Abandoned Family of Cats Look After Each Other

I work at Tre-Ysgawen Hall Hotel in Anglesey and was disgusted to find a family of cats had been abandoned by their owners. Who abandoned the cats I do not know nor do I know why. What I do know though is that the poor defenseless animals were taking care of each other.

The Hotel owns three cats that are used to hunt vermin. A few weeks ago two new cats were spotted scrounging food from the bins at the back of the Hotel. Also a group of around 10 tiny kittens had been spotted in a field next to the hotel. The two new cats turned out to be the mothers of the kittens who were less than a month old.

I observed the behaviour of the two mother cats. One would scavenge food whilst the other would look after the kittens. The mother cats were very skittish around people at first. I thought that they were skittish because they were feral but after observing them I realised that the two mother cats were actually domestic animals. The cats that are owned by the hotel are feral and have no shortage of food surrounding them because the hotel is located in the middle of the Anglesey countryside so there are loads of rats and mice. The two mother cats were very obviously malnourished they were stick thin. They did not know how to hunt for food, all that they were eating was coming from the hotels bins.

Hotel staff took to feeding the two mother cats. The two mother cats began to trust the staff and would come up to each member of staff that they saw and try to get them to stroke them. Once this rapport began to build up the mothers started to bring their kittens up to the hotel. The kittens were so small that they could more than easily fit into the palm of my hand. When the mothers started to bring the kittens to the hotel the staff fell in love with them. It was amazing to watch the two mother cats take it in turn to feed the kittens and clean the kittens. It was also quite funny to watch when one of the mothers needed a break from the kittens she would jump up onto the bonnet of one of the cars in the staff car park. This way they could make sure that the kittens are safe but not have them climbing all over them. Also whenever one of the more out going kittens went too far away from the rest of the litter on of the mothers would retrieve it whilst the other would guard the rest. Cats are highly intelligent animals who deserve our love and respect. The RSPCA were called several times but failed to show up, when they said they would, to take the cats to a safe new home I am unsure as to the reason that they gave for this. Instead the staff themselves decided to rehome the kittens. They were malnourished and tiny, but they were all curious and affectionate little creatures.

I am happy to say that all of the kittens have been rehomed and are well fed and seem very happy. The two mother cats have also been rehomed. If it were not for the kindness of the staff of Tre-ysgawen Hall Hotel these poor defenseless creatures probably would not have survived through the coming winter.