12/04/2025
IF ONLY
Last week i trapped this girl at one of my colonies.
I tried repeatedly not to..
She would not stay away from the trap.
I had seen her looking a bit plump weeks before,
They have found a feeder there, who said they had also seen her looking larger than usual.
I had no way of knowing if she had been pregnant, had worms, pyometra...or anything.
Then she was hardly seen.
Obviously i assumed she was pregnant.
By this time, the kittens (if she had been pregnant) would have been around 2 weeks old.
Now i'm not ashamed or proud to admit, i had a massive dilemma and didn't know what to do.
All i could do was what i thought was best at the time.
No winning ending either way.
With most people finding kittens only contacting the obvious charities, so someone like me has no contact point, it is impossible to find someone to give you access to locked locations.
Some will. Most are skeptical and assume everyone is a fraud these days.
Even the feeder has never text me to help me plan to catch these cats, so i can't rely on them to inform me if/when the cat showed up with or without kittens, they have, previously contacted a local charity , more than once i believe, as has a local business about these cats, (mainly finding the odd kitten) , but this charity has repeatedly failed to locate any ferals, much less get any neutered.
I have explained exactly where they are, how many, what colours and still they are all there breeding (apart from the several/dozen i have already done over the last few years).
IF ONLY i didn't have to beg others for funds for neutering, 2 or 3 here and there-after having to be subjected to ego rants and accusations that they are "doing me a favour"... I could have got them all done in 2021, instead of the national charity REFUSING to fund it! and leaving them to get on with breeding.
Thanks to my trolls and sad little women in rescue who SHOULD know better and do better, i have very few contacts to instantly have other options.
So without someone on hand i could immediately collect a cat cam from, to track the cat if i let her go from the trap..the only options were 1. release her, hope i can trap her in future, incase she has live babies. or 2. get her spayed the next morning and release her immediately after (not ideal) and hope the babies (if there were any) had been safe enough to live through the night! :O
I didn't like either option.
I called a trusted rescue friend for advice.
They agreed that both options were not good options.
But we seemed to reluctantly agree with a degree of impending horror, that she needed neutering, I might not ever get her again, and most babies in that location are never seen again :'(
So with a REALLY heavy heart, i kept her in the carrier, took her to be spayed, then released her as soon as i got out of the vets, back at the location.
I still feel sick about it.
I just hope if there were babies, they are ok.
In future, i think i will release a suspected mum cat...
There is just no foolproof way of dealing with this.
Some cats i have chosen not to trap previously, have just continued to breed. I did not want that to happen again.
PLEASE , if anyone has useful items like wildlife cameras they don't need, donate them. If more people helped me with cat food (the source of some semi regular food, being removed due to lies spread by RESCUES-you'd be shocked if you knew all of them), then i would have some of MY money left to buy necessary things for these circumstances that many other rescues have LOTS of as standard.
If there was help with vet bills more, or someone willing to try to raise funds/apply for grants etc, then i could use MY money for these items.
I appreciate every bit of help i get, but it's never enough, a 12 pack of cat sachets only feeds the kittens alone ONCE a day.
Not even the ferals that can't be homed, the disabled cats here, the ones awaiting neutering, the emergency mum of the babies needing hand rearing.
IF ONLY i had more help.
I have about a dozen regular/semi regular wonderful helpers/donators, but that's it, out of 1.2K followers.
IF ONLY there were funds for a cat cam, I could have located babies, then trapped mum safely, then got her neutered, instead of this anxiety inducing outing :/
EVERY PENNY donated, EVERY bit of food, etc, goes to these/street cats EVERY time.
I can't stretch my finances anymore.
All i can do is feed cheaper food to make it last longer/feed more cats.
IF ONLY i had 9 messages out of 10 asking about adoption, instead of 9 finding cats/kittens in their gardens or wanting to relinquish their cat/kittens, and only 1 either offering some food or enquiring about adopting, things would be so much easier.
PLEASE ask your friends, family, neighbours to support THESE CATS, NOT me, the CATS!
I see rescues popping up , only set up a few onths ago with 3 THOUSAND followers, when they can't get enough money donated, they pack up!
And there's me, struggling on, begging for help over TEN YEARS later.
I have ALWAYS paid for everything myself until the last couple of years, when it's just costing TOO much money!
Vets, food, litter, EVERYTHING has almost doubled in cost.
I will die before i just quit because i have to spend my own monthly money on other peoples cats!
I turn MOST requests for help away, because there's not enough money to do anything more than i'm doing now.
I REALLY need some help over here..
There are rescues with access to apply for THOUSANDS of pounds in funds/grants MULTIPLE times a year to multiple grant sources, who still ask daily/weekly for donations..
Please stop asking me to help lots of other cats if you haven't even donated £1 ever, much less signed up to donate £1 per month/£12 per YEAR to help me help these cats.
It's just impossible.
The charities all bang on about non charities, but WHY are there so many cats breeding on the streets if they are doing such a good job and one man bands like me are infringing/stealing their "work"?
Multiple charities were called to these cold, starving to death babies this week...not one went and collected them.
Not one has since offered to collect them to get them to an experienced hand rear foster.
A possible option on the table, after i messaged people asking for help, won't take them because they are from a home with ringworm!
And THIS is why people like me TRY to help.
I'm not the big "I am", I'm just one person who feels sorry for cats and kittens LEFT OUTSIDE by other rescues and charities who will NOT take kittens out of a bush, when they KNOW they have cat flu, chlamydia etc.
THEY HAVE THE FUNDS TO DO IT/SORT IT!
Not me!
But i will go bankrupt trying, unlike them, who won't dent their bank accounts trying.
I have taken so many cat flu kittens that charities refused to acknowledge when finders contacted them!
But I have one nut job telling everyone I'm the problem?
And other rescues accusing me of hoarding because it takes me WAY LONGER to get everyone seen/medicated/cured, than these rescues with TONNES of money, who WON'T go and get them!
Surely the cats are better off FED, NOT collapsing and dying in the street (like Williams sister did!) than being in a bush, slowly dehydrating/starving? Even if it does take a while to get them sorted?
Shoot me for being so evil that i live in a house falling to bits, because I spend EVERY available penny of MY money on cats needing help.
When others refuse.....
If anyone would like to send food etc, the links and details are in the pinned post at the top of this page.
We are ALWAYS desperate for WET FOOD.
ALWAYS.
And i don't get a company to donate pallets and pallets of it with a "charity number" then sell it on facebook!!