Spending my Nine Lives far too fast....

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

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

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

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!

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!

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

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.