Posts Tagged With: kitten

It’s been quite a while since we wrote a blog post. Rescue generally has got even harder over recent years. The aftermath of the pandemic and the cost of living crisis have lead to more and more cats needing to find rescue space and then it being increasingly difficult to find sufficient good homes for them. For 8 Lives personally it’s been a tough time too. We’ve had quite a few elderly and poorly cats that we’ve been nursing and ultimately had to say goodbye to. Even the younger ones have come in with more than their fair share of health conditions, eye infections and tummy upsets.

Just for now though, things are a little more steady and contained and it feels like time to tell you about the cats currently in our care.

Firstly we have Martyn and Morven. Their story started one day back in September last year. We had a message about a cat who had run into someone’s cellar the previous night and given birth to her kittens. We went out to collect them that day. I’d carefully checked that the mum wasn’t feral (she was going to have to live in my office and spend her days with me, and a feral cat plus wall to wall Teams meetings was unlikely to be a good combination) and that she wasn’t evidently full of cat flu (the rescue is a home, and doesn’t have dedicated isolation facilities). I didn’t think to ask how many kittens! It was a bit of a shock to find that there were 6!

Mum, Molly, was a bit grubby but anything but feral; a very sweet little cat and a lovely mum to them. Not surprisingly they grew into very sweet polite little kittens and then into young cats. The rest of the family all have their own homes now but Martyn & Morven have yet to get their own place. Morven was definitely “the shy one” whilst all 6 of them were chasing around, but she started coming into her own once Marvin & Maise moved out (her sister Maise was the tiniest of the litter but also the bossiest!). By the time Muffin & Mittens had moved into their new home, Morven really began to find her feet. She’s smaller than Martyn but smarter, as girl cats so often are, so she holds her own very well with him.

Martyn is hoping to qualify for the national purring championships later this year so spends several hours training each day. Morven can be a bit more whingy but she loves her brother and is a little sweetheart.

We’d intended not taking more cats for a while and keeping things at a more manageable level for a bit. One weekend I was sitting in the car feeling very fortunate. I’d had a lovely long walk with a friend and the moment we got back to the car park the heavens opened. It went dark and the rain was bouncing off the ground, so much so that I thought I’d leave it a minute before setting off to drive. Inevitably, sitting with nothing much else to do, I checked my phone. There was a message about an unneutered tom cat who had been living rough for quite some time but was now turning up on someone’s doorstep with a nasty injury to his tail. I thought of me sitting nice and warm and dry and this poor boy out somewhere in the weather. I thought of my plan to keep the numbers down and have an easier life for a while. I dismissed that thought. I replied to the message. A few hours later I collected a rather bemused and not entirely happy Clive.

I’m not sure how anyone copes with living with an unneutered tom cat. The minute the vet opened on Monday morning we were on the phone to book him in to get his wounded tail sorted and to get him neutered. Fingers crossed that there would be availability that week. However when we got to the vets and Dr Molly had a good look at his tail, it proved to be very nasty and infected, the wounds right at the base of his tail, and a risk of infection getting into his castrate wound if he had his op straight away.

Clive didn’t improve the situation any by continually licking at his wound until he had to go back to the vets to be fitted with a cone. We have a selection of cones in the rescue for such eventualities but it turned out that Clive has such a big head and thick neck that ours didn’t fit. The lovely nurse Jasmine had to cut a dog cone down a little for him, and then carefully put tape around the edges so he didn’t catch himself on any sharp edges. As you can see in the photo, Clive was delighted with this outcome.

Time has passed, Clive’s tail has healed (though his fur hasn’t grown back yet), Dr Molly has become one of Clive’s bestest friends (partly because she gives him Dreamies when he visits) and he’s now been neutered. His fur is becoming white again, instead of grubby grey and is starting to feel soft.

Martyn & Morven were very curious about who was living in the other bedroom and eventually persuaded us to let them meet him. Clive was surprisingly unbothered by the encounter, despite the kittens incessant questions: “Uncle Clive, why are you wearing that thing on your head?” Uncle Clive, do you know our mummy? she lived outsides as well” “Uncle Clive, are you our daddy?” and so on until you’d think there were no more questions left that a kitten could find to ask … and yet another breath was drawn and … “Uncle Clive …. “

Clive appears equally full of questions about Martyn & Morven. He tends to keep these to himself, but is clearly pondering why on earth they’re swinging from curtains, chasing red dots, and pouncing on toy mice. Clive’s life has been very serious over recent years and the concept of play seems to be evading him.

They’re an unlikely little group of friends but seem to be enjoying each others company and finding life more interesting and pleasurable together than apart.