“Cat 1”

“Cat 1” arrived here today, we collected her from a Chesterfield vet surgery this afternoon.    She appears to be a cat of many numbers.   Chesterfield Cat Protection referred to her as 403 in our text messages about her,  paperwork from the vet listed her as “Cat 1” ….. and mathematically speaking, she’s cat 152 for us.   As I write she’s still waiting on a name and that is being debated on our facebook page.

Despite her nameless status, she has a place in our minds that most other cats don’t have when they arrive here.  We initially heard of her back in the summer when a young woman contacted us about a pregnant stray cat, living as part of a group stray/feral cats that she was feeding.   At the time we were so full we just couldn’t take any more in and sadly had to say no.   Another email came from someone else about this group a few weeks later – the situation was getting worse and threats had been made in the local paper to poison the cats.   The feeders managed to arrange a trap and neuter plan with Cat Protection funding, but unfortunately, given the threat to hurt them they could not simply be returned to the area afterwards.   Fortunately we found an amazing group on facebook who were dedicated to helping cats in danger and many of them we’re placed through that, some of them  travelling miles to get to safety.   The cats remaining were one or two lads and two females who had sadly had their kits outdoors because there was no space for them in rescue.

As soon as we had space we took in one of the lads ….. leaving the girls as it was unclear whether they were still feeding kits somewhere.  You’ve probably guessed by now ….. that lad was our lovely Dave.

Time has gone on, and no kittens have appeared so we assume they haven’t survived.   Yesterday at work I had a message asking if we had any spaces.  As chance has it, we do.  One of the girls was at the vets following her spay op and has nowhere to go other than return to living on the street.

She’s here now, warm and dry and safe.  She’s adorable, so loving and snuggly.  She has an eye infection, but that’s being treated (meds courtesy of Chesterfield Cat Protection).   If only we’d had space for her last summer when we initially heard of her …… things might have been so different for her kits.