The rescue world can be a bit wild and challenging at times and our rescuers have been busy this week.

During the Lockdown we have been supporting a caretaker in the Levin region. She is maintaining a colony of cats in a residential area. She made us aware of a mom and 5 kittens, possibly abandoned that joined the colony.

Even when Levin is not our core region, during the Lockdown many rescues were not able to operate and so we worked to support this caretaker during these times. For this reason we made plans to help this cat colony and get traps to the location.

While preparing a plan for this family, we were alerted that the momcat and one kitten were limping badly. They were both caught and picked up by Forgotten Felines. Upon accessing them, we knew the wounds were badly infected and we had never seen injuries so severe before. We quickly called the team at Vets at Riverbank and got them in to be seen the same day. A huge Thank you to the team Vets on Riverbank for their help with treating these cats on such short notice.

The vet told us these injuries were consistent with being caught in a gin trap (leg hold trap). The use of these kind of traps are illegal within 150m of a dwelling without the permission of the occupier, or in any area where there is a probable risk of catching a pet animal.

The kitten had shattered her leg completely in multiple places and it was badly infected. While Xrays have shown momcat has no broken bones, the infection is quite progressed and she has lost blood flow to now two of her toes. Sadly the kittens leg could not be saved and had to be amputated, She has recovered very well and is a very sweet little kitten. The Momcat is back at the vets and we are hoping her leg can be saved.

We will keep you updated on the progress of these cats.