By Ruth
We had a tragedy in our street this weekend. A young cat was trapped in the small gap at the top of a tilting window, she must have been trying to get out of the house and it cost her her life.
We first noticed an RSPCA Inspector knocking at the front door of the house, but no one was in. We then saw him go down the side of the house to the back and then he was talking to a woman hanging out of her bedroom window of another house behind that. Of course we couldn’t see what was happening there but then a fire engine pulled up, one fireman was carrying a ladder. The crew joined the Inspector who then went back to his van to collect a cat carrier.
At the time I was busy receiving phone calls from BT about a dispute we had with them over our internet usage (now thankfully resolved in our favour) but Babz was out in our front garden with our own cats
She asked him what had happened, because they are cats we are concerned about, very young and out long hours and now sadly pregnant. Apparently the woman in the bedroom window opposite the back of their house had noticed a cat trapped in the top of the tilting window and phoned the RSPCA.
The inspector said that as it is usual for no one to be at home the plan is to climb up outside and open the window further and push the cat back into the house. So, shockingly this must happen often. We were frantic of course, wondering what was going on and meanwhile the two women returned home.
Babz was able to ask the RSPCA Inspector if the cat was OK. Sadly she wasn’t, no one knew how long she had been stuck there as no one had been in the house for hours. He thought she’d broken her back, she was being taken straight to the vets and most likely would have to be PTS.
Worse was to come! She had a litter of young kittens in the house! Eventually the Inspector returned with bad news and collected the kittens who the women had to sign over to him.
This tragedy has affected us deeply and this is to warn everyone that cats are not safe, even indoors. They can usually manoeuvre even the smallest spaces but an unscreened partly open window can be a death trap.
It made me think again of how vulnerable cats are, how we must be very careful always about windows, especially upstairs ones. How we must always close doors very carefully, because cats especially young ones, are unpredictable, they can make a dash for an open door and be shut in it and hurt that way.
The only good thing to come out of this tragedy is that the other cats of the family will now be under RSPCA scrutiny, so that young mother did not die in vain and her story might save other cats lives.
Yes that’s the RSPCA and CP both know about the situation now and intervened, a huge relief to us!
This makes me so sick that the poor little mama had to reach that state before CP was called.
The pregnant one that’s left needs to go too.
At least, it’s comforting to know that CP helps and doesn’t kill.
They phoned CP because the mother couldn’t feed the kittens and when Marion came to collect them and saw the state of the mother I expect she persuaded them in her own inimitable way to sign them all over.