I enjoyed a little bit of serendipity yesterday evening, which made for a very successful night's work! I work part-time at our sanctuary, but like all the staff, I find that there is always something needed to be done on my days off. That might be a trip to the vets to collect an animal, or perhaps a homevisit. But sometimes it's something quite unexpected! Such was the scenario last night.
My uncle and I were driving home from the supermarket when we spied a lame dog limping towards us. He was out in the middle of a busy road and looked very flustered and lost. Cars were having to slow down to avoid him. We turned the car around to follow him, but at this point the poor dog broke into a run and began to gallop away off up the road. A car coming in the opposite direction brought him to a halt, and we were able to pull the car up right behind him and put on our hazard lights. Luckily I always have spare leads, crates and cat carriers in the car for emergencies like this one. The poor dog's tongue was hanging out with exhaustion and his front leg was very sore. Adrian hopped out of the passenger seat and gently called the dog towards him. The dog was so relieved to see a friendly face, he limped over to Adrian and sat very politely while Adrian looped the lead over his head.
Just as we were bundling him into a crate in the back of my car, a man in a jeep pulled up and told us he'd seen the dog being hit by a car earlier in the day. It was so obvious this dog was lost and frightened - and not just a neighbourhood dog let out to wander. When we pulled up at Adrian's house I gave the dog a bowl of water to drink in his crate. He was so thirsty, he nearly emptied the bowl. He then lay down on the nice soft vet bed in the crate for a nap. I checked on him a few minutes and he was in a deep sleep. I don't know how long he had been straying but he was clearly worn out. When a dog is lost, they keep on the move until they're so tired they can go no further. And the anxiety of being lost and without the familiar faces of home is very stressful for them. So we often find that when we take in a stray dog at the sanctuary, they sleep very deeply for the first day or so.
No sooner had we started dinner but the phone rang. It was Ann. She'd had a phone call from a man in a neighbouring estate trying to catch a feral cat and kittens in his attic. Could I help? He was only up around the corner so I went straight there. This lovely man had been out to the sanctuary earlier in the day to borrow a cat trap. He'd managed to catch the mother cat, and one kitten but the two remaining kittens were so frightened and skittish, they were evading capture! The poor little mites were only three weeks old and had never seen a human face before. They'd crawled right into the corner of the attic where the sloping roof meets the floor. I crawled across the floor and lay flat on my tummy to extend an outstretched arm into the tiny hidey hole they'd found. But they were just out of arms reach and every time I tried to reach them, they hissed and spat, and moved further away. This continued for a good half hour until covered in dust and dirt, coughing and sneezing, I called a temporary halt. Martin, myself and his son Conor retreated back down the attic stairs to regroup.
Martin had managed to catch the first kitten with a fishing net he'd borrowed from a neighbour. He thought that maybe if we left them alone again for a few minutes and stayed quiet, they might come out of their hiding place to seek out their mum, who was sitting in the trap in the middle of the attic floor. Sure enough, within a minute or two we could hear their tiny movements and little cries to mum above our heads. Martin crept back up the attic stairs, and I headed back to Adrian's, saying I would ring in a half an hour to see if Martin had any luck.
The dinner was just going on the table when Martin's wife rang to say that Martin had caught the two remaining kittens. Yippee! I headed back over to the house to load them all up in the car. I was so relieved! If Martin hadn't caught the rest of the kittens, we would have had to release the mum again because the kittens could not have survived on their own without her. And cats are clever, so the mum would probably have been quite wary of the trap if we had to set it a second time. Plus as the kittens grew, they would have been harder for us to catch. A great night's work! After a quick pit-stop back at Adrian's to finish my dinner, I was on my way out to Ann's with Rusty the dog, momma cat Robin and her three kitties. Ann gave Rusty some pain-relief and settled him in a warm crate for the night. Robin and her kitties got a quiet, warm crate for the night too.
Rusty's quite an old dog, and sadly he hasn't been very well looked after. He's a little thin, his ears need some attention and his teeth need a good cleaning. He is very lame on his front left leg, which is very swollen. It could be an old injury that wasn't set properly, or perhaps a recent injury and cellulitis has set in. He doesn't seem too steady on his hips either, so perhaps that is where he felt the impact of the car and perhaps he's bruised there or has a fracture. All will be revealed when he sees the vet today. Ann brought Rusty out to the sanctuary this morning so he'll have a nice soft bed and good food. Gentleman that he is, I'm sure he's busy making friends!
Momma cat Robin is an elderly girl and I am sure she has had many litters of kittens through the years. I'm always so happy when we trap a feral cat, because it means they can be neutered to stop this awful reproductive cycle. Feral cats struggle hard to survive and because many people see them as pests, they can be treated quite cruelly. And it's so sad to see their offspring being born in the wild too, because once they go past a certain age without human contact, they can never be tamed and rehomed as pets. Robin's mum may well have been someone's pet cat who was not neutered and who reared her litter of kittens away from the home so that they had no human handling. By the time Robin and her siblings were old enough to start exploring and come out in the open, they would have been past the point at which they could be socialised with people. Because Robin has never been trapped and neutered, she has gone on to bear litters of kittens too, all of whom are also feral. And those kittens will have gone on to reproduce and give rise to ever more feral cats and kittens. It is so sad.
Luckily Robin and her three babies will have a happy ending. They are at the sanctuary now, in a warm, quiet crate, shrouded in a big blanket to make Robin feel more secure. Every day we will give Robin fresh cat food and water, and change her litter tray. We will play with the kittens and get them used to human contact. Once the kittens are eight or nine weeks old, we'll look for pet homes for them. And once the kittens are rehomed, we will neuter Robin and then release her back to the area she came from. This is Robin's territory and she knows the best places to sleep, and where to find food. Her presence will discourage other, un-neutered feral cats coming into this small area, so actually she is a boon to the neighbourhood; hopefully there'll be no more litters of feral kittens there, and no more trips up the neighbours' attics for me!
