury to a cat can be said to be a piece of luck, but black and white Freddy totally disagrees.

We were alerted to his plight on Sunday morning - he'd been spotted hanging around a residential area and the finders noticed he was limping on one of his front legs.

Further examination showed that he had actually put his leg through his collar and the collar had tightened, causing him to limp.

The people who found him had caught him, but when they tried to remove the collar it hurt him so much that he bit them badly and managed to escape.

This called for one of our special cat traps, which we set in their garden on the Sunday morning. To our relief at teatime he went into the trap and we were able to transport him quickly to the vet.

The collar was cut off and further examination showed that it had embedded itself in his armpit, and the wound had become infected.

Freddy was sedated and the wound cleaned out, and partially stitched. Whilst he was drowsy, the vets scanned him for a microchip and to their delight found one!

Because the 'chip company was closed at the weekend, they were unable to obtain his owner's details until Monday, but when the did get the details they were in for a surprise. Freddy had been missing for nearly a year, from a town about 10-12 miles away from where he was found. No one has any idea where he has been all this time, but his owners were absolutely over the moon to have him back.

He will require several weeks cage rest so that he doesn't tear the wound, but the chances are that he'll make a good recovery.

The moral to this story is that microchipped cats have a much better chance of being returned to their owner, and the £20 or so it costs is money well-worth spent. There is arguably a second moral to the story - the use of collars on cats. In our opinion, there is only one reason to put a collar on a cat, and that is for identity purposes. There was no tag on Freddy's collar - had there been he might have been reunited much sooner. And although the collar was ultimately the reason that he was reunited, the collar Freddy was wearing was not a sort we'd recommend. If you do put a collar on your cat it should either be fully elasticated (and changed every 6-8 weeks as the elastic hardens) or a safety release collar which will snap open if the cat catches his or her paw in it.

Freddy is a delightful cat, very friendly and happy to be handled. We're delighted that we were able to play a small part in reuniting him with his owners.

Please remember our Christmas card competition. We've received some lovely entries and hope to receive more before the closing date of 1 May. Please see our website for details.

Thank you to those who continue to support our "In For a Pound" appeal towards our new Centre. We've raised over £1000 with this part of the appeal now.

To unsubscribe, please click here.

A Christmas Competition

2009-03-12T12:34:00.004Z

For those of you who wish it could be Christmas everyday, now is the time to think about your favourite festive things as Haworth Cat Rescue announces the launch of its first ever Christmas Card competition.

We are seeking 4 cards for our 2009 Christmas selection and entries can be submitted in all media from watercolours and pastels to line drawings and oils on canvass. Photographs are also acceptable.

Cat designs are very popular among many of our supporters but others prefer more traditional themes, so it’s really up to the artist to find their own inspiration. Some may favour a very contemporary design and others wish to evoke a trip down memory lane with Christmas scenes of yesteryear. We are very open and want to allow as much freedom of expression as possible.

This is the first time Haworth Cat Rescue has offered the public the opportunity to showcase their talents with a Christmas card competition. There is no age barrier for entry and 4 winning designs will selected for their charm and appeal by a panel of 3 judges. There is no charge for entry to our competition.

Participants who want their artwork returned are asked to send a prepaid self-addressed envelope. Every care will taken to avoid damage but the charity cannot guarantee this.

We are expecting a large number of designs to be sent via email and this is the best way to scan and keep your original.

Imprint in Keighley is producing the winning Christmas cards, which will go on sale in the Autumn. Photographs should be supplied as 300dpi in jpeg format, the size for the front of the card is 105mm x 150mm but the actual images should allow for an extra 3mm 'bleed' all around. Larger photographs can be reduced to make them fit.

As a special prize, Imprint is sponsoring the competition with an enlarged version of the selected designs as a keepsake for each winning artist.

The sending and receiving of cards brings so much pleasure and generates valuable income for us. Our cards will be advertised on our website and sold in local shops and online. We will acknowledge the artist on their card and our thanks for the contribution they have made towards the construction of a new environmentally friendly and educational cat rehoming Centre in the Aire Valley

The closing date for entries is May 1 2009.

I don't want to share my bed with you......

2009-02-17T16:05:00.004Z

The early weeks of each year are normally good times for us as far as rehoming is concerned, with people looking to adopt a cat after the hustle and bustle of Christmas and before the holiday season starts.

This year is no exception, and we are delighted to see lots of little faces going off to live happily ever after. It's wonderful to see a cat come to our centre on Saturday and then wave goodbye to him or her on Sunday, even though we haven't really had chance to get to know his character.

Some cats, however, take a lot more shifting! Take Sasha for example. Sasha came to us about 2 years ago when her previous owner died unexpectedly whilst undergoing a routine operation. Sasha was understandably shy and stayed with us for a few weeks before we found her a new home.

The stress of her move to our centre, followed by the move to her new home became too much for Sasha, and she began to have possession issues over her bed. Basically she would attack anyone who approached her whilst she was in the bed, and given that she spent most of the day there, that gradually evolved into aggression whenever anyone approached her.

After almost a year in her new home, the people who had adopted her reluctantly brought her back.

Although we were able to cuddle her and stroke her as soon as she arrived, Sasha still acted aggressively when in her bed.

We allowed her to keep the same bed (a covered one) for a few weeks, and then we removed it to give her an open bed, but in the same position. Whenever we approached her we ignored her whilst she was in the bed, but made a fuss of her outside the bed.

Gradually, she began to accept our strokes and come to us for cuddles, and even got out of bed on purpose to approach us for strokes.

She will now allow us to stroke her in the bed without showing any signs of aggression unless she is awakened abruptly.

We hope a new understanding owner will come forward for Sasha quite quickly now. She will most certainly have possession issues in her new home surrounding her bed, but we are confident that an experienced new owner will be able to work with us and with her to reduce the fear and aggression.

Hands don't always hurt

2009-01-20T13:41:00.000Z

One of the hardest and yet most rewarding things we do, is the taming up of feral kittens. It is a delight to see a nervous, bewildered kitten begin to realise that there is lots of love to be had if he or she chooses to accept it.

One such kitten is Russet who was found living in a garden. We called her Russet because when she came in she was so wild we couldn’t pick her up, so we didn’t know if she was a boy or a girl.

Gradually she began to realise that when we approached her it was to give her food, or to gently talk to her. She cowered at first, but then one day she dared to rub her head against someone’s hand, and she enjoyed the sensation. It felt great to have her head stroked!

Bit by bit she allowed her carers to handle her more, to pick her up, cuddle her and tickle her tummy. Her loud excited purr showed us how much she was enjoying the attention.

Russet will now allow herself to be handled by the people she knows, although she is still nervous when people walk past her whilst she’s on the floor. If she’s at eye level, or on a chair she demands attention.

We will be looking for a home for Russet soon, and we will be delighted to see her go – to a safe home where her nervousness will be understood and she will be allowed to grow in confidence and trust.

If you would like to support Haworth Cat Rescue, you can make a donation here.

Thank you

A Christmas Cracker

2008-11-28T16:37:00.002Z

We don't normally use The Moggie Blog to advertise for homes for the cats at our centre, but we're making an exception for Tallulah.

This pretty girl came to us in March 2008 after she wandered exhausted into a hairdressing salon in Bradford. Despite extenisve enquiries we were unable to trace her owners.

Tallulah is "an older lady" with a sassy personality - if she were human she would be waving her walking stick at buses as she crossed the road in front of them!

She has been diagnosed with a hyper-thyroid, but is stabilised on medication which she takes surprisingly well.

Normally, when we get in older cats that we are unable to rehome, they end up being permanently looked after by one or other of our regular volunteers or supporters.

The trouble with Tallulah is that she doesn't like other cats, and of course the people most likely to offer her a home already have cats, and Tallulah turns into a real harridan when in the presence of other cats!

Tallulah is generally speaking happy to be around people but may swipe if she is annoyed. She is incredibly nosey and likes to know what is going on. She eats well, and of course is litter trained. Haworth Cat Rescue will pay for any age-related medical conditions for Tallulah, including of course the medication for her hyper-thyroid.

We would love to hear from any experienced cat owner who has no other cats (or dogs!) and who feels that they could offer Tallulah a loving home for the autumn of her life.

Please don't let Tallulah spend Christmas behind bars - please contact us if you would like to meet Tallulah - haworth.catrescue@btinternet.com

Nervous Nellies? No, not us

2008-11-05T12:07:00.002Z

Running a rehoming centre such as ours, we get all sorts of personalities of cats. Some are rampant extroverts. Others are naturally reserved or shy. Yet more have had some trauma and their personalities have become withdrawn as a result - these are often the most rewarding cats for us - as once they start to feel more settled, their confidence increases and their personalities start to show.

Take our lovely Betty Fluff. We know nothing of her background. She turned up in the grounds of a sheltered housing complex where pets were not allowed. She was in a bad way with tangles and knots in her lovely fur, and she was starving hungry,

She was taken to a local vets who de-matted her and kindly cleaned her teeth. And then she came to our centre.

On arrival she was very depressed, hissed if anyone went near her and would never eat in the presence of people. Gradually, as she realised that she was safe, she began to relax. She is now able to respond well to strokes and grooming. She will eat and wash herself whilst people are in her pen, and whilst she is still not comfortable being picked up, we think this is just a matter of time. We are really looking forward to the day we rehome her - and we'll ask her new owners to send us photos. We bet the first one will be of her curled up and happy on the bed or in front of the fire.
Another cat who came into our care recently was Lulu. She had been placed in a commercial cattery by Social Services, after her previous owner died or went into residential care. She had been virtually ignored there for about six months - she'd been fed and cleaned out, but very little interaction. She became totally depressed, spent all day hidden under her blanket and did not respond to anyone.

She came to the attention of one of our supporters who spent some time with her and saw her start to respond. With the permission of the cattery and the SS she came to our centre where she reverted to her former shy self. We gave her a few days to settle then gradually encouraged her to come out from under her blanket, and she began to respond to our attention.

To our delight, she was spotted on our website and a lovely new owner came and offered her a home at the weekend. He knows she will be very unsettled at first, but he is prepared to give her the time and patience she requires. We are sure that before too long we will be getting reports about how well she is settled.

The moral of this story is that even the shyest, most afraid cats have a good hope of becoming settled and ready to be petted and handled. If you come across such a shy cat, ask yourself why, and see if there is something that can be done to improve his or her confidence and life.

Drowning in the rain

2008-10-08T14:58:00.003+01:00

We had torrential rain here on Saturday. During the course of the day, a lady in our town looked out of her window and noticed a bucket in the middle of the garden next door.

Some time later the bucket caught her eye again, but this time she noticed some movement in it. Thinking that perhaps a bird or mouse had fallen in, she went to have a look and rescue it.

Instead of wildlife, imagine her horror when she found 8 tiny kittens in there. The bucket was rapidly filling with water, and two of the kittens had already drowned.

She was able to remove the remaining six, but one had become too cold and despite all attempts to save her, she too died shortly afterwards.

The five surviving kittens, who are about 5 weeks old, are friendly and used to being handled, so there is very little likelihood that the kittens were the offspring of a feral cat and put in the bucket by their mum. It seems to us that they were deliberately put in the bucket in the hope that they would drown.

This is such an act of unspeakable cruelty that it has left us almost speechless.

Double Trouble

2008-09-10T16:01:00.002+01:00

Despite the current economic crisis, the credit crunch and the downturn in the economy, there are an increasing number of people who think that they can make a fast buck by getting a pedigree cat and breeding from her.

Nothing could be further from the truth. To a breeder, the money earned from this will rarely cover the costs incurred.

Let's look at some of the expenses:

the cost of the cat - this could be anything from a few hundred pounds to a few thousand, depending on the breed
medical costs - most owners of stud cats will not allow their cats to mate with other cats who do not have a clean bill of health, verified by a vet.
stud fees - again these will depend on the breed and on the pedigree ancestry
light, heat and food for the cats and her kittens
vaccinations for the kittens
advertising costs
registration costs with the GCCF (to get their pedigree paperwork)
emergency vet bills - few litters get to a rehomeable age without having needed veterinary care, and they should be medically checked too
costs of keeping the queen in between litters - she should not be allowed to breed every year, and she should be kept indoors, or in an enclosed run, so that she doesn't pick up any viruses etc from other cats or worse, become pregnant by a passing tomcat!

And what if she only has two kittens in her litter? Or maybe only one, or she miscarries, or doesn't conceive? The income you might get for this situation is very low, or nil!

And of course, as people tighten their belts in the current crisis, there are going to be fewer willing to pay large sums of money for a pet that might cost them a lot of money.

Bianca and Carly, pictured above, are the result of someone getting a siamese cat to breed from. Instead of taking the necessary precautions to ensure that she could not get out, they allowed her free range and of course when she came into season she mated with a stray tom.

To add to the list of errors, her owner then left her and the kits in a quiet bedroom, well fed no doubt, but not handled, so that the kittens became wary of being handled and are now very timid.

When unable to sell them for £50 each, they were passed to us for rehoming. Sadly he has not heeded our advice to have her spayed and will no doubt let her breed again, although we very much doubt that he will find anyone willing to allow their stud cat to mate with her.

