Stray cats need help
A TOOWOOMBA resident has put calls out for financial aid in the Ipswich and Toowoomba communities to deal with dumped cats because of the expenses she had racked up by taking in strays.
The resident, who goes by the name “Miss C”, is only allowed two cats at her rental but is currently housing seven strays in addition to her own cats — one of which just gave birth to a litter of kittens.
“I want to give as many kittens — as many cats actually — a chance of having a second home,” she said.
She said people did not realise the cost of having a pet when they took them in, and were sometimes forced to dump them because of the financial cost.
“They’re dumped in plastic bags, they’re dumped in rivers, they’re dumped out by the paddocks, they’re dumped on the side of the road,” she said.
Miss C said she had been struggling to find shelters to take in the cats because they were so full and that she chose not to deal with certain shelters if they did not spay cats or only took kittens.
“There’s so many rescues out there that don’t want to deal with strays; they just want to put them down and keep the kittens,” she said.
She’s now having difficulty finding her cats new homes — and it was incurring a hefty cost.
“I’m paying for the food, I’m paying for the vet bills, for the medication – all that sort of stuff,” she said.
“I’ve got people who are wanting the kittens, but I’m saying to them, they’re not going until they’re spayed.”
The two rescues she said had been a huge help to her were Street Cat Alliance and Country Cat Rescue.
Ipswich resident Lisa Hickey has been saving kittens for years now by trapping them, socialising them, and passing them on to shelters for rehoming.
She was working as a relief teacher at a school in Ipswich when she looked out the window and saw a little ginger kitten – and was told that the school had a stray cat problem.
“A lot of lost cats will gravitate to places like schools because there’s food left around and there’s lots of nooks and crannies where they can hang out,” Ms Hickey explained.
“It seems there’s an endless stream of kittens,” she said, notng she had once found a whole litter in a drain.