This is a sad story with a very happy ending. It is all about a cat who I christened Martina after she came to me. Maybe she had another name before that, but if so, it doesn’t matter.
I have been rescuing and finding homes for abandoned cats and kittens for the last year or two with the help of various like minded friends and have a Facebook Fanpage (Owens’s Halfway House for Abandoned Kittens: https://www.facebook.com/OwensKittens/)
Apart from my five permanent residents I had another 6 cats up for adoption so was not looking for any more but a young man called Nils wrote to me saying there was a pregnant cat living in an abandoned lot near his house in San Martin de Porras. He couldn’t take her in but was giving her food and could I help.
He sent me some photos of her eating and having some water and then this picture:
A little ginger ball sleeping in a garbage dump (and not even any other cats for company). The thought of her being there and then having to have her kittens was too much so I called him up and asked him about her.
He said she was very pregnant but also very friendly and affectionate (she was not a street cat, she had been someone’s pet that they had then dumped. I will not dignify those people by calling them human beings. Anyone who can do something like that is beneath contempt as far as I am concerned). He could bring her to Miraflores at the weekend as, despite living in San Martin de Porras, he worked in Lurin.
A mother cat will choose a secluded spot to have her kittens so I was worried she would give birth and we would not be able to find her and the kittens. Nils then offered to take the day of work, he bought a carrier for her, and brought her to Miraflores on the Tuesday the 8th of September. Nils is the first person who needs to be thanked in this story.
Beto, the vet at Mis Engreidos (Enrique Palacios 739, Miraflores) gave her a clean bill of health but she was very pregnant (5-6 kittens in the next few days he thought) and very undernourished.
I took her home and started feeding her up (dried and tinned food, lactose free milk and vitamin supplements) expecting a bunch of kittens any day. Instead she just got bigger and bigger.
Then on the morning of the 21st she gave birth to four kittens: Las Martinetas (two males and two females).
Having a mum with kittens is easy if you have the space. They are helpless for the first three weeks and the mother does everything. It is very rewarding watching them open their eyes (7-10 days), start the crawl around (3 weeks) and then become active, playful and start escaping from the confines of their pen.
They are eight days old in this photograph and two weeks in the next.
The grey one with the flash on her forehead is Harrietta Potter while the male behind her is Whitey. (All kittens are all born with deep blue eyes that change colour after about a month)
The ginger male is Garfield II and the tri-colour is Susie Splotch Face.
Most of the adoptees for my cats come by referral from Chiquis en Adopcion – Gatitos (https://www.facebook.com/chiquisenadopcion/) and this is what happened with Las Martinetas.
Susie and Harrieta were adopted by Ronnie Kin and are now called Clara and Sweety (and I want Susie back she is so cute).
While Whitey was adopted by Tita Miyosi and is now called Kikki.
Garfield II who was adopted by Pamela Jarabran and her family and became Noah.
Here he is sleeping with his little teddy bear,
and here is the message I got from Pamela after he had been there a few weeks.
“He is doing well, really well. You have no idea the happiness this kitten has brought us, we adore him, even my husband, who doesn’t much like animals. Up to now he doesn’t pet Noah but he worries about him.”
This is Noah a few week ago.
The final chapter was Martina, who has the sweetest nature and is the easiest going cat imaginable. After being with me nearly four months I was very attached to her and she had to go to the best home.
Eventually Yudy Lagos decided to adopt her and, after getting her sterilized (and a difficult recovery as the wound became infected) Martina finally went to her new home on the 30th of December.
So I need to say thank you to all the people who have helped me bring the last four months of Martina’s life to this happy conclusion with her and her babies all off to new homes where they will be safe, cared for and receive the love and attention they deserve and giving joy and happiness in return.
There is no comparison between the miserable and short lives that would have awaited Martina and her kittens and where they are now.
Please share this story and try and help the mistreated and misunderstood cats in Peru (and elsewhere).
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