Carly and Bianca have both been rehomed. Luckly, Bianca wasn't too scared and once she'd gone Carly realised that she actually quite liked being stroked and gained confidence quickly, but this amateurish and irresponsible approach to breeding is one of the reasons that there are so many unwanted cats - even pedigrees and part-pedigrees - out there.

Tinkle tinkle

2008-08-13T16:55:00.002+01:00

We are often asked to take in cats because they are urinating or defecating away from their litter tray. Ginger is a typical example. She has been messing where she shouldn't and her owner can cope with it no longer.

Cats usually do this for one of three reasons;

1. They are unwell.
2. There has been a change in the household/environment which is causing them ongoing stress.
3. There was a circumstance in the (recent) past which caused them stress, and although the circumstance may have gone or changed, the cat has got into the habit of marking or messing.

To resolve this, we suggest:

1. First of all, have the cat checked over by a vet. Some cats display anti-social behaviour, including inappropriate marking, when they are feeling unwell, even though the cause of the illness may have nothing to do with the behaviour. Your vet should be able to give the cat a full health check, and if s/he rules out any illness, we suggest you follow the suggestions below.

2 & 3. The first thing to do is to establish (if possible) the reason that the cat has felt the need to mark. Have there been any changes in the house? It could be something as significant as the arrival of a new baby or new pet, or something as apparently insignificant as a new suite. If you cannot establish any changes, it could be an external change - such as a new or stray cat in the area, a new dog nearby, building works on a neighbouring property.

Most spraying habits can be broken. We suggest the following course of action, together with the list of other ideas below:

If the behaviour is due to another cat or even a dog,
1. we suggest you completely separate them, one in one room and the other in another room. Give them specific bedding and swap the bedding every day so that they get the sense of each other's odour.
2. after a few days allow them to meet on neutral territory. If it is two cats, allow them to hiss at each other and even to engage in gentle fight - only separate them if they are really tearing into each other. It is normal for them to yowl and hiss and to fluff up and display aggressive behaviour. Try not to intervene as they are beginning to establish a hierarchy. Once they separate, put them back in their separate rooms. If it is a cat/dog situation, allow the cat to jump away from the dog, and if the cat hisses or swipes at the dog try not to intervene - the cat is just establishing boundaries.
3. Continue this pattern and gradually increase the amount of time and the places they spend together. Allow them back to their safe rooms and their own litter trays.
4. Once the animals are less stressed with each other, start to feed them in the neutral room, on separate plates at some distance from each other but on the same level if cats. You might consider feeding a cat high up if the other animal is a dog. Don't give them full meals, just give them treats or small snacks.
Gradually the animals may tolerate each other and the marking should stop. Do not let the animals into each other's safe place. Don't rush it!

If the behaviour is a habit, the best way to break the habit is to crate the cat.
1. Put the cat in a large cage with room for a bed and litter tray, and food if possible.
2. Regularly take the cat out, and cuddle or play with him, but don't let him free-roam. Put him back in after playtime/cuddle time.
3. If/when he uses the litter tray, give him a small treat, if possible as soon as he has used it.
5. After a few days, extend his territory, but don't remove the crate if possible, and certainly don't move the litter tray. Extend the territory by only one room at a time.
6. If he regresses and spray, start again. Don't rush it.

The following may also be helpful:

1. try using Feliway - a plug-in which you can get online or from vets and some petshops. This releases pheromones into the atmosphere which in many cases calm the cat(s) and reduce the stress they are feeling.
2. Try using Bach Flower remedies - available from a health store - they too may reduce the amount of stress the cat is feeling (Bach Flower Practitioners at the Health shop will advise which is the best to buy).
3. Make sure you clean up any messes with mild products which DO NOT CONTAIN AMMONIA. If you use an ammonia based product, the cat will believe that another cat has been there and will mark the place to reassert his/her own scent. If the mess is cleaned up quite soon after the cat has left it, you are unlikely to catch anything and you don't need strong disinfectant for reassurance. Bleach and Dettol are commonly used, but not only are they likely to cause the cat to re-spray, they are also poisonous.
4. Any odour can be masked by burning oil such as rose flavoured oil. Try not to use anything "chemical" as the cat may respond to the chemical odours by spraying again.
5. If the cat is regularly using a particular place to mess, try putting fresh citrus there - orange or lemon peel. Cats do not like this odour. Another suggestion is to put the litter tray in the place where the cat is messing. It may remove the habit in a different way.
6. Water spray - keep a water spray to hand (the sort you use to mist plants). As soon as you see the cat messing/spraying, squirt it full face once with the water and walk away, no eye contact, no verbal. It is imperative that this is done whilst the cat is misbehaving. S/he will soon associate the behaviour with the water and it may well break the habit.

As for Ginger, not a drop out of place since she came to our shelter. Her previous owners thought it was due to the stress of another cat, and we have to agree!

Whoops a daisy

2008-07-09T14:06:00.002+01:00

Most of the cats who come into our small shelter follow a routine pattern of neuter, microchip and then rehome.

Sometimes, however, we get a case that is slightly unusual. Such is the case with Smudge.

The lady who brought her in had originally found her as a pregnant stray, had then taken her in and found homes for the kittens when they were old enough to go and very responsibly had her spayed.

Shortly after her operation, her owner noticed that she was very unsteady on her legs and fell over if she tried to jump. Smudge continued to be her usual friendly happy self, but just couldn't balance.

Her owner felt that she could no longer cope with Smudge's disability and asked us to rehome her. The first thing we did when she came into our care was to have her checked over by the vets. Blood samples were taken, tests were run and we watched her carefully to monitor any improvement or deterioration.

All came back clear! Her condition - whatever caused it - is stable and all the tests showed that she had no diseases or medical conditions such as epilepsy.

So she is a mystery! The vets suggested that it might be a case of poisoning or an allergic reaction to something, or that she'd had a mild stroke, but feel that she is unlikely to get any worse.

She has very poor balance and often falls over when squatting on the litter tray. We've pretty much solved that by giving her a covered litter tray so that there is less mess if she does fall over, and she sometimes needs to have her back legs and bottom cleaned after she's been to the loo. On the bright side, she is not going to wander far and because she can't jump she won't go over a garden wall and won't jump onto kitchen work tops.

We feel that Smudge, a young friendly cat, deserves a home despite her disability, and we hope that a caring new owner will come along soon, fall in love with her and live happily ever after!

Spending my Nine Lives far too fast....

2008-06-18T15:54:00.002+01:00

Hello Bloggers,

My name is Charlie, and I'm a right Charlie. I came into Haworth Cat Rescue about 10 days ago after I was found wandering along the side of the road in a quiet village. The people who found me made enquiries and discovered that several other kittens had been found in and around the same area in the preceding days. But no-one knows where we all came from. So that was one life gone!

When I arrived at Haworth Cat Rescue I had terrible diarrhoea and my bottom and back legs were very very dirty. Whilst I was being bathed, it was discovered that I had a swelling on my lower abdomen which was very very bruised, but the folks at the rescue didn't know what it was. They took me to the vets who decided to deal with the diarrhoea first and gave me lots of different medicines to take.

But after a few days, the lump under my tummy began to swell and I was taken back to the vets for a check-up. They decided to operate on my lump and the next day I had a major operation. All my insides had been moved around and were in the wrong place, probably due to a trauma! Another life gone!

I was allowed to come home the next day and I did really well for a few days, then my lump started to swell again, so back to the vets I went, for another op! Another life gone! This time it was a simple repair and I was back home again the next day.

We've no idea why I had such traumatic injuries - the folks at HCR think I might have been thrown from a vehicle, or maybe kicked, but because I'm very friendly they think that I must have had a home at some time in the past.

If you have kittens you don't want, dumping them in a remote village isn't the answer - try and find them good responsible homes. Better still, get your girl-cats neutered so that they don't have unwanted litters in the first place.

As for me, I'm doing my best to hang on to the lives I still haven't spent. You never know, I might need them in the future.

Love Charlie Kitten

Let Nature Take its Course

2008-06-12T16:22:00.011+01:00

Although The Moggie Blog was created to tell you about some of the cats who pass through our shelter, we were told about Gus by another organisation and felt that his story should not go unnoticed. Our friends, another charity operating in a town near us, were notified about Gus, who was living as a stray on premises privately owned but open to the public, at some distance from their base. No charities nearer the premises were prepared to help. Advice given to the finder by the nearest organisation was to "let nature take its course". Our friends were told about Gus about 4 weeks after it had been noticed that he had sustained an injury to his neck. Employees of the premises were told not to feed Gus and the other cats living on the site in the hope that they would go away. Our friends took a trap and tried to catch Gus on several occassions. They were unsuccessful, but managed to catch and neuter two female cats and to remove their kittens for rehoming, and to catch and neuter a further three toms. All the adults were returned to the site. Gus proved to be more elusive and showed his contempt for the way humans had treated him by repeatedly spraying on the trap and walking away. Eventually our friends located an employee who - contrary to his instructions - had fed Gus and the other cats. He was able to simply pick Gus up and put him in a cat basket. Now neutered, Gus has had lots of dead skin removed from around the wound site, the wound has been cleaned, and is healing, but he is still very wary of humans and will try to bite when his wound is dressed.

The story of Gus raises several points. Firstly, and most obviously, it is nothing but cruelty to leave an animal, any animal, with such a dreadful wound. At best the wound might heal badly, but more likely, at worst, the wound would become infected and could cause the animal to suffer a long period of pain and distress, culminating in a painful and protracted death. At this time of year, open wounds such as this would attract flies, and maybe larger vermin.

Secondly, not feeding the cats won't cause them to simply go away. They will look for food sources and safe places to nest, and set about the business of starting a colony. A single un-neutered female cat can multiply very quickly and it would not be beyond the bounds of possibility for there to be 20 cats a year or so later.

The best approach is to work with local rescue centres, to try and neuter the cats. If there are too many for the rescue centre to handle, maybe you could assist by allowing several of the older cats to return once they've been neutered. Given a safe place to eat and a regular supply of food, they will provide an effective and safe rodent control. If you are the manager or owner of a location or site which has a fledgling colony, encourage your employees to start a food rota, the cats can be fed daily in a safe place and it is unlikely they will be seen much around your premises during the day. They will come out at night and earn their keep by ratting etc. Most charities will take any kittens as they are easier to tame, and there may even be some tame adult strays in the colony who can be rehomed. If you act quickly, there shouldn't be too many feral cats who are unable to be tamed.

The worst thing you can do is to "let nature take its course". Apart from the suffering that the injured and sick cats will endure, they will breed and nature taking its course will result in many many more unwanted cats.

Such locations, including farms and factories inevitably end up 'supplying' small kittens to employees or nearby houses and distant relatives - many of whom take on the kitten without considering the long term. By doing this they add to the cat population. This means we struggle to find homes for our cats and thus cannot admit needy animals. Sadly many of the kittens 'handed out' to the community are never blood tested nor neutered. That spreads, further afield, diseases and breeding cats. At the end of the chain somewhere another litter is denied admission by hard-pressed rescues or put to sleep, drowned or dumped. Last year, the charity who took Gus, a small local charity, neutered over 1200 cats, many located a long way from their "patch". And still the excess of unwanted cats continues.

As for Gus, he is on the path to a happier future. His wound will take some time to heal, but whilst his physical wounds are recovering, his carers will begin work on his psychological wounds. They will start the long process of teaching him that humans can be trusted. That he can learn to live alongside people, relying on them for food and warmth, and maybe one day he will be confident enough to be rehomed as a domestic pet. If not, we believe our friends will try and find a home for him on a stables or farm, or maybe return him to the original site. Had they let nature take its course, he would by now be dead or dying, alone, unloved and unwanted.

Is this really what Mother Nature intended for her purry furry little guests?

Stand down Red Alert

2008-05-28T12:00:00.004+01:00

You may remember our recent blog about Tia, our little nervous chintz lady.

Shortly after we told you about her, we began working with a pet behaviourist to see if we could improve her confidence.

We started off by making Tia's pen completely "safe". We put towels around the lower half, like curtains, so that she could sit on the floor and not be seen by anyone or any other cats. We placed a table in one corner of her run so that if she chose she could sit on it and watch what was going on, or she could hide underneath it on a soft bed. We also provided several cardboard boxes for her to sit/hide/play in, and we kept her door shut, so people couldn't peer into her shelter, though she could access the outside run by her cat flap should she choose to do so.

All volunteers were instructed not to approach her or look at her and not to talk to her. One volunteer only attended her needs, feeding, cleaning etc, and spent a few minutes each day sitting with her (reading usually) but not talking to her or looking at her.

It was incredibly hard for our volunteers, and many felt that they were abandoning her, and that
Tia would think she had done something wrong if we didn't talk to her.

In fact, the reverse occurred. Tia started off being a constantly alert cat, we never saw her sleep, eat, groom herself or play and we never heard her miouw or purr. We rarely saw her move. The behaviourist described it as a "frozen watching stance".

Within a few days of our new regime Tia was relaxed enough to eat when our volunteer was in her pen reading, and shortly after that she began grooming herself and moving around her pen.

A great breakthrough came after a week or so when Tia sat with her back to our volunteer looking out of her window, and later dozed off when our volunteer was there.

She also began to take an interest in what was happening outside her pen. She often sat on her table looking over the "curtains" particularly at meal times, and quite often she "shouted" at the volunteers when they walked past her with other cats' food.

