In January 2005, SHUA were asked to participate in a rescue operation at a house in Gelli Gaer. Although Gelli Gaer is outside of the area that SHUA covers, this was a crisis situation and multiple rescue organisations were needed to pull the rescue off. There were 12 cats and several dogs at the house, all of which had been badly neglected. SHUA took 4 cats and, between them, the other rescue organisations took the rest of the animals.
All the cats that we took in were young females, 3 of whom were heavily pregnant and 1 of whom had already had her litter.
Tragically, one of the dogs had managed to get into the room where the cats were and had savaged them. Of the cats that we brought back to the shelter, 'Babes' had been mauled and had lacerations around her neck. One of 'Terri's back legs had been torn off (hence we called her 'Terri-Tripod'). Of Terri's litter, only 3 kittens had survived - the dog had killed the others. One of the kittens we rescued had deep puncture wounds in his thigh.
Their wounds eventually healed and Terri slowly adapted to life on three legs.
The other 2 queens we named 'Skippy' and 'Spicey'. All of the queens were, understandably, terribly traumatised when they first arrived. We worked with them intensively and, over time, their confidence grew.
Babes, Skippy & Spicey all gave birth at SHUA, with Skippy having her litter last of all, in the week after our charity shop first opened (early Feb 2005). Sadly, Babes was so very traumatised that one of her kittens was a still-born and she accidentally suffocated another by inadvertently sitting on it shortly after birth. Her other 2 kittens, however, along with Skippy's 4, Spicey's 2 and Terri's 3, were all perfectly healthy and we successfully rehomed all of them.
Spicey went on to foster a lone kitten that had come to SHUA without a mum. The two of them were subsequently rehomed together to a family in Roath.
Terri and Babes were rehomed together in August 2005. Sadly, however, they were returned to SHUA in July 2006 after their owners had split up. They are now in desperate need of a loving home.
If you would like to adopt Terri and/or Babes, please read our adoption policy and then get in touch to arrange an appointment.
Skippy never really recovered from the trauma that they all had suffered. After all this time, she is still very wary of humans and will not allow herself to be picked up by anyone. We can sometimes stroke her but she cries when you do so - she never purrs for humans.
Skippy is a permanent resident at SHUA and lives in a small colony with some of our other residents. Her best friend at SHUA is another young tortie female called Jilly. Skippy & Jilly love to play together and also love to play with Can-Can, a young white and black female cat. They can also often be found chattering to Flirty, another female tortie cat who lives in a different area of the shelter, through the glass doors!
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