cat rescue

It’s been a week full of mixed emotions. After the delight of Lyra’s kits being born on Saturday and all being well with them, we learned on Sunday of the passing of our friend Albert.  Nearly a year ago I was browsing a cat forum and heard of Albert’s problem. He’d landed as a stray in Nottingham … elderly, black, hyperthyroid … all the cards stacked against him …. and his one offer of a home was in Harwich in Essex. What he needed was a way of getting there. It just so happened that I had a day with no plans and a soft spot for elderly black hyperthyroid cats because of my Sooty.

He was the perfect gentleman and a delightful travel companion.    I say this advisedly.  I’ve driven with one heck of a lot of cats, and some of them have driven me up the wall within a few hundred yards.  It was lovely to meet his new human, and talk cats while Albert settled in.  Unlike so many cats, Al showed his thanks by keeping me up to date with how he was going on in his new home.   He made lots of lovely furry friends, and obviously adored his new human.   So sad to hear a few weeks ago that he was losing weight and there were more concerns about his health, and perhaps his days were numbered.

With Albert’s human’s agreement we named one of Arwen’s kittens in honour of  him.  We needed little ‘A’ names and one of the kits was a little black tom.   Here he is trying to look cool about walking in Albert senior’s footsteps.

We hoped that Albert would still have lots more happy days ahead of him even though he wasn’t well.   So we were gutted to hear on Sunday morning that he was fading, and know later than he’d gone to Rainbow Bridge.   Funny how a cat how you’ve spent just a few hours with can touch your heart so powerfully.  A lot of tears were shed.  Wonderful that whatever this lad’s earlier life had been, at least he knew love in the last year of his life.  Heartbreaking that he wasn’t able to enjoy it for longer.    Lots of love to the human who could see past his age and colour and health and offer him a loving home x

It’s been a good day here. It started with the birth of Lyra’s kittens.

Before Chi we didn’t really worry too much about pregnancies – but now its quite a scary time for us … and our bank account. Thankfully they were all born ok and seem to be doing well. No wonder Lyra was eating to Olympic standard … there’s 5 of them! The only problem so far is that we’d come up with pretty little L names – Lily, Lilac, Lavender etc and I think now that they’re mainly boys – so it’s back to the drawing board on that one. Otherwise Lyra is being a lovely attentive mum and they’re just fine.

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You might think that 5 gorgeous kittens is enough good news for one day. However, there’s more. Morris’ mum and dad came to meet Mowgli this afternoon. Despite Mowgli being a bit anxious and hiding under the chair, he’s hooked himself a new home. Morris was also very nervous when they came to meet him nearly a year ago now … and he had an eye infection. A less attractive kit would be difficult to imagine. But they fell for him and he’s now spoiled rotten, full of confidence and generally ruling the roost.

Morris

Mowgli hid under the chair most of the time they were there, and ignored them and the toys they brought him. I think once they’d gone it sank in that they’d offered him a lovely new home away from my hissy spitty residents … and he started asking lots of questions, getting excited, and playing with his new toys.

mowgli

mowgli

Today was the day that over a year’s worry and agonizing over Mog came to an end. Having found her with her face bitten whilst sorting out a shelter on the allotments for her, I hauled her home in the autumn of last year. I absolutely loved having her home and safe, and not worrying myself stupid about her when there was awful weather or fireworks. Mog’s face healed and she seemed to appreciate being inside and fed regularly, but it was clear she wasn’t really happy. She divided her time between being shut in my study on her own, and braving coming downstairs and running into the other cats. However much I tried to integrate them and get them settled it just wasn’t working and a terrified Mog would end up hammering at the cat flap to escape or having to run the gauntlet of the other residents to get back upstairs to her room.

loved having her home this xmas

I had to face the fact that it simply wasn’t going to work. I couldn’t keep her fastened in a room on her own for the rest of her life, and if she came downstairs she was going to be bullied …. and worst of all, if she went outside she was unlikely to be allowed back by the other cats … and my chances of catching her again on the allotments as I’d done before were pretty much zilch. I racked my brain for any possibility of putting a cat flap into the conservatory and making that Mog’s space, and a whole series of microchip flaps so that Mog had access to various rooms in the house and the other cats didn’t. However, I’d seen the other cats stop her and chase her away when she was across the road and several houses down the road. They wouldn’t have let her get near the house to be able to use the flaps. I frantically wondered about a cat flap in my bedroom window with a platform /bridge over the road and a ramp down into the allotments. That wasn’t going to work either 😦

we managed to have some fun times

So I did one of the hardest things I’ve had to do for my cats and set about trying to find her a new home. The person / people who adopted her would have to be just amazing in every way before I’d consider them adopting her … AND would have to have a home away from busy roads AND a safe garden to play in …. AND have the patience to help quite an anxious cat to settle in their home …. AND not have any other pets (or intend to have them) …. AND of course Mog would need to approve them.