After a couple of months we decided to allow the other volunteers to go into her pen, and all volunteers were instructed to talk, not at her, but around her. Gradually we allowed some of the more regular volunteers to stroke her if she seemed comfortable, and Tia seemed to enjoy this and occasionally started to purr.

Ten weeks after the behaviourist's first visit, Tia followed one of our volunteers out into the safety run whilst her pen was being cleaned out. That night, we left the door of her pen open so that she had access to the safety passage thinking that Tia would probably be intimidated by it, but to our delight she explored the run completely and settled down to relax in a sunny position.

Now our objective is to find a home for Tia. She has, in just over three months, come on in leaps and bounds and has gone from being a cat constantly on watch, to a cat who although still lacking some confidence, has started to take an interest in what is going on around her. We used to call her stance "Red Alert" - now it is only a pale pink alert.

Bursting at the seams

2008-05-14T11:58:00.003+01:00

In nearly twenty years of cat rescue we have never known a year like it. We expect to have a fair few number of kittens at this time of year, but we have nearly 40 currently in foster homes or ready to be rehomed this weekend.

Amongst those are a total of seven orphan kittens.

The first bunch, known as "the Netto Kittens" were found by a young lady when she was jogging through a supermarket carpark on her way home. They were near a carrier bag and as far as she was able to tell, they had crawled out of the bag. There was no sign of their mum and it is unlikely that they had been born in that location.

The kittens were only 3 weeks old when they were found and would probably not have survived more than a day or so - and even less if they had been found by a predator. Two weeks later, they are thriving, but require a feed every 2-3 hours.

Next we were asked to take in a couple of kittens which had been found in a shed. The shed had been unopened for over two years, but had a hole at the top of the door. Sadly near to Merlin and Gandalf were the remains of other kittens, at least one from a previous litter. We suspect that the mother cat had raised previous litters there but had stopped bringing food for them when subsequent litters had been born, and because of the location of the hole (at the top of the door) the kittens had been trapped and starved to death.

Last but certainly not least, we were asked to take Tom who was found all alone in a stables. The finders very sensibly observed from a distance for many hours to see if his mother was around, but were unable to find her, or any other kittens, and so asked us to take him. He was only about 10 days old when he came in, and he needs intensive feeding and care. The younger they are the less their chances of survival. Tom is coming along fine, but we are taking it a day at a time at the moment.

In addition to the orphans we have eight mother cats with a total of 31 kittens. Our foster homes are bulging at the seams and we are just glad that six of the kittens will be ready to go to new homes this weekend.

There are things you can do to reduce the number of cats. The most obvious is to have your female cat spayed and your tom cat castrated (it takes two!). If your cat does have kittens before you can get her spayed, then please make sure her kittens go to homes where their new owners will ensure that they are neutered before they get chance to breed.

Check all your outbuildings regularly - especially if you have buildings that are rarely used. If you do find a litter of kittens, keep handling them and feeding the mother cat. Ask your local cat rescue to help you trap and neuter the cat if she is feral (domestic cat gone wild) and again try and find homes for the kittens where the new owners will neuter. Even if you release the cat in the area where she had the kittens, she will have a better chance of survival if she is spayed. If you ignore it, the cat will regard the shed as a safe place and may have future litters there, as may her daughters and grand-daughters.

Cats are lovely, and we all adore cute little kitten faces, but sadly there are far far too many cats. Neutering is a safe and sensible way to try and reduce the population.

Feisty Feral? - we don't think so!

2008-04-22T15:45:00.003+01:00

Some of the saddest cases we have to deal with are the cats who have missed human contact at an early age and become feral.

Feral is a term that is often misused, it simply means "domestic gone wild" but people often imply that a domesticated but aggressive cat is feral. This is not the case. Feral cats are hardly ever aggressive, they are simply shy and will avoid most human contact as much as possible. A domestic cat with aggressive tendencies may however strike out.

The picture shows Brucie, a young male cat who turned up in the garden of one of our volunteers. She was unable to find any owners, and we suspect that he may have been born on a farm or in a garden and not had any (or much) human contact when he was a kitten. In the picture Brucie is meowing, not hissing!

We hope you will find the information about feral cats useful and interesting. Remember they are just as much a cat as are the little fluffy cute ball of fluff who sleeps on your toes and kisses your nose. They just didn't get as easy a start in life.

The Nature of the Feral cat: Cats are not genetically feral. They are not wild-cats, they are domestic cats gone wild. Cats normally become feral if they miss out on essential early handling, and if they are not extensively handled by the age of about 8 weeks they can remain feral cats for life. It is possible for a tame cat to have kittens which become feral and for a feral cat to have kittens which become tame. It is as easy for a litter of kittens to become feral when born in a house and ignored, as it is for them to become feral when born totally away from human contact.

Behaviour of a feral cat: The first thing a feral cat will try and do when approached is to flee. The instinct is to run, not attack. A feral cat will only attack if it is cornered and can see no way of escape. Once a way of escape becomes clear, the attack will cease and the cat will flee. The only exception to this is a mother cat who may attack to protect her tiny kittens if she feels that they are threatened.

Offering a home to a feral cat: At Haworth Cat Rescue we normally rehome cats in pairs, as they have less of a tendency to wander if they are situated with a cat of their acquaintance. As circumstances dictate, however, we may also home singly or in groups of three. The first thing that the new owner must do is to ensure that there is an enclosed room on the farm/stables/factory where the cat(s) can spend the first few days. The room must be escape-proof and cleared of any poison put down to discourage vermin (the cat will take care of the vermin!). The cat should be fed twice a day at roughly the same times each day, and a litter tray, water and bed (straw would be fine) should be provided. It also helps if there is a place where the cat can hide (again a couple of bales of straw are fine). After a few days, the door should be left slightly ajar, or a window open, but always allowing the cat easy access and exit. It is best if this is done at a quiet time of day, or even at night, so that unexpected noises do not scare the cat. Food should be put out for the cat when the door is first opened. The cat should not be approached initially, especially when it is first allowed out, as its instinct is to flee, and it may unintentionally get lost. Try not to "eyeball" the cat as cats see this as a threat and will probably flee. In time, the cat should become used to the routine and will expect food at the same time each day. Even if the cat is a prolific hunter, food should always be offered, and water should be available.

The cat should eventually totally ignore humans unless it is approached, but in some cases it may take an interest in the activities of humans and allow itself to be stroked or rubbed. Some cats will become totally tame, but this is the exception.

If you have a stables or a farm and you feel that you could offer a home to a feral cat, or a pair of feral cats, please contact us. They will pay for their keep by keeping your rodent population down, and they will lead a happy and contented life if they have shelter and food.

I'm NOT in love!

2008-03-05T11:49:00.005Z

Cindy is a delightful little cat who came to us as an unwanted pet a couple of weeks ago. The person bringing her wasn't too sure of her age, nor whether she had been spayed or not. We estimate her age to be around a year.

At the weekend we noticed that Cindy (who up to then had been rather aggressive, due to the stress of being in our centre), had suddenly become very friendly.

Some of the younger and less experienced volunteers felt that it was due to her starting to settle, but the "old hands" had a feeling that other factors were at work. Sure enough as the weekend progressed, Cindy began rolling and shouting. Her vocal range went from low deep throaty miaows to high pitched ear-splitting shrieks, all accompanied by trills and carrols! Yes, Cindy had come into season.

It is very obvious when cats come into season - their behaviour changes quite dramatically, they display what can only be described as provocative behaviour and their vocal range changes too.

The cats spend a lot of time with their stomachs lowered, often with their tail up in the air or moved to one side, they roll a lot and often rub their faces against furniture etc. Another indicator is the number of unknown cats - toms - who often appear as if by magic and hang around looking hopeful. Quite often they will fight each other too.

Female cats - or queens - can come into season as early as 5 months, but a great number of vets still won't neuter until the cat is aged 6 months plus. So it is possible that the cat could be mated before the age of 6 months, even when owned by the most responsible owner. Owners of female cats should therefore make sure that they are aware of the indicators of a cat coming into season, and take precautions to keep her indoors for the duration. Owners of tom cats should also be encouraged to neuter their cats, and although again many vets won't perform this operation before the cat reaches six months, tom cats usually don't reach maturity until they are a little big older.

Most of the pregnant females who come into our care are aged less than a year, and this is very young for them to carry a litter. They are still only babies themselves, barely out of kittenhood, and their bodies still aren't fully grown.

And as for the title of this blog entry, there is no even love involved. Mating is a hormone-driven behaviour, and is painful for the female cat too. Please be aware of the signs of calling and take steps to protect your cat if you can't have her spayed before six months.

Tia's tale

2008-02-06T14:23:00.000Z

Tia came to us towards the end of last year. Her previous owners were unable to keep her as they were moving house and she could not go with them. Tia came in with another cat, Maria, who we believe was either her sister or her long term companion.

It was obvious from the start that Tia was more than usually nervous. Despite the fact that she had lived all her life in a family, Tia was absolutely petrified of everyone and everything. She was so frightened that she spent the first month with us hiding behind her bed.
Eventually we removed the bed and put lots of blankets on her shelf, and Tia began to be a little less nervous.

Just after Christmas we rehomed Maria, as we felt that Tia might make better progress if she didn't have Maria to hide behind, and we moved Tia to a different pen in our cattery, one where there was slightly more activity and where she could see what was going on but still have some security. We were delighted when we put her bed back to see that Tia slept in it, not behind it!

Tia has now been on her own for just over a month and is gradually coming out of her shell. She takes an interest in what goes on around her and sometimes even miaows when it is meal times.

She will sometimes rub her nose along gentle fingers or hands, but she doesn't duck her head for strokes and she won't purr. She only seems to feel safe when she is in her bed on her shelf, if anyone goes into her pen whilst she is on the floor or out of her bed, she panics.

Tia is gradually learning that she can trust people, but she will never be a confident cat. We don't know what caused her to be so frightened and so traumatised. Her behaviour is odd in that she doesn't flinch, she just maintains a frozen immobility. We hope that with time and patience, Tia will become more used to people and that a caring, patient and understanding person will soon offer her a home.

Finding my Feet

2008-01-23T14:59:00.000Z

Hello, my name's Buster and this is my story.

I came to Haworth Cat Rescue at the end of last year after I had been living in someone's garden for a year. They couldn't keep me as they had a budgie who flew around the house and they though (quite rightly) that I'd probably catch and eat him, so they asked Haworth Cat Rescue to take me.

I can't remember if I had an owner when I was little, but I'm not frightened of people, so I probably did. But because I wasn't neutered my hormones kicked in and I went off looking for girl cats. In fact I fathered quite a few kittens and if you look earlier in this blog you will see some of my babies with their mum, Marnie (all now safely rehomed by Haworth Cat Rescue).

Anyway, when I came to Haworth Cat Rescue I found it very strange to be in a smallish space, just my own bedroom and outside run. There were compensations though, lovely meals twice a day, a heater at night and those wretched earmites that were driving me mad were given a short sharp shock and vamooshed. I was also neutered. I have to say I wasn't sure about this - I thought it might spoil my fun.

When I came to Haworth Cat Rescue I pretty much ignored all the people there. I let them feed me and I tolerated it when they stroked me, but I just wasn't interested in them. I stayed in my bed and ignored them, and in fact they used to wonder if I actually had legs!

Recently though, I've realised that I quite like getting stroked, and if I put my head towards the people they will stroke me a bit more. It's great. I've also discovered that if I rub around their legs they bend down and stroke me and pick me up and give me a cuddle. I love that!

One of them said it was because I had been neutered, and do you know, I think they're right. I no longer feel the need to run around the countryside looking for girl cats, I am quite happy to be cuddled and stroked. I am even trying to find my purr, I'm sure it's in there. It's much more fun being stroked and looking for my purr than it is looking for girl cats in a dark cold world, risking getting run over, getting into fights and picking up horrible diseases.

So, now I'm ready for a home. I didn't really care before because I had other things on my mind, but now I've proved I'm a soft old cat (with legs!!!) I think the least they could do is find me a home!

How the Mite-y are fallen!

2008-01-16T13:53:00.001Z

Many people are aware of the usual creepy-crawlies that infest our furry friends - fleas, worms, ticks and lice. But there is another common visitor who rarely gets a mention.

Ear mites! These are invisible to the human eye, but cause huge discomfort to the poor cat who has been invaded by them.

Take black and white Buster and tabby George (photos above). When George came into our care recently, we noticed almost straight away that he was scratching at his ears with his back feet. He'd even caused a little bit of bleeding around the edges of one ear. Closer examination showed crusty black deposits around the top of his ear canals, a typical symptom. Buster on the other hand, did not display any scratching symptoms, but every time his head was stroked or touched he shook his head violently, and often fell over or lost his balance as a consequence. Closer examination of his ears showed no signs of the crusty black deposits.

Both cats were taken to our vets at the first opportunity. Examination is quick and diagnosis can take place immediately. Our vet looked into each cat's ears with an auroscope and immediately saw a hive of activity as tens of little tiny mites scurried round the ear canals. The vet checked to make sure there was no infection and to make sure that the ear drum was not perforated, and then dispensed a bottle of drops for each lad.

