Stray unneutered female cats give birth to their young where ever they can and our rescue workers are kept very busy responding to calls to rescue litters of kittens that have been discovered living in often quite dangerous situations.

The mother cat (pictured) had been shut outside by her owner.

The mother cats have often managed to hide their kittens until at 6-8 weeks old the kittens become more adventurous and begin following mum in search of food. At 6-8 weeks old because they have not been handled and socialised by people the kittens are nervous of human contact and are generally known as feral. Our rescue workers are trained and know how to humanely and safely catch feral kittens.

It is also very important to rescue or in the case of older kittens that would be very difficult to tame up to at least neuter and return them as left in an unneutered state they too will be capable of breeding from four months old and a feral cat colony will rapidly grow.

We were called out to a house, where a man had had an operation and the doctor advised him to not have any animals in the house. He therefore promptly put his heavily pregnant cat outside permanently. She gave birth to 5 kittens in the drain at the front of the house.