Summer Newsletter

 TwistedWhiskers

Bringing you all the latest mews from 8 Lives Cat Rescue
Summer 2015

Welcome to our Summer newsletter.  Time flies when we look at the year in quarters, despite seeming to stand still at the time.  All the lovely cats we were anxious to find homes for in our last news letter have found super homes, including our beloved Jack.  Here he is, with his cold and miserable allotment exchanged for his new best friend’s princess pink bedroom.

One born every minute – three tails of un planned pregnancies

Our saddest tail this quarter in some ways is Maya.  She arrived with us, very pregnant, very poorly, and very very scared.  Our vets worked hard to find a way of treating her without harming her babies.  Sadly the babes were born  premature and Maya wouldn’t even look at them.  One died at birth, however little Max put up a fight and we tried to hand rear him.  Sadly he was just too tiny, and too premmy, and broke our hearts a few days later.

maya feeling poorly

tiny max with his teddy

Thankfully things have improved for Maya … she’s well again.   Her illness seems to have been nothing serious as such, just years of pregnancies and inadequate care.  She’s slowly gone from strength to strength … her health improving and then her confidence.  It’s a slow process, she’s clearly had a horrid experience of humans in the past.  We’re slowly getting there  … there’s a sense now that she sees humans as having the potential to be good.

looking for me for her supper

more confident

We’re hoping someone with a love and understanding of cats will offer her a forever home, someone able to let her grow her confidence at her own pace.  We’re sure she has the potential to be a lovely companion for someone.  She may never be a lap cat, but she’s full of character … and a real little sweetie.

Things were very much better for Betty.  Although she also found herself pregnant and homeless, she landed on the home of a couple of lovely young women who have done their absolute best for her.   Here she is, hanging on to their door, asking for help.

determined to get herself a home

They found her a space here in rescue where she could safely have her kits.  We’re pretty sure they’re her first litter …… unlike Maya, she’s only a very young cat.   She got into rescue 10 days  before her kits were born, had some good food and a safe space to have them.  Although rather bemused by what was happening with the birth and arrival of kittens, Betty quickly got her head around it and has made a lovely job of raising her little ones.  We’re delighted that she’s now going back to the women who found her for a furever home.

Daisy’s experience was somewhere in between Maya’s nightmare and Betty’s lucky escape.  Another youngster, barely more than a kitten herself, she ended up pregnant and giving birth in a shed.   She and her kits were discovered a few weeks later by a curious dog and his concerned human.

Daisy in her shed

with kittens

We didn’t have any space here really, but went out to scan her just to see if she was microchipped, which not surprisingly she wasn’t. It’s one (not entirely easy) thing, to reply to an email requesting help, and say “I’m sorry .. we’re full”. It’s quite another to see a young mum and three kittens in a shed, at risk of foxes, further pregnancy, and simply of boxes falling on them, and say no. So of course they came home with us. In a crate in the lounge because there was nowhere else .. they refused to eat or use the litter tray for 24 hours.    The only option was to move out of my bedroom, move the D Team in there, and sleep on the sofa.

This seems to have worked well for them …. though its been a bit tricky for me and the residents who normally like to share my bed.

And then there’s our little miracle – Gertie 

Gertie was a bit of a surprise arrival.  I was at work and a friend messaged me to say she’d been to visit her cat who was an inpatient at her vets.  Whilst there she’d seen Gertie who had been brought in as a poorly stray a week ago, and now her time was up.  Unclaimed and blind, Gertie was to be put to sleep.   I tried to ignore it and think of something else … focus on work ….. but it was hopeless … I couldn’t concentrate with the idea of  a cat we may be able to save, dying because no one could be bothered.  Somewhat recklessly I agreed to collect her from the vet on the way home from work, and then spent the gaps between appointments frantically googling for info about how to care for a blind cat.

I was stunned by how beautiful she was when I picked her up, and relieved by how easily she managed to find her food and litter tray once we got home. The next day we went off to our own vet for a check up. Gertie walked around in circles in the surgery and then crashed into the wall. However, Claire, our lovely vet, said she thought it could be high blood pressure causing her illness and blindness, and that if treated she may regain her sight. Our vets are fab and I trust their judgment …. but really?! Nevertheless Gertie stayed overnight and through next day having her bp checked, was diagnosed with hypertension … and sent home with medication. Within a couple of days there was a huge difference … her pupils were responding to light and she was no longer walking into things.

Gertie is looking for an indoor home with humans who will snugggggle her lots and help make up for the horrid time she’s had so far in life.

2016 Calendar

Some of you will already have seen our lovely 2016 calendar … put together through help from our local photography group and some excellent photographers from our adoptive families, and a wonderful local business who have funded the printing of them.   Each month features one of our gorgeous 8 Lives cats:  there’s some of our permanent residents, plus Jak, Domino, Sugar, Jack,  Molly, Dorothy, Dave and Ralph and supporting photos of Alfie & Aslan, Lenny & Lily etc.   Please buy or more .. for stocking fillers at Christmas?  Help us to keep our funds at a level where we’re able to help the more needy cats like Gertie as well as some of the more average guests 🙂