The drops are to be administered daily for a week which kills off all the adult mites. Then there is the option of a week's break, and then the drops are administered for a second time, again for a week. This second dose kills off all the mites that were still in eggs during the first dosage. In most cases this three week course (a week on, a week off, another week on) will be enough to eradicate the pests, but of course once their courses of treatment are finished, we will keep an eye on George and Buster to make sure that none of the original symptoms recommence. If they do, we will once again ask the vet to check their ears.

Ear mites are easily passed from one cat to another and are a lot more common than people think, but they are easy and relatively cheap to treat. Left unattended the cat will scratch and shake his head in increasing amounts of pain. Years ago whilst collecting some cats from the vets we noticed a gorgeous ginger lad recovering from an operation. The vets told us that he had all but scratched his ears off due to the mites, and had had to have them re-stitched back on. The poor lad. All for a bottle of drops!

Tubby or not Tubby

2008-01-09T14:31:00.000Z

Just before Christmas we were asked to take four cats who had belonged to someone who had died. Penny, aged 8, her daughter Tuppence and sons Lucky and Joey all aged 6, came into our shelter care of a friend of their deceased owner.

All four cats were rather on the large size, with Penny being the fattest by far.

The person who brought them in apologised for their size, and made the comment that someone had thrown something sticky at Penny as she had "things" on her back that were stuck to her fur.

Upon closer examination of Penny, the "things" turned out to be matted fur which had clumped and tufted causing tangles. There were two or three larger clumps and a few smaller ones, all located in the region of her spine.

We were able to cut them off quite easily, although it did leave her with a couple of patches of thin fur.

The tangles weren't caused by something being thrown at Penny. They were caused because she is so fat she cannot turn herself properly to groom her back, and as the loose fur fell away when she moulted, it remained entwined with growing fur and gradually became knotted.

We see probably half a dozen cats each year with this this problem. The majority we can cut off, some have to be "razored" off by our vets and a minority have to undergo a general anaesthetic so that the vet can completely shave the cat.

It is so unnecessary. The cat shouldn't have been allowed to get so fat in the first place but at the first sign of a knot it should have been groomed.

Obesity in cats can cause other problems. The excess weight can put strain on their joints leading to less mobility and that in turn can result in them becoming fatter. In addition to mobility problems, excess weight can cause problems with the cat's organs, including of course the heart.

If a cat does become overweight, it is important to take proper advice with regard to reducing the cat's weight. Just cutting down the amount of food you give may not be the best step forward, as it may result in liver failure as the cat's metabolic rate changes due to fasting or eating a lower amount of food. Please take veterinary advice if your cat is overweight. You can read more about obesity in cats here.

Treat your cat from time to time if you must, but make it a treat that is designed for cats, or which suits the cat, rather than something that is designed for humans. And if you treat the cat to a luxury catfood meal, give it in lieu of his or her regular meal, not in addition!

We're sure Penny's owner wanted her to have treats and gave her far too much food out of kindness, but poor Penny will have to watch what she eats for a long time now, until she reduces to an acceptable size.

Don't kill your cat with kindness.

Season's Greetings

2008-01-02T14:21:00.000Z

Hello to all our friends.

Just a quick line to wish our readers the all best for 2008. Our hopes that this will be a great year for you and yours and for all the furry purries out there.

We also wanted to share one of our Christmas cards with you. It said "Minerva has settled in well with my mum. They love each other; it has made so much difference to mum's life, she has a focus - Minerva - and Minerva loves her. Two elderly ladies together." You can read about Minerva here

Happy New Year to you all.

How to be cost effective...

2007-12-19T15:03:00.001Z

We were recently approached by a case worker and asked to help with a situation which had grown out of control. A family had two adult female cats and a tom cat, all unneutered. A recipe for disaster!

We agreed to take the two mum cats and their combined litters, totalling nine kittens! The family loved the cats, and had handled them well, but had not been able to afford to feed so many mouths, and as a result the mother cats were starting to become hungry.

The two little mum-cats, who we have named Clementine and Sorrell, had resorted to hunting for rats to feed their babies. Judging by the fur loss on Clementine's nose they had also resorted to licking in empty tins - the fur on the top of the nose can be caught against the rough edge of the tin, and leave it bald or patchy.
The two little mum cats are taking it in turn to feed all the kittens, and it is impossible to tell which kittens belong to which mother, although some kittens are much bigger than others. They are probably aged 6 weeks and 8 weeks.

By that age they need a lot of food. The mother cats are still feeding and so all their energy is diverted towards the kittens, and the kittens themselves are starting to wean and are beginning to eat hungrily.
Neutering may be seen by some as an expensive option, but feeding 12 cats is probably more expensive in the long run, and don't forget that once the current litter is ready for homes, the mums would be coming into season ready for another batch. Added up, neutering might seem to be the cheaper option!

We will neuter the kittens at 10 weeks of age, and we will neuter the two mums when the last of the kittens are neutered. As for the lad, we have requested assistance from another charity with neutering, so that his owners can enjoy keeping him, and they will be able to afford to feed him.

Saved from Death Row

2007-12-12T15:45:00.000Z

It's rare that we can take a cat at short notice, as we usually have a long waiting list of cats to come in. Everyone who needs to ask us to rehome a cat has a valid reason and each situation feels like a priority to the person asking for help.

Apart from pregnant cats or mother cats and kittens, we therefore usually have to put cats on our waiting list, and because we have a no-kill policy and sometimes have difficult cats in our care, rehoming can be slow and our waiting list can therefore stretch back for several weeks.

Last weekend we offered a place to the cat at the top of the list and arranged for it to come in on the Sunday afternoon. At lunchtime on Sunday, we received a call to say that the cat was going to stay where it was and the person bringing it was going to give it another chance. Great news!

The next job would have been to contact the person on the top of our waiting list, but before we could do that we received a call from one of our regular supporters begging us to help. She had been told about two cats who were due to be put to sleep the next day as their owner had died and no one could take them. Normally we would have had to say no, but because of the earlier cancellation we were able to accept them.

It was a bit complicated because our supporter had heard of their plight via a number of associates and the message had to be relayed back. No one could get hold of the person who was bringing them to the vets, and in the end, the vets had to be asked to pass the message on when the cats went for their appointment. Fortunately they were co-operative and delighted to be able to save the cats' lives.

When the sister of the owner took the cats in to be put to sleep, she was given the good news and the cats were collected from the vets and brought to us later that day. The sister was delighted as the cats had been their owner's pride and joy and she had loved them to bits.

Because of the circumstances, we weren't told the names of the cats, but luckily one of them was microchipped and we were able to obtain details from that. For the other we had to make up a name, although we knew both were the same age.

So Saffron and Gilbert are now settling in, and hoping for a new home soon. We are saddened though, that their owner hadn't made provision for them. They had been well cared for and obviously much loved, but it would have been wonderful if she had asked around her friends and relatives and found someone willing to take them in the event of her death. We are all going to die one day, and if we choose to own cats (or other pets) all our lives then it is likely that one day we will die leaving a pet behind. Responsible owners would ask amongst their associates until they found someone willing to adopt them, and then would leave details of the cats's names, ages, medical history etc with other papers along with a note in a prominent place advising where the cats are to go.

It is the final act of love for our furry friends.

Half a cat

2007-12-05T14:31:00.000Z

Apologies for not updating our blog recently. The problem with being busy is that there is little time to write the blog; the problem with being quiet is that there isn't much to tell!

Mandu, short for Kat-Mandu (and known as Doo-Dee) is a lovely ginger cat, who at first glance seems to be all there. Some people don't even notice that he's only half a cat! When he runs he looks completely normal but when he walks or lays on his back the difference becomes obvious. Doo-Dee only has one back leg! He lost his other leg a couple of years ago when he was hit by a car. Doo-Dee doesn't know he's different and acts like a normal boisterous lad. So much so that he has left a couple of our volunteers rather nervous to go into his pen, as he dives for their legs. He is a lively, playful lad, chases balls and other toys and regularly challenges his scratching post to a duel (he always wins).

Roxie, is another half cat. Although we were lucky enough to find her a home at the weekend, we thought we would share her story. Roxie only has one eye, and no tail but we don't know how this happened.

Because she has only one eye, Roxie's co-ordination is slightly unbalanced - this means that if she jumps from say the floor to a chair, she may incorrectly judge the distance and either jump to far or jump short of her target. She has learnt to work around this by climbing where possible, or by using other means to get onto furniture etc.

Because she has no tail, her running balance is slightly compromised - if she runs fast she may find her back legs swaying out of synchronisation and this may cause her to stumble. Roxie has learnt to trot quickly and has an unusual swinging trot which compensates for this.

Most animals are able to adapt well to the loss of a limb, an eye or their tail, and it rarely affects their lives in a detrimental way.

One of our earliest blogs was about Vivian, a totally blind cat who is the alpha-cat in the group of cats that she lives with.

We're pleased to add that Marmalade, the little sick kitten we mentioned a few weeks ago has moved back to live with the people who found her and has assumed her rightful position as head of the household.

Rosie who had a major operation is now spayed and withstood that operation well. The vets are delighted with her progress and she has been cleared for adoption. Hopefully the right home will come along soon!

One breath after another, slowly, slowly ........

2007-11-07T16:29:00.000Z

Firstly, a brief update on our little Marmalade as so many people have emailed to see how she is. Well, the good news is that she continues to make steady progress, has put on weight and has learnt to pounce. Her latest trick is running up people's backs and sitting on their shoulders. She still has the snuffles, but we think it will be some time before those clear up fully. The best news of all is that the people who originally found her have offered her a home and will hopefully be collecting her this weekend.

Another cat for whom the future looks bright is Rosie. She was one of three cats brought in as strays in mid-October. The other two, Katie and Dexter were rampant extroverts, but Rosie was much more nervous and hid behind her bed for most of the time.

As is our custom with stray cats, we took no action to find them new homes at first, but advertised them in case any owners were looking for them. As is often the case, there was no response to our adverts. After a few days, the time came to have them neutered, and Katie & Dexter were loaded into the basket for their trip to the vets with no problems. When we came to pick Rosie up though, she ran from us but to our horror even a short run of about 3 yards left her struggling for breath. Full of foreboding we managed to get her into the carrier and off to the vets for a check up.

Sure enough, our worst suspicions were confirmed. Rosie was suffering from a ruptured diaphragm, or a diaphragmatic hernia. The diaphragm is the membrane which sits at the bottom of the rib cage, below the lungs, and acts as barrier to prevent the abdominal organs from moving into the ribcage/lung area.

In Rosie's case, this membrane was ruptured and an X-ray revealed that her liver, small intestine and half her bowels were residing in her lung cavity. No wonder she was struggling for breath. Our wonderful vets cancelled all their operations for the following day and brought in specialist equipment from their main surgery, as during the operation to repair her diaphragm, Rosie would be unable to breathe and a machine would have to take over the role of her lungs.

We were warned before the operation that Rosie may not survive as if the diaphragm was badly damaged it would be difficult if not impossible to repair it. However, Rosie was lucky. Most of the diaphragm could be repaired, and during the 90 minutes operation, the vet was able to patch it well enough to hold.

The next few hours were crucial. If it ruptured again there would be very little chance of effecting further repairs, and Rosie had to lay still and quiet for many hours. Fortunately Rosie is not a boisterous cat, and was quite content to lie still and be spoilt by the nurses at the surgery.

Thirty-six hours after her op, we brought Rosie home, and again she had cage rest for another couple of days. We monitored her breathing carefully, as any signs of distress or laboured breathing could have been an indication that the diaphragm had ruptured again, but no, Rosie's breathing remained steady.

We were over the moon. After three days we put her back in her pen, where she had room to stretch her legs and could watch what was going on outside.

The main thing we noticed was that Rosie stopped hiding. She started coming out to meet volunteers going into her pen and welcomed and looked for head rubs and strokes. The poor girl must have been in so much discomfort when we first got her that her instinct to hide came to the fore.

We asked our vets how she might have caused this damage, and they felt that it was likely to be a road traffic accident or a kick. They also felt that it could have happened several weeks earlier.

It isn't the most common injury but we have seen a couple of cases over the years, and it is worth knowing what to look for. The laboured breathing after minimum exercise is the biggest clue - and something we wish we'd spotted a couple of days earlier when she first came in.

Our heartfelt thanks must go to the wonderful team at Westmount vets who undoubtably saved her life. Rosie herself is gaining strength on a daily basis, and will be going back to the vets for a check up in about another fortnight.

The gift of a purr

2007-10-24T14:23:00.000+01:00

For most cat owners, purring is a lovely sound which to an extent they take for granted. It shows that their cat is happy and contented, revelling in the love and warmth with which he is surrounded. But for some cats, purring is a long way down the list of the things they are able to do.

Take Marmalade, for example. She was found laying in a gutter, close to death - badly dehydrated and with the beginnings of cat flu. Not far away, an adult cat with similar colouring, was found dead, believed run over. We think this was her mum. Marmalade was brought into our small shelter, a tiny wretch who voraciously ate a spoonful of food and then settled down for a weary sleep. The stream of foul smelling diarrhoea trickling unnoticed from her prompted us to get her to the vets as quickly as we could.