I couldn’t imagine that ever happening, but then in January a lovely lovely couple got in touch. They’d just moved into their new home and wanted just one cat … and adult cat .. not a kitten. When they came to meet Mog she was all over them, loved both of them. So a few days later I took Mog to their home for a two month trial to check they were happy with her and I was confident that it was the right thing for Mog. They’ve been brilliant at keeping in touch, especially in those anxious early days, and sensitive to the fact that although it was exciting for them to have Mog go to live with them, it was painful for me to let go.

She was understandably anxious when she first arrived but within days it was becoming clear that she was feeling better without the other cats. She was climbing up on the bed and the sofa and having a cuddle – things my naughty bully cats had denied her.

One of my worries had been that Mog was simply a cat who preferred being outdoors, and that by re homing her I was taking her away from the allotments that she loved. And that when she went out at her new home she might clear off and be lost. Deep down though I felt that she was spending so much time outdoors because she just didn’t like the other cats. Mog has answered this by staying out at her new home for about an hour max and then back in again. She likes to go out and explore the garden, but is very happy to come back home. Compared with her record of being out for about 6 months whilst she was here – I think it speaks for itself that we’ve made the right choice.

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When I visited today with the adoption papers and her vet records etc to finally sign her over, she was sprawled out asleep in the conservatory – a very happy, chilled cat, adored by her new mummy and daddy. I’m sure we’ve done the right thing however that didn’t stop me from crying most of the way home.

Thankfully under the care of Aunty Wizz, the remaining two of Chi’s kittens are still hanging on in there. Poor Aunty Wizz is hanging in there too, though her risk of heart attack has multiplied by ten since they went to stay. They put on very little weight in week two. A healthy kitten would be expected to put on 8-10g on average each day at that age. The little girl put on 8g in the whole week. They are still only about half the weight you’d expect them to be if all was well and they were with mum, but at least now they are putting on some weight. And of course are absolutely gorgeous:

Meanwhile, Arwen is doing a wonderful job with her kittens. They’re exactly a week younger than Chi’s. Their eyes are open now and they’re just starting to take an interest in the world.

Arwen’s kits

We’ll be sorting out names for the little A Team soon. The little black lad is already named Albert – after the lovely old hyperthyroid boy I took down to Essex last summer. The others will be named just as soon as we can tell the difference between them 😉 Here they are on a brief outing from their nest for their first worm treatment.

Lyra’s kittens are still safe inside, being grown …

So far 8 Lives have scraped along on a shoe string. We were fortunate to have the opportunity to care for a couple of cats temporarily last year, whilst their human was moving house, and get paid for it.

paying guests for once

That gave us a little bit of a financial cushion.  Since then we’ve relied on adoption donations, a few generous food donations, and the fact that I sometimes forget to claim back what I’ve paid out of my own personal account on the cats, to break even.   Chi and Changi, adorable cats that they were, brought earmites to the house.  It cost over £100 in advocate, ear cleaner and ear drops to treat the pair of them.  It would have been a lot more if a lovely friend of 8 Lives hadn’t donated some spare advocate.  With something like earmites its not good enough to just treat the infected cats, we had to advocate all the residents as well … a personal rather than an 8 Lives bill but a big hit all the same.

Whilst we were wondering how to get back on track after that bill, we had a tragedy with Chi.  The bill for her emergency section was £570. Thankfully our lovely vets give us some discount as we’re frequent flyers, but it was still a serious bill, and it’s left us with just £9.98 in our account.   We’re praying that Arwen and her kits are going to be ok and not need any unexpected vet care, and currently have to be closed to taking any other cats in as we don’t have the funds to cover them.

So we’re asking now for help. Donations would be brilliant either directly to 8 Lives, or into our account at Millhouses Vets4Pets. Help with ongoing fund raising would be even more welcome. Working full time, looking after the cats, doing home checks, paperwork, accounts etc has been as much as we can manage. A few people who were able to give some time to fundraising would be amazing.

Please contact us either on facebook or email eightlives@outlook.com if you could help at all.

We’re trying hard to not let the nightmare of Chi and her babies cloud Arwen’s joy.  It was scary though on Wednesday night when Arwen started to show signs that her little ones were due any time now.  It felt like a re run of the previous week when it had been Wednesday night that Chi was looking ready to have hers.   We’d built a nest together, from the boxes that we got a food donation in a couple of weeks earlier.  Arwen had then lost interest in it, but suddenly it seemed as though it was her most important possession.

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On Thursday afternoon I dashed home straight after my last patient, bringing all the paperwork home with me, I just needed to know Arwen was ok and not in the state I found Chi in when I got home from work last Thursday.  Went into her room and she was just fine, no sign of kittens.  Fed her and came back downstairs to start on paperwork.  When I went up an hour or so later, she didn’t run to the door as usual, so I knew something was happening.  Arwen was in her box just finishing having her kits.  Not sure if it was unsettling or healing or both, that she had her kits almost exactly a week to the hour of Chi having hers.

Thankfully this time though, all was well.   Gorgeous little ones, lively, feeding well, everyone happy.  Arwen is doing a wonderful job.  She puts my kitty parenting to shame.   All bathed, fed, burped and off to bed and not a baby wipe in sight!

Well done lovely girl!

