A Tale Of Two Torties

An Auntie’s love After Losing Her Litter…

Clockwise from top left: Evie, Cora, Ellie and Coco

We were asked by a neighbour to help a man who had been overrun with stray cats. The man was dealing with poor living conditions himself due to a fire in his home but kindly continued to feed the local strays and provide them with some shelter.

But the cats were breeding so our branch leader Karen went to assess the situation to see what we could do. Some cats appeared friendly while others behaved feral. Fifty percent of them were tortoiseshell females. We have never seen so many torties in one place before! Karen found three to be pregnant. In order to stop further breeding Mike acted immediately to get the others trapped and neutered. Thanks to our amazing fosterers we were able to bring the three pregnant cats in very quickly. Ember went to one foster home and Cora and Evie went to another one together.

Ember gave birth first and had three kittens, but sadly, one was born sleeping. The other two seemed to be thriving until one called Oreo started to fade. She was treated at the vets but sadly had to be put to sleep a week later. Thankfully the remaining kitten, Wotsit, is doing really well (and is a naughty little boy!)

Cora, who was no more than a kitten herself, had a very traumatic time. She started to miscarry so was rushed to the emergency vets but there was nothing they could do to save her kittens. Thankfully Cora survived the ordeal and was returned to her friend Evie.

Last but not least the friendliest of the threesome, Evie, gave birth to three kittens. One was born sleeping but thankfully the other two are still thriving.

We made the decision not to separate Cora from Evie due to how much Cora relied on Evie for confidence and reassurance. Their foster mum had a camera in their room so a close eye was kept on them, particularly when the kittens arrived. Cora amazed us all. She gave Evie the space she needed while the kittens were first born and when they got to around two weeks old, she began to help look after them. She snuggles up to Evie while she is feeding her kittens and often gives her head a wash while the babies snuggle together and also washes them and helps to keep them in line.

By night when they are all asleep, she acts just like the kitten she is, playing from one end of the room to the other and throwing toys in the air. Her foster mums refer to her as a ‘baby elephant’.

These three beautiful torties are slowly coming out their shell and will make lovely pets once their kittens have been adopted. We will absolutely not split Cora and Evie up, their bond is too strong after what they have been through together, so we hope that when they are ready someone will give them their happy ending.

All the remaining cats are now neutered and chipped. We are looking for rural homes for the feral ones as there is a busy main road close by where they were found. We are sure that the high mortality rate among the kittens has much to do with the large degree of inbreeding in this colony. A situation so easily prevented by neutering.

Leanne Gleave – CAT77 Doncaster South