Plea for help after 20 feral cats found in Southampton

The Southampton branch of Cats Protection was alerted to a mother cat and her kittens sheltering from wind and rain in a hedge near a housing estate in Mansbridge by two concerned members of the public, Lisa Halls and Becky Jennings.

When Cathy Godden, a volunteer from the branch, arrived on site she realised that not only were the mother and kittens in need of help but that there were around 20 more equally needy cats nearby.

Becky had managed to crawl through to reach the cat and kittens by finding a hole in the wire fence which surrounded the bushes in which they had hidden.

Cathy, who specialises in Trap-Neuter-Return work with feral cats, rushed the mum and kittens to foster care before returning to begin the process of humanely trapping the other cats, assisted by Lisa and Becky.

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Since discovering the large colony of cats the branch has set up a fundraising appeal to cover the unexpected costs as well as an Amazon Wishlist featuring the current items they need.

Among the 14 cats and kittens the trio has captured so far, two black and white kittens were among the worst affected.

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Alone, with no sign that their mother had visited them in recent days, Cathy realised the tiny pair were unlikely to survive much longer in windy and rainy conditions.

Thought to be around two weeks old, even the smallest of the duo soon began to thrive once she was inside a warm home, dried gently and enjoying a tummy full of food. Her name, Belle, was chosen by the branch’s Facebook followers.

Lisa said: "I was told there were kittens born to a feral mother under some bushes and knew I had to try and help get them off the streets. After I called in Cats Protection, we soon found it was a bigger issue than we first thought, with at least 20 cats and kittens needing help."

To donate visit http://bit.ly/HelpMansbridgeCats or amzn.to/3hfPvoS.