The prognosis was poor. Dehydration, diarrhoea, cat flu, skeletally thin, poor appetite not to mention the usual hangers-on - fleas and worms. Back at our centre, Marmalade was placed on a heated pad, and next to a heat source, and was fed several small liquid meals through the night. The vet was very pessimistic about her chances of survival, and frankly we couldn't have agreed more. The next few hours saw her clinging onto her life, and a second visit to the vet brought the news that she was slightly better, but still not out of the woods. Because of her constant diarrhoea, her tail and back legs were covered in faeces, but we were unable to bathe her because of the risk of her catching a chill on top of everything else. She stunk to high heaven!

That night, as her smelly dirty little body was being cuddled, wrapped in a blanket to keep her warm, we noticed a strange noise! At first we thought she was choking, but no, this feisty-spirited little lady was telling us, in her own way, that she was with us all the way in her fight for survival. A little rusty purr, probably not used for at least a few days, and interspersed by a coughing or sneezing fit every few seconds, was her gift to us and her way of letting us know she was going to grab every chance to survive this.

Ten days on, Marmalade is still making slow but steady progress, she has been bathed and she smells better, and her appetite is improving. Most importantly her purr-song is still gorgeous.

This product IS tested on animals ......

2007-10-03T16:26:00.000+01:00

Warning, some of the pictures in this blog may cause distress.

For a nation of cat lovers, we are sadly under-educated in many ways when it comes to the welfare of our purry friends. One thing that a lot of people don't realise is that cats can become sunburnt and this can lead to skin cancer.

The cats most commonly (but not exclusively) affected are cats who have white ears or noses, where there is little or no pigmentation on the skin.

Cats love to be out in the hot sun, dozing in the midday glare and toasting their tummies, but the suns rays can be as deadly to them as they can to humans, and like with humans, it can be easily preventable.

One way to stop your cat getting sunburnt is to keep her in during the hottest hours of the day. Let her out for a wander in the morning and then keep her in again until late afternoon/early evening when the sun's rays are less strong.

If that is impossible, you may consider using sunblock on the cat's ears. Most high factor sunblocks will be suitable, although of course the difficulty is applying it and then persuading the cat not to lick it off.

But so what, you might think. Does it really matter if the cat gets a bit of sunburn on her ears? Ask Puss-puss. She'll tell you it matters.
Puss-puss came into our care recently. Her owners moved away about a year ago and left her behind, and kind neighbours fed her. They couldn't bear the thought of her living outside in the garden for another winter and asked us to take her. Our first glance at her ears made us think that she might have sunburn. The edges of her ears were all black and scabby, and the tips were starting to fold back. We took her to the vets who confirmed our worst suspicions - yes, the ears had skin cancer, and it was spreading down towards the base of her ears. The picture above shows Puss-puss just after she came into our care - you may be able to make out a black smudge on the very edge of her right ear.

The second two photos show sunburn in various stages - the first is an early case of sunburn, and may not develop into cancer, as long as care is taken. There are no black scabs there yet, but the ear is starting to fold a little. The second photo shows a much more advanced case - the cat here has had quite substantial scabbing on his ears and has scratched the ears so that the scab has fallen off. It will regrow.

As for Puss-puss, we had no alternative but to have her ear tips removed. Had we not done so, it is likely that the cancer would have spread. Because the scabbing was down her ears almost to her head, the amputation of her ear tips was quite extreme.

Puss-puss had her operation yesterday, and she has been as good as gold, taking her medication, and not scratching her ears, even though they are swollen and may be quite sore. She will have to return to the vets at least a couple more times, and her hearing will be less effective. Additionally there is a chance that more dirt etc will fall into her ears.

In Puss-puss' case, there is probably little that anyone could have done. Her previous owners abandoned her and she was left to live outside for a year or more. But if you have a cat with pale/white ears or nose, keep a bottle of high factor sunblock to hand, or better still keep him indoors during the hot part of the day.

It might say on the bottle "not tested on animals....", but you'll know differently when you look at your cat with her pristine white ears......

Two tone rescuees...........

2007-09-28T15:12:00.000+01:00

What's your favourite colour? Blue, red, purple? What colour is your decor? Lime green, shocking pink, soft almond? What colour hair do you have? Silver, red, black, blond?

Of course we all have favourite colours, and of course we all look differently. And it is true that we are initially attracted to people who have a certain "look". That's normal. It is normal too, to be attracted to animals because of their appearance.

But it breaks our hearts when we have visitors to our centre who refuse to consider, or even meet our lovely black and white cats.

People seem to think that black and white cats are all the same, boring, dull, not pretty. But nothing could be further from the truth. There are lots and lots of different "regular" patterns, and as many "irregular" patterns as there are black and white cats with them.

Let's look at some of the different patterns. There's the Tuxedo pattern (or dressed for dinner), black with white paws and a white bib (and even then, they often have different patterns on their faces); there's the "felix" look - black face with a white stripe down the nose and a black body and tail with a white underbelly. That's a couple of the "regular" patterns, and even then they are not all identical.

As for the "irregulars" - the cat could be white with black blobs, white and black randomly scattered, it could have a white stripe down the nose, or a "fringe" of white; it could be black with white toes, or feet, or lower ankles, or legs - and sometimes with different colour legs - a mixture of black and white. It may have a white tail with a black end, a black tail with a white end, or even a black tail with a white ring or vice versa! It might have a "moustache" or "beard" - usually but not always black on white, or it could have a "Christmas tree" pattern, like Ben Purr, our late Cat-in-Charge who's photo appears on our blog main page. The list and the variations are endless!

Even in a litter of five black and white kittens with a black and white mum, there are differences! Just look at these photos of Marnie and her babies to see that!

Few cat lovers can fail to be enthralled by the symmetry of a tabby cat, the sleek beauty of the oriental breeds, the fluffy perfection of the exotic breeds. But why follow the crowd? If you dismiss the black and whites you are dismissing the privilege of having something that may look unique - you would be hard-pressed to find two identical black and white cats, other than a few of the commoner patterns.

Personalities are much more important than colour. Yes, of course people will be initially attracted to a particular colour cat, but wouldn't it be nicer to have friendly personable cat who may not be the most attractive cat in your opinion, than to have a gorgeous cat who didn't suit your personality?

Here are a selection of photos of cats recently in our shelter - all black and white, and none looking like any of the others! Let's hope we get lots of comments from readers telling us how gorgeous their black and white cats are.

And don't get us started on black cats who are almost as unpopular ............ Or the people who want a cat to match their decor ............. shocking pink? Lime green? I don't think so!!!

Our throw away society ..........................

2007-09-19T16:22:00.001+01:00

We often receive calls for help from people who have found cats in distress, but nothing is more upsetting than to receive calls about tiny motherless kittens. Sometimes the absence of mum-cat can't be helped - she may have been run over, or rejected the kittens, or simply be too ill to care for them. But too many of the calls we receive relate to kittens which have been dumped.

Take the call we got just over a week ago. Some children playing in a park had found three kittens in a carrier bag. They were aged approximately 10-15 days. What chance of survival would they have had if they hadn't been found?

Hand-rearing kittens is a time-consuming and long process, fraught with difficulties and more often than not the kittens succumb to various ailments and may not survive. Even if they do survive, they miss out on essential antibodies from their mum and this can cause them to have a lower chance of surviving diseases which they may encounter as they get older.

Additionally, they don't learn socialisation skills, and although they bond well with their humans, they may become over possessive and fail to develop properly in cat society.

When tiny, they need to be fed every couple of hours, which can be very tiring for the person feeding them, as they need to be fed through the night as well as during the day.

They also need to be helped to go to the loo. This is done by rubbing their bottoms with tissue paper or similar to encourage them to urinate and defecate.

One of the least endearing things about orphan kittens is their need to suckle. Left with mum, their instinct would be to plug in to the "milk bar" and gently suckle for a large proportion of the time, both to feed and to gain comfort. Bereft of mum, they will often suckle each other, but usually end up suckling the male kittens' genitalia. Not pleasant as this stimulates the male kitten to urinate, which then covers the kitten suckling. In addition to this, the kitten doing the suckling ingests a considerable amount of urine and sometimes faeces, which can lead to infections etc. And of course it can make the male kitten being suckled very sore.

Back to these kittens. Two little ginger and white boys and their chintz/calico sister.

We called them Tony, Jason and Rebecca, and so far they are doing well, although they have had to have a trip to the vets because of diarrhoea. But they are doing as well as can be expected, starting to sit up a bit and take notice, and even beginning to play a bit, especially Jason. Their teeth are beginning to come through (ouch!!) and in another few days they will start to gain some bladder control. At the moment, they still have to have their bottoms wiped, and they really complain about it, especially Rebecca!

The sad sad part of all this is their poor little mum. Assuming that they were dumped because they weren't wanted, we are sure that somewhere out there, their mum is missing them dreadfully. She will be full of milk, and very uncomfortable. Additionally, she will soon come into season again and another litter of unwanted kittens will be born.

The future is bright for Jason, Rebecca and Tony, as long as they are strong enough to survive, but for their mum and her as yet unborn future litters, surely neutering her would be a more humane and caring approach.

Sadly, we'll never know!

One coincidence after another....

2007-09-12T12:43:00.000+01:00

This is a tangled tale, so take your time! We were asked by our vets in Hebden Bridge to take in Minerva (you can read about her in an earlier blog). She had been handed in as an unwanted pet to their Huddersfield branch, and transported by them to Hebden Bridge to make it easier for us to collect her.

Meanwhile, in Bradford one of our supporters spotted a small cat on the central reservation of a busy road, which she braved rush hour traffic to rescue. Our supporter's sister (one of our volunteers) was chatting about this to someone at her keep fit class, and this person mentioned that her sister had lost a cat, near Hebden Bridge. It was quickly established (due to age and colour) that the Bradford cat wasn't the lost one in Hebden Bridge, but our volunteer remembered the one we'd taken from the vets there, and mistakenly assumed that Minerva hailed from the Hebden Bridge area.

Despite our assurances that it couldn't be their cat, the owners of the lost cat came to visit, and ruled Minerva out. But they didn't leave us their contact details to be used in the event that their cat was passed to us.

A couple of weeks or so pass. Then one of our volunteers who lives in Todmorden noticed a thin cat in the garden. She fed it and the cat moved in (into her teenage son's bedroom - brave cat!). This volunteer is also a volunteer for the local (Todmorden) Cat Protection, and also has a part time job at our vets, but at the Todmorden branch, not Hebden Bridge. She checked the CP lost and found list and the one held at the vets, but there were no matches.

Then she emailed us to ask us to check our lost and found list and to make a note of the cat's description etc. The volunteer who dealt with the email checked the l&f list and found no matches, but by chance remembered the couple from Hebden Bridge who had visited Minerva. However, there were no contact details. She remembered the original volunteer who had chatted at her keep fit class with the owner's sister, and managed to obtain her phone number.

Phoning the sister, our volunteer discovered that the missing cat actually lived in Todmorden, from where the cat had gone missing. It was looking more likely. We obtained the cat's owner's email address and dropped them a line, asking them to phone the vets to get the local CP contact number. When they phoned the vets, who should be on reception, but our volunteer who actually had the cat!

And yes, it was their cat, Pepper, who had been missing for just over a month. Our volunteer's house was in almost a straight line down the hill from where Pepper had gone missing.

A happy ending. But just think of all the coincidences

1. if our supporter hadn't found the cat in Bradford, the conversation with Pepper's owner's sister would never have taken place.
2. if we had collected Minerva from any other branch of the vets, there would have been no connection with Hebden Bridge and Pepper's owners would have had no reason to contact us.
3. the volunteer who dealt with the email remembered Pepper's owners visiting Minerva (it could have been one of several volunteers who dealt with the email).
4. Pepper had the sense to turn up not only at the home of a CP volunteer, but at the home of the one volunteer who helps us as well.

We are so pleased that Pepper's owners have been traced. We understand that her owners are going to get her micro-chipped, which in future may remove the need for coincidences.

Wild about the boy, yes I'm wild about the boy (and girls)

2007-09-06T18:35:00.000+01:00

It's funny how we seem to get "phases" of types of cats. The current phase seems to be feral mother cats with kittens who can be tamed up.

The first lot were Jessica & Millicent and their eight babies - although there were such a mixture of ages that we wondered if there were more than two mother cats involved! Jessica & Millicent were living in a factory and had to be caught using a trap. Luckily, the kittens weren't too bad and we were able to tame them up. The youngest three, George, Dennis and Fred are due to go to new homes this weekend, and we hope to find an outdoors home for Jessica & Millicent before too long. They will provide a great deterent for invading rodents!

Next we took in Tootsie - she was living in someone's garden, and when they realised that she was pregnant, they asked us to help. Again, she had to be trapped. A couple of weeks after she came to our centre she gave birth to four kittens, now three and a half weeks old.

Finally, we were told about Marnie, again a pregnant stray living in someone's garden. We sent a trap out but she had the kittens before we could catch her. Luckily we were able to trap her the next day and bring her and her five kittens to safety. The kittens are about 5 days old now.

