Worth Their Weight In Gold!

Sabrina, a small black cat with a white spot the size of a ten- cent piece on her chest, came to us after she and her 4 kittens had been heartlessly dumped by a busy road outside the Spastic Centre at Marylands. The employees rang around different animal organizations but none would help till they reached WLPA.

When Shelley, the WLPA office manager at that time, arrived on the scene the employees had caught three of the kittens and had decided to each adopt one. This left only the mother and one kitten who had been so frightened that it was tangled up in a bush. Shelley was able climb in and free the kitten, the smallest and most traumatized of the litter.

She gave the employees feeding and desexing information before leaving to bring the mother and baby to me as there was no one to care for them.

I had quickly organized a holding cage with warm bedding for their arrival. They were soon settled in and feeding well.

After being with us for two weeks I had Sabrina desexed. She was still feeding her kitten and even after desexing she would be able to continue to do so.

Three days later four, three- week old kittens were found motherless and almost starved to death. As they were not eating of their own accord I had to syringe feed them. The first 24 hours was exhausting for me as I had so many other cats in my care.

I showed the kittens to another mother cat who had not been desexed but she would not accept them. I carefully showed the little ones to Sabrina who immediately took each one and washed it. Within minutes she was feeding them.

My vet warned me that she would not have enough milk to feed all four, only enough for her one kitten. Hers was now eating well and so I removed that little one, which we had named Munchkin, for periods of time to allow the babies to feed.

Sabrina and I worked out a system. She fed the kittens during the night and I fed them during the day. Each morning I felt their little tummies to make sure they had managed to get enough sustenance through the night. The amazing thing was that their tummies were always bulging with milk despite the fact that Sabrina had been desexed.

To say I was relieved was an understatement. I was so grateful for what this wonderful cat had done.

Not long after this, a white cat with one blue eye and one green one came into my care. We called her Annabelle. She was very ill and almost died during her first weeks with us. The pupil of the blue eye is now permanently bigger than the other but despite this she now appears happy and healthy.

My vet advised me not to adopt her out as he thought she might have an underlying health condition I groaned inwardly at the thought of another permanent resident. (Since that time we’ve discovered that she is an allergic little one.)

Six months ago there was a knock at my door and there stood a man holding a taped up cardboard box with… you guessed it… a kitten in it. He was a care- taker from a nursing home and had been informed that I would take the kitten and not have it euthanased.

The kitten, a tabby, looked about seven weeks old and was wild. We took him inside, christened him Ollie and set about socializing him. The thought occurred to me as I patted Annabelle that maybe her gentle nature might have a calming effect on the new arrival. So we carefully introduced Annabelle to Ollie.  I can honestly say he was overjoyed and immediately snuggled into her warm body. She gave him the mandatory bath and all was well.

Within a week we received a call from a desperate home-owner whose cats were being terrorized by a kitten raiding their cat food. They had trapped it under a basket. They could not keep it as they had four cats of their own and six children. The kitten, a tabby and white female, looked only about 5-6 weeks old but was a ball of fury, hissing and spitting.

It was a major undertaking to get it into a carry basket without losing it. As I drove home I was mentally assessing the free holding cages in my house.  At this stage we should have had a NO VACANCY sign outside the front door. I set up the last cage I had, and released a terrified and hostile kitten, which we named Rags, into it. It was hard to believe that such a small creature could be like this but I realized later that it was this aggressive behaviour that had saved it from starvation.

After a few days of observing that Rags was in good health I decided to try Annabelle’s calming presence on Rags. It worked like magic! Before long both kittens were in together with Annabelle whose abdomen later was denuded of hair due to their sucking on it. Even though she had no milk to give, they were comforted and their fear diminished. If they had to visit the vet she accompanied them.

The vets were clearly in admiration of Annabelle’s loving and calming spirit. Annabelle had earned her keep. I can truly say of both of these amazing cats, Annabelle and Sabrina; they are worth their weight in gold!

By Wendi Reis