Chi and I had such fun chatting about what we’d call her babies.   It’s an 8 lives tradition to give the babies names starting with the same initial as mum.  So we bandied about lots of C names: Chico, Chica, Chopstick, Chigley, Cally, Carla, Coolie.   The heart wrenching reality is that its just been too painful to name them and they’ve stayed as “the little grey boy”, “the black and white girl” etc.

motherless kits – newborn

There’s a sense of unreality writing about this.  I guess I wish so badly that it wasn’t real.   They went home with the vet nurse and their mummy on the first night of their lives.    Our lovely vet called me first thing Friday morning ….  “not good news I’m afraid”.    I’d braced myself for the possibility that one or more the kits wouldn’t last the night, or even that Chi may not be able to feed them after her op.  Nothing had prepared me for the news that Chi was dead and I was now mum to 4 orphaned kittens.   How on earth I worked through the day without howling I don’t know.

At tea time I picked up 4 little pipsqueaks from the surgery and had a crash course in feeding and toileting them.   By 6am the following morning, I was hysterical.  No sleep on Thursday night with worrying about Chi, and no sleep Friday night with 2 hourly feeds.   We landed at my friend Wizz’s obscenely early for a Saturday morning.   I’ll be forever thankful for the way she  and her husband took care of me  as well as the kits.  We came home at tea time, more confident about caring for them and plunged into an endless round of feeding, cleaning, drying, washing, warming and worrying.  Who would have thought such tiny dots of fluff could create so much washing!  … and make so much noise … and turn our lives upside down.

The resident grown ups wondered what on earth had hit them.    Some rather grudging baby sitting time was offered, but mainly the girls sat around criticizing my parenting skills, and the lads grumbled that they’d not had the snip to then have to sit and listen to some other guys babies squawking.

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On Monday evening they went back to Wizz.   Having agonised about how on earth to manage them when I went back to work on Tuesday, I realised the answer was that I simply couldn’t!  Thank goodness for Wizz.   I absolutely know that they are in the best place with her but its been hard to let go.   And painful to hear that the little grey and white girl gave up her fight on Monday night, and the little grey boy who we thought was doing so well suddenly just quit and went to be with his mummy as well on Wednesday.

Nowadays we hold our breath every time we receive a text.   Please god let the remaining two be ok and let people hear the message about neutering from this tragedy.  It’s cost 8 Lives over £500 to sort out Chi’s ear mites and have an emergency C section.   That’s money we don’t have so our rescue is now in debt and unable to take on anymore cats.    Worse than our financial mess though – the original ‘owner’s’ negligence and selfishness  in not having Chi spayed has cost her her life, and the lives of at least two of her kits.

This is the most painful post we’ve shared so far and one its been almost too painful to bring ourselves to write.

Lovely Chi came to us at the beginning of February with her growing up daughter, Changi. We were lucky to very quickly have the offer of a great new home for the pair of them, once they’d been spayed, chipped and vaccinated. Their new family stuck with them when we realised that Chi was pregnant. Changi went off to live with them, and the plan was for Chi to have her kits here and then go to start her new life with Changi and her new humans once she’d brought her kittens up. It seemed a brilliant arrangement. The new family would get to watch the tiny ones grow up, the little ones would grow up being used to having visits from small children, and at the end of the day Chi would be free to start her new life with them. We were delighted that she would finally have a stable loving home, albeit a little later than we’d hoped.

The pregnancy progressed and Chi and I spent hours snuggled together, my hand on her tummy feeling the little ones wriggling around. We talked endlessly about when she would have them, where would be the best nesting place, what we might call them, and got excited together about who they would be. Then last Thursday I got home, thankfully earlier than expected, to find Chi had had a couple of babies. She seemed to think she’d finished, and was purring away, tucking into her supper and wanting a cuddle. Sadly it was evident that she was wrong and there was a problem. After a few frantic phone calls, we had what I think ranks as our most nightmare drive with cats so far. Off to the vets in the rush hour traffic, with a frantic cat half way through labour and two tiny tiny kittens being trampled in the carrier.

a brief moment for mum and two kits before the world fell apart

There was a long wait whilst Chi had an emergency section. Another kit was stillborn and then two more born alive … just. Hours later, Chi was struggling to come round from her op. She and her kits went home for the night with the vet nurse so that they could be monitored and cared for. Although she seemed to be coming round, Chi collapsed in the early hours of Friday morning, and died, leaving 4 newborn kittens without a mummy.

motherless kits – newborn

Chi was such a beautiful cat. Pretty on the outside, but beautiful inside too – a lovely loving girl. She had a rough start in life, having had her first litter of kits when she was only about 7 months old. It seemed that her luck was finally about to change and she had a wonderful life ahead of her. It was not to be. It’s hard to express how this feels. You’d need to meet her to know what a lovely cat she was, and to see her kittens floundering around without a mummy to understand the emptiness she leaves behind. One of the things that feels most unbearable to me is that this was entirely preventable. Had she been spayed when she should have been, none of this would have had to happen. She’d still be here to enjoy her new life and the desperate poor kits would never have been here to experience this abandonment.