THE BONFIRE KITTENS
by Ruth
(England)
My sister Barbara and I were at one time volunteers at our local Cats Protection branch and as there weren't many of us we had all the job titles.
This particular day we were called on by the co-ordinator in our role as Feral Officers because someone had phoned in about a cat which was in a bonfire built of old bits of wood, empty boxes and other rubbish, in a builder's yard.
The man was about to set the fire alight when he spotted a pair of shiny eyes staring out at him.
That was when he phoned to say he wanted someone there quickly!
When we arrived we saw a huge bonfire piled up and the man said he feared the cat had kittens in there as there had been a pregnant cat hanging around a while ago but she had vanished for a while only to start hanging around again recently, but now he hadn't seen her for a few days.
We managed to move some of the stuff and sure enough, there was a little kitten around a month old in a cardboard tube. He hissed at us but Babz reached in and lifted him out with no trouble, only to discover another 3 kittens behind him. We popped all 4 into a basket and then between us we dismantled the whole bonfire to make sure the mother cat wasn't in there too or any more kittens.
The kittens were warm and looked healthy but they were starving hungry.
We presumed something must have happened to the mother cat in the past few days, but we set up the trap cage which the man said he would keep an eye on.
We took the kittens to the co-ordinator who pronounced them to be around 5 weeks old, small for their age but healthy.
Such brave little souls they were, hissing and spitting at us. With being so young they were soon tamed and then each one went to a good home.
Sadly the mother cat was never seen again.
We shuddered to think that if that man hadn't seen those eyes shining those 4 little kittens would have been burned alive.
Sorry the photos aren't very good quality but they are all we have of them.
