The 'Cozy-Wannabes' were rescued in January 2005. We received a call from a lady living in Pendoylan to say that two adult cats and six white & black kittens had recently appeared on the land near her farmhouse. We went up to the farm armed with full rescue gear - traps, nets & grabbers - and thankfully, after several days and a fair dose of patience, managed to catch all of the cats and kittens.
Unfortunately, the adults and one of the kittens were simply too feral to work with. We had them neutered, de-fleaed & wormed, and then released them back to the farm. The family agreed to feed and care for them (in return for the odd bit of rat-catching, you understand!).
We brought the other five kittens back to the shelter and worked with them intensively. We will never know for certain how they all ended up at the farm in Pendoylan; however, they were all so traumatised when we picked them up that we suspect they had been rounded up, slung into boxes and simply dumped there.
We named the five kittens Cadwaulder, Cozy, Carnaby, Coney-Bear and Can-Can (collectively known as the 'Cozy-Wannabes'). All but one of the kittens were approximately 14-18 weeks old when we rescued them but Can-Can was pregnant and, although it was hard to tell because she was quite a petite girl, she did look a bit older than the others. She might even have been the other kittens' mother - we'll never know. Tragically, Can-Can was had been so badly traumatised that she miscarried and none of her babies survived.
Cadwaulder was pretty outgoing and tame from the outset and we rehomed him in March 2005. The other four were much more timid and we decided that they would probably stay on at SHUA and become permanent residents.
There are several cats at the shelter who have either suffered some kind of physical or mental trauma at a young age or who have been born with a disability, meaning that they need that extra special level of care - and, consequently, that they can never be rehomed. These cats are permanent residents at SHUA and will be looked after for the rest of their natural lives.
It took many months of love, patience, kindness and interaction to persuade these four young cats that they could, once again, trust humans. And our feline friends helped too - we're sure that Nelson and other cats put many a good word in for us over the months!
Tragically, both Cozy and Can-Can were killed on the road outside SHUA; Cozy in 2007 and Can-Can in 2008. They will both be sorely missed by all of us. Thankfully, both Coney and Carnaby have made new best friends with other residents at SHUA.
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