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There is always something going on in a multi-cat household. Erm 9... cats and counting...... Plus stories from the Sheffield Cats Shelter

Sunday 17 February 2013

Sunday at the shelter 17-02-13

It was great to hear that some of the older cats had found homes since my last visit. I keep up to date with the Shelters Facebook page so I can see when someone has been adopted or pre adopted.

I started today's volunteering session working in holding (see the last shelter post for an explanation)

Molly had been spayed during the week and has been given a lovely collar to stop her licking the wound. Unfortunately, I took this photo before I cleaned her compartment!  She's such a sweetie even though she looks a bit squashed here!

Molly models her new accessory


As usual, once my jobs were done I went into a few of the rooms and spent time with the cats. There are so many lovely ones, I can't believe some are still there.
Just cuddling up until a new Mum or Dad arrive

The big story this week involves a mum and her four kittens, born earlier in the week, just before the snow came. Had they not made it to the Shelter there is a good chance they would have all died. Thankfully someone spotted the pregnant Mum and alerted staff.  Mum had a seriously infected womb requiring emergency surgery,  that left her kittens needing to be hand reared from just one day old. Without the shelter, mum would have died of her infection and the kittens, well, you get the picture.

Five days later, they are at the shelter with adopted mum and Deputy Manager Emma.  When Emma goes home, so will the kittens. Most of the time they sleep together in a basket, with a heat pad in the bottom to mimic mum's body heat.
How cute?

Every two hours Emma makes up a small amount of milk. Each tub of formula costs £15 and it will last 5 days. They will stay on milk for the next six weeks. After this time they will start to be weaned. 

Emma picks up each kitten in turn, her first job is to stimulate them to poo and wee. She does this by wiping their little bums with a wet wipe. Mum would normally do this by licking.  Once they've done their business it's time for milk.
Emma feeding one of her new babies

Some of the kittens take to this quicker than others.  They are all very tiny and very sleepy! Emma explains that they waggle their ears as they drink.  Could there be any more of a cuteness factor???  Yes, actually, when one of the kittens is winded a sound like a squeaky toy comes out!

So Emma will have a very tiring few weeks ahead of her.  Feeding every two hours means a lot of disturbed sleep, but as she says, who could be mad being woken up by these little sweethearts?


The Sheffield Cats Shelter go above and beyond, if you'd like to help to buy milk for these kittens or others like them why not visit their website where you can donate via Paypal or Just Giving. Or if you're local, pop in :)

Thanks for visiting, pop in next week to see how the kittens are getting on.


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