As the Animal Welfare Officer for the RSPCA South London branch I am so lucky to not have to work weekends, however my compassion and care for animals does not stop at the door when I get home all cosy on Friday nights!
This weekend just gone my eagle-eyed sister-in-law spotted a Facebook post from a lady called Karen who had recently suffered an electrical house fire. Luckily no-one was injured, but it meant she needed to vacate the property with her two cats and stay in a hotel as soon as possible.
Karen is the passionate owner of two black rescue cats; Molly and Blackberry. Due to their mysterious history, they are extremely timid but have been slowly but surely softening under Karen’s love and patience, however they were still proving impossible for Karen under such intense circumstances.
Karen reached out to her local community for help in not just fostering her cats, but catching them too! Knowing I had two cat traps in my van and the skills to attempt catching them by hand, I got in contact to see if I could help. Karen accepted quickly and that evening I arrived at her home to assist!
Of the two cats, Blackberry was the easiest. Once I could encourage her out from under the bed, she darted around them room where Karen was able to grab her and we safely contained her in a cat carrier. Molly was much more difficult however, as since Karen had taken Molly in she had been too timid to ever hold, so picking her up would not be so simple!
After Molly led us around three different rooms, we were finally able to pluck her off the curtain rail and contain her too.
The situation was highly emotional for both myself and Karen, especially when discussing whether or not catching and moving them was going to set back their progress together and if they could learn to trust Karen again.
I was able to comfort her and suggest that with time they would most certainly get back to showing vulnerability around Karen, and as they were such young cats there was plenty of time left to even surpass where they had already gotten to before the fire.
Karen was able to find someone to look after the cats by reaching out to her local community, so luckily once caught they already had a temporary home to go to.
It was so heart-warming to see all the messages online of support, and I could see that Karen was incredibly grateful!
Hopefully where they are now they can settle down for a while and will show no ill effects from the fire, before returning to Karen once everything is back to normal.
RSPCA South London - For Every Kind Of Creature 