Stray unneutered cats can very quickly create little communities in areas that are quiet and away from too much disturbance. A really common situation we see is kittens being born to stray or unneutered pets within the gardens of a closed block of houses and flats.
The multiple gardens within these blocks, with lots of people feeding them, can create a nice haven for them where they don’t have to venture out and onto the busy roads. While this feels nice and safe for queens to have their litters, it becomes nearly impossible for animal rescue charities to contain them quickly before they become maturee and too quick to catch.
Flo and Joan are two kittens from an original group of four kittens found within the gardens of a block of houses in Croydon. Originally it was the RSPCA inspectorate team who had been dealing with the concerns raised about a young female – who we’ve called Florence – with an injured eye, and her group of kittens.
They were able to trap Florence and catch two of the kittens as they were luckily still small enough to grab before running off. All three came into our care via the inspectorate team and we were then tasked with the difficulty of socialising wary kittens and figuring out what would be best for Florence considering her eye, together with how hesitant she was around people.
After seeing the vets, we were told that Florence had what is called entropion, which is where a lower eyelid is turned inwards so that the eyelashes are continuously rubbing against the surface of the eye. The vets thought that this case might have been present from birth due to her young age.
As her eye was no longer functional, could cause issues for her in the future, and we weren’t sure if owners would be able to catch her for any further treatment, we decided with the vet to have the eye removed. After this she has made a great recovery and is relaxing in a quiet foster home!
With Flo and Joan however, it was a race against time to get them socialised and used to humans so they could go on to have a fulfilling life.
They went to their own fosterer Lisa, who was ready to do everything necessary to socialise them and encourage them to trust new people and other animals around them. After a few weeks, they were flourishing and playing with the fosterer despite still being a bit shy with strangers. We knew at this point that they were ready!
Now that they’ve moved on, we have reached out to their adopter – Mark – for an update to see how they’re settling in:
“We lost our 10yr old cat suddenly in December and I looked into adopting one (or 2 😂) from the RSPCA. I looked on websites and found Joan and Flo and contacted Jacqui the branch manager to enquire after filling in the adoption paperwork.
Jacqui said that the kittens were with Lisa the foster parent and put me in contact with her. The kittens were due to be spayed and we then delayed picking them up until about 10 days after the operation.
I collected them on Saturday 17th December and they’ve settled in fantasticly. We have two small dogs who are used to having a cat around and they’re brilliant with the kittens.
The kittens were very entertaining at Christmas climbing the tree playing with the decorations and that was only a week after we picked them up. We’ve registered them with our vet and they’re gaining in confidence being around us and exploring our house.”
One of the best parts of this job is getting to see and hear how each cat is doing once they’ve been rehomed, because you can really see how everyone’s hard work has come together!
Unfortunately though, as we weren’t able to find the remaining two kittens in that block of gardens this story does have a bitter-sweet element to it.
After several weeks of working with one of the residents there to gain access and to work the traps, we eventually had to stop trying as no one had spotted the remaining two for more than a month. It is very likely that they have just moved on to somewhere else or someone else has been feeding them, as they looked very healthy the last sighting we got of them.
To try prevent this from happening again, we posted leaflets detailing our Welfare Assistance scheme around the entire block so we might be able to reduce the amount of surprise litters in the gardens this year. After speaking to some of the residents and finding out that there had been another litter a few weeks before Flo and Joan, we hope that the residents who own cats might come forward for assistance in getting their pets neutered.
Please help the RSPCA to contain the ever increasing cat population by getting your cats neutered. An unneuterd cat can give you an unwanted litter to deal with, whilst male cats are far more likely to be injured in fights if left unneutered.
We have schemes that could assist owners with the costs of neutering cats (and dogs & rabbits) – see our financial assistance page for details.
RSPCA South London - For Every Kind Of Creature 