Kittens abandoned on Christmas Day at Freshfields

On Christmas morning, of all days, these 3 frightened kittens were abandoned outside Freshfields in a sealed Christmas bag. Now, they're safe, fed and warm in our Cattery.

Ryan Alexander, Acting Cattery Manager, takes up the story: “At 7.30am on Christmas Day, we found a terrified, tiny kitten dumped in a bag outside the rescue centre. The bag was torn, and our first thought was ‘how many more kittens were in there?’ We thought there would almost certainly be more. We went up the lane and set out some carriers with food, and waited to see what would happen. Staff, volunteers, dog- walkers and the public gave up their time on Christmas Day to come together and help us in the search, for which we are extremely thankful.

Later on Christmas Day, we found 2 more kittens who had clawed their way out of the bag. In the spirit of Christmas, they were found with the help of our dogs Dodger and Shankley, who sniffed out their hiding places whilst they were out on walks. All three brothers are safe and well. They’ve been named Isaac, Galileo and Socrates. One does have a cut on his tail that may have been caused by trying to escape from the bag, or from burrowing into brambles to try to hide. This has been cleaned up and shouldn't cause him any problems until he can see our vet.

We have three kittens now, but it would have saved a lot of time and emotional stress if we had known for certain how many we were looking for, so that we could rest easy in the knowledge that we had them all, or alternatively, that we need to keep searching until we re-unite them all safely.”

Debbie Hughes, PR and Communications, said: The welfare of the animals is the first priority for us. In situations like this, we are not here to judge, but we appeal to you – please do not take the drastic step of abandoning the animals without giving us any notice or any information at all about them. The road around the rescue centre is very busy, and there are buzzards around who could have easily taken a kitten.

If you are contemplating leaving your animals, please contact us by email, phone or in person and let us know what’s happening. We can work with you to do the very best we can to help you and help the animals to find a solution.

The 3 boys are recovering from their ordeal, and will not be ready for rehoming immediately. We’re hoping that their personalities will come shining through once they have settled in and had a thorough health assessment. We can then make a plan for them to be rehomed, either individually or together.

We would be very grateful for any donations, however large or small, to help us to feed and care for these 3 little kittens. You can donate at our website www.freshfields.org.uk or call us on 0151 931 1604.

Thank you for your support. Together we can turn around the lives of hundreds more abandoned animals every year.

For more information please contact Debbie Hughes at debbie@freshfields.org.uk or call 07956 216106 www.freshfields.org.uk