In many ways catching the cats is the easy part. The difficulties start once they are with us. Of course the kittens need to stay with their mums for some time so that they can benefit from her milk and so that they can be cleaned and groomed and begin to learn catty-manners. But they also need to learn to trust humans and to be comfortable being stroked and picked up. With a tame cat it is easy to pick out the kittens to handle them, however, it is a different matter with the kittens of feral cats. The kittens need to be checked daily, to ensure that there is no infection in their eyes, and as they get older they need to be played with and cuddled to get them used to being handled by humans.

Easy peasy you might think! Just distract mum, grab them and then check them and play with them for a few minutes before returning them. Unfortunately it is not as easy as that! The mother cats don't realise what is happening the first few times but gradually as they begin to understand that their babies will be removed (they conveniently forget that they will come back later!) they become more aggressive and will spit, swipe and even stand over the kittens to hide them. This calls for gauntlets, thick clothes and a certain degree of nerve.

Even that isn't too bad until the kittens start to wander around their pen. Once they get to that stage our volunteer not only has to cope with a seriously irritated mum-cat, but has to dodge around the pen to try and catch the kittens and manage not to stand on the ones not yet caught!

We normally keep kittens with their mums until they are ten weeks old, putting them in a foster home for the duration of their stay with us so that they become used to living in a home and being handled. Then we have them neutered prior to finding new homes. With feral kittens we tend to separate them at about eight weeks and put them in a foster home for a month to get them used to living in a house with people, as of course we can't put them in a foster home earlier due to the feral nature of their mums.

As to the mum-cats, they are neutered and if possible returned to the site from where they came (Marnie will be going back to the garden where she came from, as the finders have agreed to feed her and provide shelter for her). Those we cannot return remain with us until we have found outdoor homes for them - in stables, farms, allotments or even safe factories or commerical units.

If you become aware of a feral cat living in your garden, please act responsibly like the finders of Tootsie and Marnie, and alert your local rescue. If you can have the cat back once it has been neutered, that would be great, and of course if you act responsibly the stray population in your garden will remain at one, whereas if you ignore the cat, you may soon find you are having to ignore far far more than one!

Quite a contrast

2007-08-22T17:13:00.002+01:00

Isn't it funny how two cats, of similar age and from similar backgrounds can have such different personalities? Take Nillie (short for Vanilla), the white cat pictured. She had lived with a single person who sadly died, and because no one in the family could take her, she came into our care. She is desperately nervous of most people and not only does she hide, but she spits as well. She is completely traumatised by most things and if given the chance will hide all day under her blanket.

She has so far bonded with one of our younger volunteers, who is just about the only person who can approach her. (Suggestions to our volunteer that she put herself up for adoption with Nillie fell on deaf ears!) But it is a start. Nillie will probably be with us for a long time, whilst we gently work through her fears and show her that there is nothing to be afraid of. Once we do rehome her, she is likely to revert and become nervous and possibly aggressive for some time, so we need to find a new owner who will be prepared to give Nillie the time to settle and develop.

Then on the other hand, we have Frisky, the ginger lad pictured. Like Nillie, his owner recently died, and no one in the family could take him. He is roughly the same age (he's three, Nillie is 2½), and yet he is completely laid back, likes to lie on his back in your arms, waving his paws and purring, and he is intensely curious about all that is going on around him. We anticipate that we will be able to rehome Frisky as soon as he has been neutered (he's booked in for tomorrow).

Some of it is down to personality of course, but a lot of cat behaviour can be traced to how they are treated as kittens and/or young cats. A cat who is handled and stroked often will become confident around people. S/he will learn to trust and will cope with changes etc - although of course there may be a little bit of uncertainty at first. A cat who isn't handled much, who is allowed to hide and doesn't become used to strokes and fussing will be more nervous and will find any change to be a complete trauma.

If you have a young cat, please handle him or her as much as possible, so that if there have to be any changes - even a holiday stay at a cattery - it will be less traumatic for all concerned.

A quick update on some of the cats featured recently. We have found homes for both Minerva and Sabrina, and the cat-flu kittens, Graham & Sylvia are much much better. Thank you to all those who enquired.

Flu from the cuckoo's nest

2007-08-15T17:27:00.000+01:00

A local cat rescue asked us if we'd take some kittens from a feral colony they were clearing. The adults were to be neutered and returned, but we all felt that it would be great to give any kittens the chance of a life in a loving home.

Two tiny bundles arrived, about seven weeks old, and surprisingly friendly. But the little things were in a very poor state - cat flu, diarrhoea, lice, worms and fleas. About the only thing they didn't have was ear mites, and luckily the adults tested negative for feline aids (FiV) and Feline Leukaemia (FeLV), which means that the kittens will likely be negative too.

Sylvia and Graham, as we named the kittens, went straight off to our vets where they were given antibiotics and cream for their eyes. The photos were taken two days after they'd come to us, and they look much better in the photos than they did on arrival, so you can imagine how ill they looked. Slowly but surely we hope to nurse them back to full health, and then neuter and rehome them.

But all this raises the sad question of why two kittens should have been allowed to get into this state. We believe that the colony of cats started from a single female who was dumped in an un-neutered state and just left to breed. Being a survivor she found a place to live where she could have kittens safely and where she could source food - either from hunting, or from scrounging. If she was friendly, it is even possible that she found herself a home eventually too, leaving her growing offspring behind to breed.

The colony is populated almost exclusively by tabby cats, a pretty good indication that there has been a fair bit of inbreeding going on, which of course can result in kittens with physical and mental disabilities, who would not survive long and who may suffer a great deal before their early death.

And even these two, who had survived for the first few difficult weeks of life, may have succumbed to cat flu, or been left blind or with impaired olfactory senses due to congested or scarred bronchial passages. Not to mention the lice, which would have driven them mad with itching (have you ever had nits? - that's how itchy it is!) and would probably have resulted in considerable fur loss, leaving them vulnerable to cold and heat - unable to insulate their bodies correctly.

All because an uncaring cat owner decided to dump an unwanted cat. If only she had been spayed, it would have saved countless cats being born to a wild, short and painful existence. Goodness only knows how many cats were born and died in this colony before cat rescues were alerted to their plight.

We celebrate the lives of Sylvia and Graham, and hope that they will have long happy lives secure in the love of their humans, but with so many unwanted cats, wouldn't it have been better in the long run to have had their ultimate great-grandmother spayed?

Drifting gently into autumn

2007-08-08T11:36:00.001+01:00

One of the hardest group of cats we have to deal with are elderly cats. These golden oldies come into our care, usually as much-loved pets who have often had to be relinquished due to the death or illness of their owner.

They are often in moderately good health and often have quiet loving personalities, just wanting a quiet lap and a warm fire in the autumn of their lives.

Minerva is a typical case, although we don't know her origins. She was handed into our vets as an unwanted stray, but due to her loving nature we guess that she has been someone's much loved cat.

Minerva likes nothing more than to cuddle herself into the crook of an arm and purr and knead to her heart's content.

But no one wants to adopt her, and in many ways we can understand this. She is an older cat so by definition she may not have many years left, and of course as she gradually drifts into old age she may need medical attention, resulting in high bills.

But on the plus side, she is less likely to wander, less likely to be hit by a car, and her (absolutely gorgeous) personality is already known, so there will be no surprises there.

It would be great to find Minerva a home for the remainder of her days, so that she can live out her life with the comfort and love she deserves.

Who left that empty cat basket in the middle of the drive?

2007-08-01T15:43:00.001+01:00

Tuesday morning, mid way through feeding the cats we noticed that someone had carelessly left an empty cat basket in the middle of the drive.

What a shock we got when we moved it - it was much heavier than it should have been and looking inside we discovered a sleek black cat, who immediately began shouting her head off.

This was obviously a case of someone no longer wanting their cat, and rather than checking with us to see if a place was available, had just dumped her with us.

We had no cat pens available, only tiny kitten pens, and we had no choice but to put her in there. Although she is dry, comfortable and fed, she has very little room and no outside access.

We don't know her name, age or background, and will have to rehome her with very little information to give to her new owners.

Our younger volunteers have called her Sabrina, and she is a friendly affectionate cat, so we hope that before long we will find her a home and she can start to settle.

Good news!!! Ben and Kitty who we featured in our last blog have been rehomed together. Fingers crossed they will settle in soon.

Don't leave me, mummy!

2007-07-16T15:13:00.000+01:00

We don't really intend to use our blog as a place to appeal for homes for the cats in our care, but we are making an exception this time.

Seven years old Ben (white and tabby) and his eight years old mum Kitty, have been with us for several weeks now, as we want to find them a home together. They enjoy each other's company, grooming each other and rubbing heads together and it would be a shame to separate them.

We often have difficulties rehoming cats in pairs, as of course it is dependent on someone coming and not only wanting a pair, but actually bonding with the pair(s) we have. Ben and Kitty don't do themselves any favours as they are a little bit timid when first meeting new people, but they are much better once they've got to know you.

Ben is bigger than his mum, and his nickname is "The Walrus" - due to his habit of laying on his back with his front paws tucked under and his back paws and tail stretched out. You may hear some of our more mature volunteers singing "co-co-ca-chew" as they walk past. Kitty is less extrovert, but can be a very loving cat once she has gained trust.

If you think you could offer Ben & Kitty a home, and you live in the Bradford/Halifax area or nearby, please email us.

At the request of readers of our blog, a quick update on some of the cats we've featured recently. Miranda and one of her kittens, Islay, have both got new homes, but we are still waiting for someone to fall in love with Johnnie.

Zelda has gone to her new home. Her kittens have been quite ill but are on the way to recovery and two of them have gone to live with the nurse at the practise where they were treated. The other three will be rehomed shortly.

Faye, who had the collar injury is doing well. Her wound has healed and she is currently in one of our foster homes with her two little kittens, Oliver and Alfie, who are now about 6 weeks old. Faye is very jealous of any attention given to the kittens, and wants all the strokes for herself. She is also cross with the kittens as they are starting to play away from her and she wants to carry on feeding them. It is a shame in some ways that there are too many cats, as she is such a good mum that it would be great to let her have future litters, but it is not to be. Faye and her boys will come back to us when the kits are about 10 weeks old and all three will be neutered and put up for adoption then.

Charlie and Tilly are both settling well into new homes and very much loved by their owners.

We hope to post on our blog again soon, please keep reading.

In again Finegan, Out again Finegan!

2007-07-02T15:10:00.000+01:00

We were absolutely thrilled to read on the BBC website about the cat who was reunited with her original owners after being missing for ten years. This happened thanks to a microchip. We hope that the person who had been caring for her for the ten years she was missing was able to contact her original owners and that some of the ten years can be filled in for her.

We had a similar story this weekend. Not ten years, but eight months. A family reported a little stray cat which they had been feeding for about a month. When a place became available at our centre, we offered it and the family brought the cat in.

As is our procedure, we scanned her straightaway and we were delighted to find a microhip. We expected her to be registered to a home in the area where she'd been found, but to our surprise her registered address was about 10-12 miles away.

We phoned her owners, who were astounded at the news - they had given her up for lost. They were able to come and claim her almost immediately, and they told us that she had been missing for over eight months.

We can only assume that she had got into a vehicle - it is unlikely that she would have wandered so far, although of course we'll never know for sure. Raffles -as she was called - was as pleased to see her people as they were to see her. Hopefully, she'll stay put now, but if she does go walkies again, at least her microchip will increase her chances of being returned to her owners.

You need a lot of bottle to do this job! NOT!

2007-06-27T14:25:00.000+01:00

We were asked to help with a cat who had had a kitten in the outbuilding of a disused pub in a town about 25 miles from our centre. The cat, although not feral, would not let the people feeding her approach, and so we decided that trapping was the best way forward. Time was of the essence as we were concerned that the kitten would become wild, or may not survive.

So we set off, equipped with two traps, two tins of tuna, two powerful torches and a van full of baskets, towels, gauntlets and various other bits and pieces.

Our first sight of the location was rather daunting, the cat and kitten were enclosed in a pub yard behind a six foot wall, with all the doors and gates boarded up. Fortunately, the lovely ladies working in the shop next door (who had been feeding her and who had alerted us to their plight) lent us a ladder, so we were able to scale the wall with relative ease.

Over the wall we were met with the sight of a rubbish strewn yard, and a little white cat screaming for her supper.

We set the trap and retreated to the shadows, and the little minx went in, ate the bits of tuna at the edge and then came and demanded some more from us. We explained to her that it would be best if she went into the trap, and after a few more attempts we were delighted to hear the "thunk" as the trap snapped shut.

We then took the opportunity to investigate the place where the kitten was living and we were horrified to see a small outbuilding packed with bin bags, boxes and worst of all empty bottles, a large number of which were broken. In the light of our torch we caught sight of the kitten hiding under a pile of bags about half way down the shed. The kitten was bigger than we'd thought. Good news on one part - she would have a better chance of survival if we couldn't catch her; bad news on the other part - she would be harder to catch.

We began to carefully remove the bags, boxes and bottles, piling them to one side of the shed, and we cleared a space in the area where we'd seen her. To our surprise, nestled against a bin bag was a second kitten - completely black. No wonder no one had seen this one!

We tried our hardest to grab the babies, but both were able to flee our hands. We set our second (tiny) trap, next to the trap with mum-cat, but after an hour there was no result and we had to reluctantly conclude that it was unlikely that we'd catch them that night.

