On July 25th, one of our fosterers received a call that someone was dumping a pregnant cat and her kittens in a residential area in West London. We immediately knew that we had no other option thantaking them in to help prevent them enduring any more cruelty than they possibly had already. So our wonderful volunteers made their way out with cat carriers, treats, and everything they potentially would need for the mission kitten rescue, picked them up and dropped them off at their emergency foster home!

Since all of them were neither chipped nor names, we decided to name the mother Hera (the queen of gods and goddess of women and childbirth out of obvious reasons) and her two kittens Apollo (god of healing) and Athena (goddess of wisdom and justice). Hera is staying in foster while she has her next litter. Whilst Mummy is preparing for birth, the little ones are in emergency foster to give her the quiet and relaxation she needs.

On the 1st of August, not even a full week after we picked her up, her fosterers noticed, that Hera was much more wobbly on her feet then usual. Worried about her and her babies, we rushed her to the vet where she was diagnosed with a stroke caused by a blood clot that came from her heart. The amazing team at Wolfe Vets also found that she has a prominent heart murmur caused by a congenital heart defect in her right atrium, which was confirmed after a scan. Additionally, they checked on her unborn kittens and all of them are alive and healthy. She was kept overnight to monitor her heart and respiratory function and to make sure she wouldn’t have any further strokes, which she luckly didn’t as of the time of writing this.

Going forward, the vet gave us three options:

1. to let nature take its course and let her body do what it can and not touch the kittens

2. to neuter her and euthanise the kittens since they would be too premature to live properly

3. to put her to sleep

Following the beliefs of our organisation, we decided to go with option 1. The vet reassured us that there would be no risk for Hera or the kittens if we would go with this one. Option 2 would likely mean the end of her life since the vet deemed it unlikely for her to survive the surgery, and the 3. one is self explanatory.

Now we will monitor her closely to give her and her unborn kitten the best life and the highest chance of survival for as long as Hera lives.

Sadly, the scans and her overnight stay is bringing our already high vet bills higher into the reds. In order to ensure we can offer her the treatment she needs and deserves, we need your help! Can you spare a few pounds to help us pay for Hera’s vet bill?