Wild thing - I think I love you :)

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!

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!

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 >^..^<

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

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

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.

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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.

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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 ......

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.

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