Twelve Cats Saved in Ten Days: the South Bermondsey Rescue Continues
The Monday after our successful rescue of the South Bermondsey mum and kittens, we volunteers received a huge blow. The individual who had originally alerted us to the stray family got in touch again - to say that she had spotted MORE kittens at the train station.
These were about twenty feet from the first family, living in the back garden of a laundrette. In the dark, they were virtually invisible; this was down to the fact that the garden had been used as a tip. A mountain of old furniture including chairs & fridges, light fittings, even a christmas tree, had been dumped there - all of these hazardous items were used as shelter by the family.
We volunteers received this news just a day after our original intense, six-day rescue mission had come to an end. It had been physically & emotionally exhausting, and the prospect of potentially starting all over again, as you can imagine, was daunting. Worse still, we were completely full - there was simply no-where for the family to go, and the finder had reported that she had seen school children trying to catch the kittens.
After some stressful space readjustments - which involved the lovely Elizabeth taking the original Bermondsey family into foster care, thus opening up a place at our Abbeywood hub - we returned to the station. Just like the pizza restaurant previously, the laundrette were hugely considerate & kind, allowing us access to their garden unhesitantly. Falling over broken light fittings and other rubbish, we set up our traps and prepared for another long week.
Unbelievably, this time, it took less than an hour for mum to get into the trap! Then it was simply a matter of rounding up the young kittens (five gingers once again - dad has some strong genes!), and wrapping up the rescue.
The final twist in this family's tale is that this mother cat, now named Jezebel, unlike shy but rehabiltable Raewin, turned out to be not only feral, but perhaps the most fierce feral we've ever encountered. Keeping her in the confined space of a suite would have been incredibly stressful for her & dangerous for our volunteers, but since releasing her back in that awful area seemed unthinkable, a welcome alternative was found in the form of rural sanctuary in Kent, where she will have 62 acres of land to roam, and a community of other outdoor rescue cats.
It's not over yet, however - there have been several other adult strays at the station spotted by volunteers, and as soon space and funds allow, we will be going back for them. So watch this space for updates - and consider fostering or donating!