So we left the traps set in the shed, covered them with boxes (you can see them in photos under the green boxes) and left plenty of food for the babies. The staff at the next door shop agreed to check the traps the next morning, so off we went with mum-cat in the back of our van, hoping against hope that the kits would be in the traps the next morning.

They weren't!

We decided to go back that evening and if the traps weren't sprung we'd remove them and ask the staff next door to feed the kits to get them into a routine. As they were feral, we assumed that they would not be used to people, so it was important to get them to start trusting.

Meanwhile, mum-cat - now named Miranda - was settling in well, quite friendly but very vocal. She spent most of the day shouting ("Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it in-fer-me!").

That evening the traps were still open, the food still inside, and the staff reported that none of the food they'd put down had been eaten. We were pretty confident that the kits couldn't get out of the yard, and so we made up some comfortable boxes in the shed and put a couple of plates of food down.

As we were about to leave we decided to have a last look around the yard, not really expecting to find the kittens, but to see if there were any hidey holes we'd not spotted.

To our volunteer's amazement, she suddenly noticed two little black triangular things sticking up behind a stone against a sheet of wood (look on the photo of the yard where the two pieces of wood make a cross - it was the other side of the piece of wood behind the weeds behind the cross). Wondering what they were, and thinking that they looked like a pair of ears, our volunteer cautiously approached, and to her amazement found that they were a pair of ears!!! Belonging to the little black kitten - who seemed to be very fond of attempting to camouflage himself against black things.

Very quietly and carefully our volunteer was able to scruff the kitten and tell the others that she had a kitten. Once they'd stopped thinking she was joking, a basket was quickly brought, and the little black kit was safely ensconced.

Our efforts to find the second kitten now increased, and at the suggestion of the lady from the shop, our other volunteer found the kitten about a yard from where the first one had been found. Again we were able to scruff her and get her into a basket.

Mission accomplished!! If smiles could have got us home, we would have been over those moors and back at our centre in seconds. Huge thanks must go to the ladies who fed the cats, and who alerted us to their plight. Without their contribution this would have been another family left to fend for itself and to breed unhindered.

Back at our centre, we had a look at the kittens. The white one didn't seem too afraid, so gingerly we picked it up and she (she is a girl) allowed us to handle her. Emboldened by this success we tried to pick the little black one up, and again we succeeded. This one was a boy.

Miranda was over the moon to see her babies again and chirruped at them like a demented budgie. The kittens meanwhile were more interested in chasing a moth which was desperately trying to get into the window of their pen - another indication that these aren't feral cats.

It is rare for kittens to be so friendly if they don't get human handling from an early age, so we guess that the little family must have been dumped there. The ladies feeding them had only been aware of them for about a fortnight, so we think they hadn't been there very long.

Another occasion where if the mother cat had been neutered, the owners wouldn't have been presented with unwanted kittens. At least the future is bright for Miranda, and her kittens, Islay and Johnnie, who will all be neutered before we find them new homes.

Boomerang

2007-06-11T05:43:00.001+01:00

Hello, I'm Blackie. This is my second visit to Haworth Cat Rescue, and I thought that bloggers would like to hear my story.

I used to live with my owner. We were very happy together and then one day, sadly, he died. I was devastated, and didn't know what would happen to me. Luckily, his family were very kind and understanding, and knowing how much he had loved me, they wanted to ensure that I had a good future. So they asked Haworth Cat Rescue to help, and eventually brought me to the rehoming centre. I was a bit grumpy at first and didn't let anyone stroke me for a couple of days, but after a while I realised that they aren't too bad here, and I relented.

But it's a weird place - no armchairs, no fires to warm my tummy, no television!! I'm glad places like Haworth Cat Rescue exist, but if I could make one teensy weensy wish, it would be that my previous owner had arranged for someone to take me in the event of his death. That way, there would be no need for me to be stressed and uncertain in the rescue centre. All he would have had to do would have been to ask amongst his friends and relatives to find someone suitable to take me should anything happen to him, and then put a large prominent note in his house and another with his papers. Maybe readers of this blog will do this in his memory - if you have a pet, a cat or a dog, or even a goldfish, ask your friends until you find a suitable home. If you have more than one pet, arrange homes for each one. Don't leave it to your relations - they will be sad enough without having to worry about your pets - and if you have unkind relations, they may even dump your pets rather than try and find them a good home.

So, back to my story. After ten days or so, Haworth Cat Rescue found me a lovely home with a young couple. Again, I was a bit stressed and grumped a lot at first, but my new owners worked with Haworth Cat Rescue and gradually I settled.

I did notice that one of my new owners cried every time he saw me. At first I thought it was just pure emotion - the joy of having me come to live with him - but then I heard him on the phone to the doctor, and realised that in fact he was allergic to me. He tried for a month but became more and more poorly, and so, with the greatest of sadness, had no option but to bring me back. It wasn't his fault - he had had cats before and hadn't had such a bad reaction, but sadly these things happen.

So, here I am again, still a bit grumpy, but I expect I'll calm down in a day or so. Maybe soon a new owner will come and choose me, and I'll go off again - hopefully for good this time.

Bye for now, love Blackie xxxxx

Catch up

2007-06-01T11:18:00.001+01:00

Today's blog is a catch up on some of the cats we've introduced you to over the last few weeks.

The photos above are two of Zelda's kittens. Sadly, the two littlest died at about three weeks old, they just faded away and nothing we could do could save them. We were all terribly saddened. The five survivors are doing well, nice and big and eating well - all are now weaned and really giving poor old Zelda a run for her money. She is very thin and giving far too much of her energy to the kits, so we are doing everything we can to make it easier for her.

Our big lad Charlie, is due to have his thyroid operation next week. Hopefully he will be fine, but he is responding well to the medication and his heart-rate is decreasing nicely.

Last but not least, our lovely little Faye is doing really well. Not only is the vet very pleased with the progress of her wound from her collar injury, but last night Faye had two lovely babies. Mum and kits doing well - such a proud mummy!

Collared!

2007-05-24T12:18:00.001+01:00

We received a telephone call about 10 days ago from a lady who had been feeding a stray cat for about a fortnight. The cat was very nervous and wouldn't approach her, but the lady could see that the cat had her leg caught through her collar, which was eating into her flesh, giving off a putrid smell and causing her great discomfort. Just to add to the situation, it had become apparent that the cat was heavily pregnant.

We were able to lend the caller one of our traps, and with the help of a nearly full tin of tuna, the cat was caught that very same night. What a relief for all concerned!! The lady's little daughter asked if the cat could be called Faye.

We took Faye straight to our vets where the collar was removed and the wound examined. In some ways she was very lucky - although the wound was infected and covered a big area, it was not deep, which gives it a better chance to granulate and heal.

Faye was kept at the vets for a couple of days for observation and her wound was washed several times to remove the dirt and infection.

The collar was a cat flea collar, with about an inch of elastic, which had completely lost its elasticity. The buckle part was completely rusted, whether as a result of being inside the wound, or because it had been on for a long time, we can't tell.

To our surprise the cat was microchipped. Our initial excitement about this soon wore off when her owners, instead of being concerned about her injury and delighted to have her back, indicated that they didn't want her and had given her away some time ago, even though they couldn't say to whom they'd given her. Legally, to cover ourselves, we had to ask them to sign her over to us, and we were disappointed that they didn't seem to care about her condition, nor ask how she was.

Faye is recovering nicely. She has to have cage rest so that she doesn't stretch her injury, and she is a bit bored, but the wound is healing well. By the time the kittens have been born, weaned and ready to leave her, hopefully the wound will be fully recovered and we can find her a new home too.

But how needless all this is. Why oh why didn't her original owners have her neutered? Why didn't they change the address details if indeed they did rehome her? And why did they put a collar on her that not only had been on too long, but didn't have any identification on it.

There is a lot of debate in the cat world about whether collars are good for cats - many people have had their lost cats returned thanks to id on a collar, but others have seen their cats suffer injury due to a collar, such as has happened here with Faye.

It is up to each individual owner to weigh the pros and cons of collars, but we would recommend two things to owners who use collars - firstly, make sure there is id on the collar, preferably a small engraved disc and secondly, use a safety-release collar so that if the cat's leg does become caught, there is a good chance the collar will pop off and thus avoid injury.

And remember, flea collars only treat the upper body area of the cat - they have little effect on the lower body, and you should not use any other flea products in conjunction with a flea collar.

We'll keep you posted about Faye, and let you know when her babies come along.

A right Charlie ........

2007-05-18T16:57:00.000+01:00

Staff at a local health centre reported a tatty looking stray living in the garden of an empty bungalow near where they worked.

When he came into our shelter, we discovered that Charlie had very matted fur on his stomach, and was thin and bony.

Our vets removed the worst of the tangles, and took a blood sample to test for hyperthyroidism, a condition which affects older cats.

Sure enough the test came back positive.

Hyperthyroidism is a condition which causes the thyroid gland to overact. The gland swells up and the results of this are an increased appetite, an inability to maintain weight and ultimately organ failure - more commonly heart and/or kidney.

Hyperthyroidism can be treated though, and cats who have this condition can live for many years. Tablets can manage the condition, and removal of part of the thyroid gland can remove the problem altogether - although it may recur later if the remaining part of the gland develops the same condition.

Charlie was found to have a very fast heart-rate, and is on medication to slow the heart-rate before we go ahead with the op, which we hope will give him many more years of happy life.

The bungalow where Charlie lived is now up for sale, and we are informed that an elderly lady lived there, so we must assume that she has either died or gone into residential accommodation. Poor Charlie, he must have been so disorientated when he was left alone.

The staff at the health centre were absolutely right to bring Charlie to our attention, given his condition, and the place where he was living, but it can in some cases be very difficult to make an accurate judgement of a cat who appears to be a starving stray. Some cats with this condition do look to be uncared for, but that is often not the case, and we have had many occasions over the years where "starving strays" have turned out to be very much loved cats who were well cared for and receiving appropriate medication.

If your elderly cat is starting to eat more, and yet still losing weight, it would be well worth having a blood test taken, and if the results show positive for hyperthyroidism, we recommend that you take steps to inform all your neighbours, in case they think that she is a stray, have her microchipped in case she is taken and handed into a rescue centre, and consider putting a safety release collar on her with a message to the effect that she has a medical condition.

As for Charlie, he continues to eat well (!) and we are monitoring his heart rate, so that once he is fit enough his operation can go ahead, and then hopefully we can rehome him.

2007-05-11T14:51:00.000+01:00

Tilly is the remaining member of a group of nine cats who came to us towards the end of last year.

They were found living in a garden - a very long winding garden - and enquiries by the new owner of the house to which the garden belonged, revealed that the previous owner had had a long haired black and white cat who he had threatened to leave behind.

Sure enough, amongst the cats was a longhaired black and white cat.

The new owner of the house not only felt sorry for these cats, but had a cat phobia and knew that she could not cope with a colony at the bottom of her garden. Mustering her courage and a group of friends she borrowed a trap and managed over the period of about 5 days to catch all the cats and bring them to us. This was an incredibly brave thing for her to do, given her phobia.

All nine cats were terrified, dirty and hungry and would not let anyone near them at first.

Gradually we managed to work out who we had in this little group. There was the long haired black and white cat who turned out to be mother to all the others. The others comprised two litters, one litter of three cats aged about 5 months who were completely feral, and a second litter of five kittens aged about 6 weeks, who were very very nervous but able to be handled.

Mum, Mitsi, was also tame once she had calmed down and reassured herself that she and her family were safe. We gradually began to handle the cats to assess them, and once the kittens were old enough to leave their mum, we put them in short term foster homes to get them used to being inside and being handled. All five were neutered and rehomed just after Christmas.

Of the older litter, one tamed up and again he was neutered and rehomed, and Mitsi too was neutered and rehomed and is settling in well.

That left two of the older kittens, Shadow and Tilly. We were able to find an outdoor home for Shadow, but Tilly is still with us, still hoping for a home. She loves to play and she loves to chase insects. She is incredibly curious and she will sometimes let us stroke her. She loves having the end of her tail held - she walks up and stands facing away from us with her tail in the air, and we just have to hold the end of it. But she does bite, a curious not aggressive bite, but a bite nevertheless. We hope to find a good outdoor home for Tilly, maybe with another semi-feral cat we are caring for - a stables or a farm or a similar environment, where she can take her time to get used to people. We think it unlikely that she will settle in a house.

Whilst we celebrate the lives of Tilly (who is pictured above) and her siblings and half-siblings, we fail to understand the mentality of anyone who when moving house would leave their cats behind. And worse, leave their un-neutered female cat behind. It is a population explosion waiting to happen.

Sadly, we hear more and more cases of cats left behind when their owners move. Perhaps some responsibility could be shared by landlords - maybe allow your tenants to have pets, particularly if they pay an extra bond to cover damage. Or like Persimmon Homes, who had an article in this week's Wakefield local paper, offer suggestions to help people move house with their pets.

Perhaps if owners realised that it is illegal to abandon an animal, and that they could be prosecuted for doing so, fewer people would resort to this type of behaviour, and fewer cats would be left at the mercy of their surroundings in situations where they may not cope and may not, therefore, survive.

Chasing our tails

2007-05-08T11:37:00.000+01:00

Just a quick update entry today, with promises that we will post another entry later in the week.

