Haven't posted our rescues for a while but we took in 13 on Friday 13th - how weird is that!
First up is a lovely tabby mum and her 6 kittens rescued from a garden nr Maidstone. Having received the call from another charity unable to help, I hot footed it there only for the heavens to open. Mum had moved kittens a few times - this is a long saga of missed opportunities over a few weeks - and had moved them again since I had received the message - a matter of 2 hours. After some time searching and getting soaked to the skin, we agreed to call it a day and I asked the lovely ladies, who were helping, to set up a feeding programme for mum with a view to the kittens appearing sometime. I drove away, then stopped, went back and searched again on my own and was just starting to drive away again when I got a phonecall - mum had been spotted in a thicket of bamboo. We had looked at this already but not seen anything at all. When I went back mum was indeed back there and seemed reluctant to move even though she was clearly upset at my proximity. Eventually she moved off slightly and I spotted a slightly bedraggled kitten which she had been sitting on to protect from the torrential rain. Still no sign of other kittens. What to do? Mum kept looking at the furthermost corner of the bamboo. I had been told there was 1 ginger kitten (true) and 5 black and white kittens (not true!). After much peering in the gloom I eventually spotted a slight movement. Hoping this was a kitten, I risked picking up the bedraggled kitten - a little tabby. Much hissing from mum but eventually managed to scruff her too and pull her out of the bamboo and into a carrier with her kitten. Back to the bamboo. The scruffing and pulling mum out had been noisy so there was a bit of 'Consternation in the Corner' and I could then see we had the remaining 5 kittens - 1 ginger and 4 tabbies with little bits of white on legs and chests - all soaked to the skin, Soon they were reunited with mum and sibling. They are about 3 weeks old, at least in size, but suspect they may be a bit older as some of them are eating solid food. Mum is tame but very scared. She is very clever though - she had moved the kittens next door to the pigeon fancier ...
With those safely in the car, it was onto the next pickup - a mum and 4 dumped by the roadside and a single kitten. The 4 kittens are about 5 weeks old and mum, now called Martha, is also essentially tame but is a tabby/tortie (say no more!). The single kitten, now called Pepper, was supposedly a "stray". No, no, no. He is the cuddliest most loveable baby boy - already home lined up.
