February News

We took in

8 Rabbits
9 Cats
1 Parrot
1 Canary
1 Corn Snake

We rehomed

12 Cats
13 Rabbits
2 Guinea pigs
1 Corn snake
6 Hamsters
1 Canary
1 Parrot

Wildlife

104 Birds
17 Hedgehogs

February has been a great month for Rehoming of our Domestic animals and seems to be continuing to gain momentum after the Christmas lull. We are still looking for the perfect forever homes for many animals so please adopt don’t shop when looking for a companion.

The Hedgehog team has done an amazing job of rehabilitation of the Hedgehogs and this month has a 100% survival rate for all hedgehogs that were brought into us for help. This is something definitely worth celebrating im sure you’d agree.

We are moving on to our next phase of updating the rescue to allow us to expand and facilitate the growth we have seen each year. Last year we took 33% more wildlife vs the previous year which means we need to find more space for rehabilitation. The new office and intesive care area we consolidated to one room means we now have a larger area to accomodate hedgehogs so we have now switched our focus to our avian friends. The bird room currently has 6 freezers taking up lots of space for the storage of frozen fish and food for the birds of prey. In our busiest time these need replenishing every week as our hungry babies have quite the appitite. The freezer space is always an issue to keep up with their demand so we have decided to get a walk in freezer outside which will then free up much more space for birds. We plan to utilise the redundant space with lots more cages which will really come in usefull during baby season.

We shared with you a few pictures of the many Buzzards and birds of prey that had came into us on the back of storm Eowyn. This week we released two Buzzards and three sparrowhawks back to the wild. It is always a proud moment when we are able to watch these magnificent birds take off and fly off back to the wild. Keep an eye out as you may spot them whilst driving around the area.

Currently we have been focused on Neutering as many cats as we can to reduce the amount of kittens been born outside. A colony of strays will very quickly get out of control as a queen can have around 12 kittens per year and a Tom can father an unlimited amount each year. Within 6 months those female babies will also begin to breed so within a space of 3 years if no action is taken this colony could grow to a huge 376 cats. We constantly here the excuse that its not my responsibility as my cats is a Boy, or that you should let them have a single litter first, what’s the harm ?? This is the most infuriating thing we hear in rescue, we know all too well what the harm is, we live and deal with it every day. A few examples we wanted to share with you all from this week alone.

We recieved a call that a female cat had given birth on a building site overnight. When the builders arrived for work the mother cat was frightened and abandoned her newly born babies. Kittens can not regulate their own temperature, need feeding every 2 hours at this age and depend on mum completely to aid with toileting as they cant do this on their own. We rushed over to collect the babies and now are responsible in keeping them alive. We have not been able to find and trap mum on this ocassion to get her the help she needs. Although they are stable they are always best with mum and we are heartbroken to think this poor mum will be looking for them distressed and probably will go on to get pregnant again straight away. All because she wasnt Neutered at 6 months old.

We also recieved a call from a lovely Lady who has noticed a colony of cats living in derilict houses which have now been pulled down.The cats were not neutered and have then started to breed. The colony is now around 10 strong but does include visably pregnant queens who will be giving birth very soon. Lynne went out and has started trapping the cats which were believed to be feral. It appears that these cats once had a home but then left behind when the previous owners moved away. This is all too common, we wish we could say was a rare thing to happen but sadly it is not. We trapped the first three quite quickly and sent them straight along to our vets to be health checked and neutered. One of the Tom cats we trapped had visable war wounds from fighting other entire toms for both territory and resources including the queens. He has a nasty wound on his nose and the vet shockingly informed us that he had also been shot previously and has a pellet just under his lung. These poor cats are now starting to decompress and learn to trust with lots of love and food in a safe space with us at Pawz. The New arrivals will be advertised for rehoming on our website once they are ready but they can not be reserved before this happens.

We are always blown away by the support we receive in the community and only achieve what we do with your help. If you would like to get more involved take a look at our volunteer roles section to find out more.

Remember if you find an animal needing help please call us on 0191 580 8880