An “urgent” appeal for help has been raised by an animal charity in Alsager after a colony of newborn kittens had their home destroyed by demolition works.
Lisa Williams, who runs Alsager Animals in Need, said she had been “inundated” with calls about cats needing temporary homes in the last week.
She said: “We need fosterers desperately now because we’re into kitten season, when it just explodes.
“We’re getting calls left, right and centre asking if we can take them. We can support them financially, but we’ve got nowhere to put them.”
Mrs Williams explained that the charity had lost three of its main foster carers due to serious illness in the last year.
The situation became more critical on Sunday night when they received a phone call from a resident who spotted a mother cat and three kittens, along with three other young cats, near a building site in Alsager.
She said: “The cats have lived there their whole lives, and now (the developer) has started demolishing the barn they were staying in.
“We searched all day yesterday (Monday). We managed to get hold of someone from the site who said he saw the mother moving the kittens behind the barn, but we haven’t been able to find them yet.”
Mrs Williams explained that she did not want to reveal the location of the site because of fears that members of the public might try to help, which could scare the cats away.
She said: “We’ve only got a short window to trap them. It’s really stressful because those kittens are only crawling at the moment, but in a week’s time they’ll be running around and we’ll struggle to get them.
“At the moment, we don’t even know if they’ve been killed.”
After phoning the RSPCA for help, Mrs Williams she said been advised to stop feeding the cats in a bid to lure them out, but thought the original owner of the site was still leaving out food for them.
She said: “They need to be hungry enough that they go into our trap. We can then take them to be neutered and checked over by a vet. But when we get to that point, we’ve got nowhere for them to go.”
Hilary Baxter, who runs the animal rescue with her daughter, said the charity had 25 cats currently waiting to be re-homed and a further 10 living on a nearby farm that they had fed for the past four years.
She said: “I’m so fed up of telling people on the phone that we don’t have room for any more kittens. Fosterers are essential to us.”
Vet bills, neutering, microchipping, vaccinations and food were all covered by the charity, she said.
She said: “All we’re asking is for our fosterers to provide the TLC. You just need to have a spare room and be home for most of the day.
“You have to keep going in to check on the cats, so they get used to your voice.”
Mrs Baxter explained that foster homes also needed to be quiet places, without small children, to avoid frightening the animals.
“A lot of these cats come in very nervous after what life has doled out to them,” she said.
“We have appealed and appealed for foster carers in Alsager, but the only people who come forward seem to be from out of the area. It amazes me when we have so many new houses that have gone up.
“Our oldest volunteer is 92 years old. We had an 84-year-old volunteer who raised £1,000 for us since Christmas through car boots and online sales; you’re never too old to help.”
Mrs Baxter said that, at 88, she had no plans to retire.
“It gives me something to get up for,” she said.
“Don’t start feeling sorry for yourself. If you’ve got a pain in your back, hip, knee – get out there and start interacting with these animals – it will do you the world of good.”
To find out more about becoming a cat fosterer, contact Alsager Animals in Need on 01270 875260 or email: alsager.animals@gmail.com.
(Photo: Alsager Animals in Need).
