Quite a busy day for me what with one thing and another. Now it was 7.40pm and, with Susan off aquacising with her friend June, all was quiet. Until the phone rang. Two tiny grey kittens had been found by a main road in Houghton and the lady didn't know what to do. I rang Carole, received the expected answer, and set off with van and kitten carrier. Fortunately the lady's house was easy to find.
She'd done the right thing in contacting me as the kittens were around 3-4 weeks old (which Carole confirmed later) and hadn't been weaned. Had they been dumped? We'll never know. They certainly weren't feral as even at that young age they'd have been vicious. These two were used to being handled. They were also obviously very hungry, one of them crying continuously which was kept up all the way to Carole's.
Just as I got in the van, I saw a grey cat nearby and wondered if this was their mother looking for them. Or it could have been their father. I beckoned him/her over, gave the cat a stroke and picked it up. Answer: neither. He was a neutered male. Nice cat, mind.
I got to Carole's pretty quickly as even the busy A roads were relatively light of traffic at this time of evening. Carole popped them in a small cage and prepared some Simicat (name probably spelled incorrectly) for them. It's a special formula kitten food delivered through a syringe in the mouth. It must have worked as the crying kitten stopped crying; well, for a while anyway. After a little while Carole decided to turf the five week old kittens out of a bigger cage and, after cleaning it out, put the two babies in. She also put in a bowl of kitten food, smeared some over both their mouths so they knew what it was, then shoved (gently) their faces in it so they knew where it was.
The kittens are going to be fine thanks to Carole's experience but also thanks to the lady who so kindly took them in and contacted me. I talk a lot about about Carole and myself but none of what we do would be possible without the people who take in stray and abandoned cats and kittens in the first place.
Okay, here they are. Also some more kitten photos I took while I was there tonight.
Hang on, before I upload them, I should mention that Susan came home while I was out, didn't have her keys with her, didn't know where I was, couldn't find out because I'd left my phone in the van while I was at Carole's, and had to take refuge with a neighbour. Still, once I'd explained she put the rolling pin away.
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