Would you like to rescue a cat?

Linda Hartley, who runs Arran’s cat rescue service for the national Cats Protection League, sends us the first of a series of stories about cats who have come her way.

You get all sorts of phone calls in this job. ‘Can you take a semi feral cat that is pregnant?’

Hesitation is impossible – yes, of course we could. We have a large cat house which has three pens, so Mum and kittens would have warmth and space. Really, there is no such thing as a semi feral cat. They are either feral or domestic, and the in-betweens are usually unfortunates that have known human contact but been lost or abandoned. A truly feral cat won’t come near a human being. The new cat didn’t look very pregnant, possibly because she’d been living wild and was half-starved. When I opened the basket she shot out and scrambled up the wire netting of the pen then fell on the floor. My heart leapt for fear of what this might do to her unborn kittens, but she seemed unperturbed. Two mornings later, I found her in the cat bed with six kittens, seeming calm and settled, just getting on with feeding her hungry brood. But her milk supply was perhaps not great. When I came home that day from work one of the kittens was lying at the back of the basket. I thought it was dead, but felt a flicker of movement in its chest. I nursed it with hot water bottle and it sucked at kitten milk through a dropper, but I knew that 99% of kittens like this do not make it. But I was determined to give it go, so I set the alarm clock for two hours hence when I went to bed, kitten in a warm box close at hand. It took some more milk when I woke, but sadly, it died later that night. One of the others died as well, but the remaining four survived, and found homes.

A young lad picked the kitten in the picture because he thought she was very funny. She climbed up the curtains and caused such mayhem that the family bought her a seven-foot-high climbing frame! And she named herself with her constant calls of, ‘Me! Me! Me!’ So what could she be called but Mimi? I posted a picture of her on Facebook and was amazed that we had several hundred viewings! We’re grateful to everyone who posted comments – it all helps to spread the word that we are here, trying to do our best for cats who fall on troubled times.

Linda Hartley