By Leanne at Kays Hill
At the moment at Kays Hill we have 15 kittens, ages ranging from about 4 weeks old to about 5-6 weeks old. We also have 23 cats from 1yr to 6 yrs. Then we have 11 feral cats with ages ranging from about 10 months to 11 yrs.
Some of the ferals may be older but we don’t really know their ages. We have rehomed a few lately but not as many as we’d obviously like to. People have come and looked and said they would be back but they haven’t returned, which is always sad because its a potential home everytime someone comes to see the cats, especially when a person seems to really like a particular cat.
However, there is a home for every cat out there it just sometimes takes a while. We rehomed Meg the other day who is a beautiful long haired all black queen who had been with us forever! She wasn’t really keen on other cats so needed to be an only cat and the only people who had been interested in her had at least one other cat.
At last, last week, a nice young couple came and fell for her, as far as we know all is well up to now. We have a gorgeous ginger queen who came in with her three beautiful kittens, two dark torties and a semi-long haired ginger, (very cheeky) tom.
One of the torties was chosen by a nice family, the ginger boy is going to one of our volunteers and Rosie, the mam, is to be rehomed to a very nice lady so we just have to find a lovely home for the little tortie and the whole family can go off to their new homes and begin to really enjoy life.
Click this for lots of interesting pages about Kays Hill Animal Sanctuary, UK. (opens a new page)
We lost one of our old ferals a couple of weeks ago. We realised she hadn’t been in for her supper so we looked around for her but there was no sign, as she never went too far we weren’t worried too much. Food was left out for her, as well as all the others and we figured she would be back, if not that night, the next morning, shouting hungrily and demanding her breakfast.
When we didn’t see her the next morning we were starting to get worried. We received a phone call from a neighbour to say a cat was on the bridleway at the back of the sanctuary, when we looked, it was Sue. She was curled up, partially under the hedgerow and although our neighbour thought something bad had happened to her it hadn’t.
She was looking very peaceful when Kevin picked her up, curled up as if she had just gone to sleep. She was at least 18 yrs old and had always been feral, she would only come to anyone if she wanted feeding. We hadn’t had her a very long time but she had seemed happy enough here. She died as she had lived, out and about doing her own thing with no-one to tell her otherwise. Bye bye Sue.
I think this place must be full of spirit cats. Over the years we have lost a few to old age: Bramble, Jerry, Katie, Raggy, to name but a few. We lost Karrot last year to illness. Thankfully in the seven years we have ‘only’ lost one to the busy main road. That was little Daisy who was the most feral cat we have ever had, she was ferocious, but tiny! I like to think of them all visiting us from time to time.
The cat we have at the moment we would most like to rehome is Briar. A beautiful tabby and white queen. She is so nervous, but really wants to be friends. She just doesn’t know how to be.
We try to spend time with her and she is better than she was but although she is very pretty no-one to wants a ‘problem’ cat. They don’t seem to understand that in a home environment she would blossom given the chance. Her new home is out there somewhere!!
I have just had a phone call from someone wanting to come and see the little dark tortie kitten. fingers x’d!!!
We are getting so many phone calls from people who ‘need’ to rehome their poor animals for a variety of reasons, we just can’t take in over and over again. We can only take in when we have space. We will move around to try to make as much space as possible but it gets to the time when we just do not have any more space.
We feel guilty, but we always give out other numbers and we obviously put them on the waiting list. The trouble is we know that everyone else is full too. When people get aggressive and abusive towards us because we can’t take in their unwanted ‘pets’ it gets very depressing. Never mind….if we can get more cats rehomed we can take in more. The phrase ‘vicious circle’ springs to mind.
On a happier note the four ferals we have awaiting release in the feral unit are coming on great and it shouldn’t be long before we can release them. The cat in the photo is one of our ferals, Tux.
Lovely news about Murdoch, I hope he settles happily in his new home. How is your pain now Leanne?
some nice news from kays hill. murdoch, one of the cats who has been here for months, has gone of to his new home today! he is a beautiful tabby and white 6 yr old boy. neautered and vaccinated and friendly. the only thing against him was his age. because obviously 6 yrs old is ancient!! anyway, finally, a lovely family came along and fell for his charms and came back to collect him this afternoon. we were so pleased to see him off on his new adventure. this young family didnt want a kitten and felt so sorry for the older cats being overlooked. murdoch seemed to fit just what they wanted in their new family member. good luck to murdoch and his new family.
We would never think that Leanne, I’m sure you’d put up with the pain in your broken fingers forever rather than have that horse PTS, I know how you suffer when any animal at Kays Hill dies!
I hope his wound heals up but if not he will become ill and more of a danger to himself and to everyone there too who tries to help him.
We are thinking about you always, it must be a horrible situation for you at present.
thank you. the vet is coming back in 5 days time to have another look at him (from afar she said!)to see how the wound is healing, however he is refusing to take the antibiotics, won’t eat food with it in, so i cant see how it can heal, especially in this heat with flies around. i have of course sprayed him with fly repellent, well tried to, thats something else he dos’nt like. the whole thing has me worried sick, to think that he might have to be pts because of a pretty insignificant cut that in any other animal could be dealt with easily, its a horrible thought, but i know its a possibility. the vet considers him dangerous, she saw how he reacted yesterday when there was nothing to make him rear just the fact that he didnt want to be there, he wanted to be in the field! the thing is he has been treat badly in the past and i know his behaviour is appalling but it is’nt all his fault. he is bolshy admittedly but a lot of it has been caused by people but he is paying the price for it. if it has to happen i will be with him at the end but it will break my heart that this beautiful horse has to die over something so minor. my hand hurts like hell at the moment, im typing one handed, but he wont be pts because of that, i dont want anyone to thing that. my hand will heal, with or without an op. i just wish i could make freeno better as easily.
You poor thing Leanne,you must be in so much pain and it’s very awkward to manage with fingers strapped up. I snapped a tendon in one finger a few years back and it was in a sort of stiff plastic cast, it was really hard to do ordinary everyday things, so it must be far worse for you working like that.
If you can’t handle that horse, no one can, as you usually have a way with even the worst tempered animal. You can only do your best, I bet you’ll break your heart if he has to be PTS but you can’t risk him fatally injuring anyone can you!
I hope your breaks mend without an op! Take care xx
Wow. Phew. Leanne, that is tough. I don’t know what to say but it is not good. You have been kind to a difficult horse and you have been injured twice. I hope you make a good recovery and a quick one. When an animal is mentally damaged for any reason – and by animal I also mean the human – they can be difficult and isn’t their fault.