Musgrave animal lover seeks home for stray cats

WHEN a stray cat turned up at her Musgrave block of flats, the last thing the caring Janice English expected was the adorable litter of kittens that soon followed. Now the animal lover is desperately trying too find a home for the cat colony that has taken up residence in her block.

“During the Covid-19 lockdown, we found this little cat. After a couple of days I realised she was heavily pregnant. She had her kittens in someone’s garage. She wasn’t well after the delivery and she hid the kittens. There is a whole labyrinth of tunnels underneath the building, so we didn’t know where the kittens were. If we removed the mother, the kittens would have starved, so I kept on feeding her for the sake of the kittens,” she said.

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With the help of a local retailer and vet, English fed and medicated the cat. However, attempts to find a shelter failed under the Covid-19 pandemic, which has put a strain on animal rescue organisations.

“I approached 16 kitten and cat organisations, but they were so overloaded by the ban on animals under Covid-19. I used up every avenue. I couldn’t starve the mother cat. I managed to sterilise and find homes for four of the bigger kittens in April. I found a home for the mother and the remaining kittens, at a Westville home with a big garden, but the couple who lived there died of Covid-19,” she said.

English is appealing to anyone with a garden or garage to adopt the cats.

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“If someone has a big garden and a garage, that’s all the cats need. They don’t need to be indoors. There is very little garden here, with no trees for the cats to climb. They are playful, perky and sweet. They need love, protection and safety,” she said.

For more information, contact English on 072 118 9804.

Tips from the SPCA

The marketing manager for the Durban and Coast SPCA, Tanya Fleischer, shared some tips for when handling feral cat colonies.

“The National Council considers that one of the most effective and humane methods for dealing with groups of feral cats is population control. We recommend trapping, sterilisation, vaccination, marking by ear tipping and returning to supervised sites where the long-term care of the cats can be assured,” she said.

Fleischer noted there were a few cases where the interests of the landowner, concerned with the pest problem, may conflict with those of the cat-feeders.

“The success of any control scheme will usually depend on the permission and encouragement of the authority owning the land and the continued involvement and cooperation of the feeders, who often feel they too have some degree of ownership.

“It is important that any difference of opinion should be resolved at an early stage,” said Fleischer.

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