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Post by Buster on Apr 27, 2011 20:08:30 GMT 1
3 kittens were found the other day by a friend out riding. They were in a cat carrier which had been chucked down the embankment by a major main road. All of them are fine and are now living at the stables with our yard owner. We think they are 2/3 weeks old (and absolutly adorable!!) They are all fine now and putting on weight well. The story gets better as a friend in the next village had found a female cat and the vet had said she had probably given birth recently. When she was brought over she came right to the kittens and began licking them. So thats all good (except she looks really young and skinny and her milk seems to have dried up, probably as shes lost so much weight). The strange thing is she was wearing a collar, and a pretty pink one with flowers at that. Shes very very friendly too so obviously once very loved. What also doesnt make sense is that they were thrown down a very steep embankment.... which was a few feet from a river. If this person really wanted rid of them, then why not throw them in there? If they couldnt be bothered to go to the RSPCA. Anyway its quite a happy ending as we get to keep 2 cats at the stables and the others will hopefully go to a good home! But I dont get how someone could be that cruel.....
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Post by Claire on Apr 27, 2011 20:55:30 GMT 1
Thank heavens there are decent people around like you and your friends to help poor animals that are dumped. I can't get my head around how people do it either mysteryarab, but its sadly not an uncommon thing. Do you think the female cat was the mother of the kittens? How are they eating as 2-3 weeks is too young to be weaned, maybe they are a bit older...?
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Post by Buster on Apr 27, 2011 21:58:38 GMT 1
Prehaps they are older, all I know is they were dehydrated when found so fed cat milk with a pippette and now I think they are eating solids. I only see them for a bit each day i'm up, but they've grown a lot since they got here! I don't know much about cats, but would a young cat be really affectionate with another cats kittens? She seems pretty smitten with them, although she's absolutly fine with strange people picking them up too. Shes black and white and of the 3 kittens one is also black and white, one tortie and another tortie but shes mainly black. I hope she is the mother!
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Post by Claire on Apr 27, 2011 22:08:53 GMT 1
If she had kittens and then lost them she could take to some other cat's kittens. In fact some cats will 'mother' other animals or even inanimate objects! I wonder if the b*stards who dumped the kittens took them off her and she left home in search of them and found them. Ok sounds a bit Disneyish but it would be nice to think so, wouldn't it!
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Post by Buster on Apr 27, 2011 22:21:07 GMT 1
Hmm maybe! The vet actually said she looked like she was pregnant again... but that was just from a quick examination and it could also be that her milk had just started drying up and she hadnt fed them a lot. Someone even suggested that she had them after being dumped, but I doubt they would have survived that long out there, especially as there was a huge thunderstorm a few nights ago makes me sad to think of other animals out it it! Ahh i'd take them all home if I could! Oh well, looks like we have a few more stable cats now
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2011 6:31:03 GMT 1
There just is no excuse to do things like that I'm glad you've got them at your stables now mysteryarab I know of a cuelty case with horses going on near me, makes me sick to the stomach. it is being sorted out now thank goodness.
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Post by sarah on Apr 28, 2011 19:42:46 GMT 1
Ahhhh - poor little things. Glad they are now in good hands. We were 'adopted' by an abandoned cat in Italy who had kittens. She died when they were around 4 weeks old - so were just old enough to learn to drink kitten milk from a bowl. They did very well.
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Post by kunuma on Apr 29, 2011 16:34:30 GMT 1
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Post by garej on Apr 29, 2011 20:12:43 GMT 1
Unfortunately people are like that. We get lots of incidences like that in the Cats Protection. Once a couple of years ago my dad found a kitten wandering in the middle of the road, which had clearly been dumped (it was found where there were few houses, and it belonged to nobody). My dad kept hold of it until it went to the Cats Protection.
A collar means nothing these days, sadly. I have seen strays who have had collars on. The RSPCA do not take strays on actually: they changed policy late last year so that they only take neglected cats and those that have been gifted to them via a will. So if they went to the RSPCA they would have been turned away in their case.
Yes mother cats will take other kittens which are not their own. We had (as in a couple of months ago) two mothers with kittens. The owner didnt know which was which, and we couldnt work which kittens belonged to who. So they both shared a space together, and as both kittens were roughly the same age (there was a couple of days apart) they were weaned together, and taken from their mothers when they were old enough.
Cats can have kittens which are different colours and not necessarily the same colour as the mum. For example the above litter was all tortie and white, except for one which was ginger. The two mums were black and white. So the fact she bonded with them does not mean that they were hers. Last year to save the kittens life, our manager was given 5 hour old kittens (the mother had died) and they had to be put onto another mum. The chances are that they would not have survived hand rearing. The mum took good care of them, and you wouldnt have known that they were not hers!
Also, people see cats as throw away things these days! We had this week two cats who were on their way to the vets to be destroyed! There was nothing wrong with them that warranted them putting to sleep, the person who had them got fed up of caring for them, and because our manager couldnt take them in she was going to sleep. Obviously she couldnt be bothered about the welfare and finding a solution: she saw them as an inconvenience and a problem she could get rid of.
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Post by Claire on Apr 29, 2011 22:15:14 GMT 1
The RSPCA is bloomin useless. Even years ago they were not very responsive in taking in abandoned cats/kittens. Thats how me and my dad ended up with so many cats
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