Zelda's kittens are all doing well, all seven are still going strong. The kitten pictured was 12 days old at the time the photo was taken (they're 15 days old today).

All seven have their eyes open and are starting to look around. They are still very wobbly on their feet, but can navigate from one side of their box to the other.

We have been lucky enough not to have to feed them supplementary meals yet, Zelda is a fantastic mum and is coping marvellously, although she is eating copious amounts of food - three large tins a day plus supplementary dried food!!!

Our main job at the moment is to make sure all the kittens seem fed, and to make sure that their eyes don't get sticky. The kittens vary in size, there are two very small ones and two much larger ones, but all seven are growing well and none are looking thin.

More about the kittens on a later blog.

We're also delighted to say that we have rehomed Snatch, the diabetic cat who featured in our blog a few weeks ago, and we have also rehomed Max, our lad who came in as a stray.

There was an excellent article about us in our local paper - you can read it here. We hope to have a good response to this, both from new volunteers and people wanting to adopt cats.

An afternoon of hard labour

2007-04-24T17:02:00.000+01:00

We were asked to take in a stray cat last week, who is either an ex-farm cat or has been dumped. The lovely tabby girl was quite clearly pregnant, but we didn't think she would be ready to deliver for a week or so.

Imagine our surprise on Sunday afternoon when one of our volunteers went to stroke her and found a tiny newborn kitten in her bed.

Over the next hour, Zelda had two more kittens, with our delighted work-experience student quietly watching her - what a great story she will have to recount in class this week.

Zelda settled down quietly and we assumed that three would be all, but to our surprise an hour or so later she suddenly delivered another. This little one was born breech, was quite weak and had to be helped to start breathing, but once he had been cleaned up, he was fine.

Again we assumed that Zelda had finished, but no, out popped number five, much smaller than all the rest and not breathing at all. We carefully cleaned his face and gently rubbed his chest and he took that all important first breath, at which Zelda, purring for England, began to groom him. To our surprise, less then ten minutes later a sixth kitten was delivered, this one shouting loudly and waving his legs in the air. That one's going to be a real character!

Zelda, as is the norm, diverted her cleaning habits to number six, which left tiny number five rather cold and abandoned. We dried him off as best we could then put him under the pile of siblings.

Zelda, with a huge smile on her face, settled down for an afternoon of licking and purring and we went to cook her well-deserved plate of fish.

Back in her pen, we did a careful head-count and were amazed to find seven! She'd sneaked another one out when we weren't looking.

Mum and babies are all doing well. The kittens may need supplementary feeds as female cats only have six nipples but for the moment all seem to be suckling and thriving. If they do need extra feeds, we'll give it to the bigger ones.

Keep reading our blog, we'll post some updates and pictures as the kittens grow. Kittens are cute, we all love their little faces and the excitement of new babies is wonderful, but there are far too many unwanted cats, so we will get Zelda and the seven babies neutered before they go to new homes!

Snatch and jab

2007-04-19T10:41:00.000+01:00

First of all the good news. Max, who featured in a recent post (A Short Tale) has found a new home. We hope he settles.

Today we are going to meet Snatch, an eight years old tortie-chintz lady. Snatch came into our care from a loving home in January. She had a companion Stella who was very thin. Snatch on the other hand was very fat! We soon put two and two together and made a hefty four.

We realised quite quickly that the girls didn't get on that well, so we put them in separate pens and concentrated on trying to build Stella up and tone Snatch down. Stella responded well, and was soon rehomed, but Snatch gave us cause for concern as she seemed constantly hungry and drank pots of water into the bargain. Once again a trip to our vets was needed.

Several blood tests later the diagnosis we'd suspected was confirmed. Snatch has diabetes.

This isn't as bad as may be imagined. She simply requires a controlled diet and a daily injection of insulin. Of course it took several weeks for us to work out the appropriate dose of insulin, but now, several weeks after diagnosis, she is stable and her weight has settled at a reasonable level.

It has led to interesting speculation about her name - she couldn't have been diabetic all her life, she wouldn't have survived, but she must have been a greedy cat from being quite little to have been given such a name. Or was it for something else? We'll never know.

Snatch is now ready for a new home. She will need to have a controlled diet and therefore may be better having a home with no other pets (so that she can't steal their food!). Her new owners will have to give her a daily injection of insulin and ensure that she eats properly around the time of her injection, but other than that she is a lovely friendly cat who deserves a chance. Maybe soon we'll be blogging to say that she is settled and happy in her new home !

Posh n Knotts

2007-04-09T11:20:00.000+01:00

We don't often take in pedigree cats, but last week we had a call from someone who needed us to take in three persian cats, Oliver, Alfie and Eliza. They came in a week ago and all three were badly matted.

Persian cats are seriously maintenance heavy - they need grooming thoroughly every day, and by that we don't just mean a quick swipe with a flea comb. They need to be brushed, combed and de-tangled all over their bodies - underarms, bottoms, chins as well as the obvious places such as backs, tummies, tails and heads.

These three had obviously been used to being groomed as they were extremely compliant once we'd wielded the combs, lifting their backs and showing no objection to being rolled over so that we could tackle their tummies.

But it soon became obvious that combing them wouldn't do the trick - they needed serious professional help!

So off they went to our wonderful vets who spent over an hour dematting each cat.

On return, Alfie and Eliza looked a bit like poodles!!! and were much smaller without their fur than we'd imagined.
Oliver didn't look too bad, but in fact he'd been the worst of the three. However as his fur was much longer than the other two the top layers were able to cover the worst of the bald patches.

We had to be careful to ensure that new homes for our three posh visitors would be suitable - that their new owners had plenty of time to care for them, and we were lucky enough to find three such families who were prepared to take on the responsibility.

We don't blame anyone for the state that these three had got into, their original owner had obviously cared for them very much - that was obvious from the way they behaved when we groomed them. But after his death, his family with young children of their own just didn't have the time to devote to three hairy fairies.

Persians really are beautiful cats, but do consider very carefully if you want one. Can you devote an hour each day per cat to groom and care for them?

Do you remember Lacey, that cat who isn't a cat? Well, she has settled well into her new home, and her new human says: Thought I'd drop you a quick email to say Lacey is doing really well. I brought her home on sunday...she explored the place then sat on my knee & very quickly found her purr!! I really didn't expect her to settle in so quickly & take to me as she has! She's now starting to play also & has been well behaved.....so far! - starting to show her cheeky side! She's also eating well.....she looks (and acts) very much like a....CAT! Haven't felt the need to try her on raw meat as she seems to enjoy the CAT food just fine!

A Short Tale

2007-04-01T17:06:00.000+01:00

Hi there, I’m Max. At least I am now. I used to be someone else, but I can’t tell you who. My story is typical of many – I was a very much loved family cat, handled, played with and well fed. My humans had me neutered and looked after me and we were all very happy together.

Then one day, something happened. I can’t tell you what. Maybe I got chased by a dog and got lost, or maybe I got into a vehicle and was driven away from my territory. Maybe I followed children or was picked up by someone out of pure devilment. I just can’t tell you what happened.

Anyway, I wandered around for a while, looking for my folks and then I started to feel hungry. I scavenged food out of bins, and tried my hand at chasing mice etc, but I started to get pretty hungry. It’s not easy catching mice when you’re used to just having a tin or packet opened twice a day!

Somewhere along the line, my tail got damaged. It was pretty painful and it got infected too. I can’t tell you how that happened either.

One day I wandered into a lovely garden. A friendly couple lived in the house and they wondered where I’d come from. Of course I couldn’t tell them! They asked around and when no one knew me, they started to feed me. They put signs up in local shops and an ad in our local paper, but still no one came forward for me. So they contacted Haworth Cat Rescue who, when a place became available, took me in.

HCR took me to the vet and the vet said that my tail had probably been partly amputated by a vet some time ago, and that I’d then injured what was left of it. It’s about half as long as it should be. They gave me some nice antibiotics which healed it up and stopped it hurting. Haworth Cat Rescue also put out lots of ads to try and find my owners, and we had lots of people come to look at me. But no one I knew. The people who came to visit me to see if I was their cat are also very sad, as their little friends are still missing.

So now, after weeks of advertising, Haworth Cat Rescue has no choice but to find me a new home. I know I will be happy there, and Haworth Cat Rescue will find me a great home, but how different it could have been.

If only my original humans had had me microchipped - a small implant, about the size of a grain of rice inserted into the back of my neck. It doesn’t hurt a bit, and once the chip is in place I can’t feel it. The chip has a number on which is registered on a central database with my humans’ name, address & phone number, and the number can be read on a special scanner by most rescue centres and vets. So if I’d have had a chip, Haworth Cat Rescue could have reunited me with my folks very quickly.

One lovely very sad lady came to see me, but of course I wasn’t hers. Haworth Cat Rescue asked if her cat had been microchipped, and she said “No, but he’s never gone missing before”. None of us needed to point out to her that it was too late to have it done once he had gone missing.

As for me, I’ve seen one of my neighbours at HCR, Lacey, go off to her new home today, and I’m hoping that my new owners will be along to choose me any day now. One thing is certain, if I get lost again, the microchip that Haworth Cat Rescue have given me will hopefully help me on my way home again.

Haworth Cat Rescue says: Microchipping is quick and easy and costs only a one off payment. It is a really good way of reuniting lost cats with their owners and we recommend that all cats are chipped. Some vets and rescue organisations will charge less if the chipping is done when the cat receives other treatment, such as neutering. Please get your cat microchipped now, whilst he is still with you. After all, it will be too late if he goes missing, and he won't be able to tell anyone where he lives. It is up to you to give him every chance of coming home if he ever gets lost.

The blogging Blob

2007-03-28T15:29:00.000+01:00

Although Haworth Cat Rescue is primarily a rehoming centre, offering sanctuary to unwanted cats and kittens whilst new homes are being sought, there are inevitably a few cats who cannot be rehomed due to age or infirmity. Some of these cats go to long term fosterers, the remainder stay at the centre with our Secretary and Treasurer who live on the premises. We will introduce you to these permanent residents over the next few weeks.

One such permanent resident is Vivian, a little black cat who was found in a shoebox in a local park along with her sister and brothers when she was about 2-3 weeks old. The kittens had been dumped, presumably because of the cat flu from which they were suffering, and whilst three of them made a full recovery, by the time Vivian was found, her eyes had become badly infected and sadly she had become totally blind.

Vivian and her siblings were hand-reared, and right from the beginning, Vivian was the leader of her kindle. Being hand-reared made her bond well with humans, and she is regularly to be found grooming one of her humans who hasn’t met her exacting standards of cleanliness. At the age of 5 months, Vivian had her empty eye sockets sutured closed and once the fur grew back it hardly seemed noticeable, in fact many visitors don’t realise until she bumps into something, and some don’t realise at all! One day when she was still very small, a visitor asked what that “black blob” was (she was curled up asleep at the time), and the nickname “Blob” has stuck with her ever since, although she gets called Miss Vivian Smythe-Blobbington when she’s in one of her posh moods.

Vivian is now nearly eleven years old and the longest resident at The Farm, which makes her the alpha-female in the small group of cats residing there. She rules with a paw of velvet and the other cats submit to her gentle leadership.

Vivian loves to be cuddled and brushed, she loves sitting with her nose in a human ear(!) and she loves lying on her back and having her tummy stroked.

She is a wonderful example of how cats cope with disability. Because they don’t have the same sense of self-awareness that humans have, they don’t know they are different and so they work with what they have. She doesn’t know she’s blind, so she doesn’t worry about it – she has an increased sense of hearing, smell and self-awareness.

Vivian is a delight to know, and the fact the she is now technically classed as a “senior Kitizen” is largely ignored by all, including Vivian herself who counts chasing dud crumpled-up lottery tickets amongst her favourite pastimes.

All our permanent residents feature on our sponsorship scheme - please contact us if you are interested in sponsoring one of our cats.

It's not a real cat!!

2007-03-27T12:41:00.000+01:00

Caller: I have a bit of a situation.

Our volunteer: Oh yes?

Caller: I've got a cat but it isn't a proper cat.

Our volunteer (perplexed): What is it then?

Caller: Well it's got a black stripe on its back and spots.

Our volunteer (still not sure what she's dealing with): So what's the situation?

Caller: Well, it's wild and it wants to eat raw meat. It won't eat cat food.

Our volunteer: How long have you had it?

Caller: Since yesterday.

Our volunteer: Where did you get it from?

Caller: A friend. She found it in the woods a fortnight ago but she's decorating and she doesn't want it and I don't want it either.

Our volunteer (trying to clarify): So is it a cat or if not what is it?

Caller: it looks funny, it's got a funny face and I think it's wild. I don't want it.

Our volunteer: OK, bring it in.

An hour later the-cat-who-isn't-a-cat turned up, looking very much like a cat as far as we could tell, albeit a very nervous and stressed cat.

Lacey is aged about 5-6 months, enjoys (cooked) tinned cat food as well as biscuits and hasn't shown any signs of being anything other than a cat. She will be spayed on Thursday and then we'll try and find a home for her.

We can only assume that this is a case of "buyer remorse" - the previous owner got her and then, because the cat did the normal "cat-in-a-new-home" thing and hid until she was feeling more secure, decided that she was too much like hard work and wanted rid.

Her loss, Lacey's new owner's gain.