Guest Star: Knine & Kitty Care saved me and my family

Hi everyone,

Please find below a guest story about Knine & Kitty Care written from Crunch (now known as Scarlett) from a cats’ perspective:

Knine & Kitty Care saved me and my family. My story is just one of many.

My start in life wasn’t great. My mum lived on the streets with nobody to care for her. She made the most of life trying to find food and shelter where she could, but it was so hard for her. She knew what it was like to be loved, she liked humans and was friendly towards them, but for reasons she never discussed, she found herself out on the street having to taking care of herself.

My mum never talked about it, but I suspect she may have been thrown out of her home when she got pregnant. Humans can be so cruel.

She gave birth to me, my brother and two sisters on a freezing cold December day. She did the best she could, but we were all cold and hungry.

I was nearly two months old when my mum stumbled upon an open door leading to someone’s kitchen. There was food in a bowl on the floor in there. It was mum’s lucky day – I mean who in their right mind leaves their door open in such freezing cold weather? I later found out the human who lives there doesn’t own a cat flap, so always leaves the door open for her own cats so that they can go in and out as they please, we’re all so grateful for that. Mum snuck in with my brother and one of my sisters and started to eat.

The human who lives there was nowhere to be seen, she was in the living room playing with her own cats, mum called to me and my sister to try and encourage us to join her in the kitchen but we were way too scared, I decided I’d much rather stay outside in the cold where I thought it was safer.

The human in the house heard the commotion in the kitchen, she came in to see what was going on and found my mum in there with my brother and sister. They were terrified. We all made a run for it, back into the next door neighbour’s garden, back to where we lived.

The human watched us go but didn’t follow us, she must have known how scared we were.

The human discussed what she’d seen with her partner, she was worried about us, worried about our safety. It was then that she found out about Knine & Kitty Care. Her partner had heard of the place before, knew they rescue cats and dogs, not many humans seem to know about this place. Knine & Kitty Care is run by volunteers in Yorkshire, they all have regular jobs that they do in-between taking care of the cats and dogs they rescue, they all have a passion for saving animals and ensuring they go on to have the best life possible. It is not a shelter, all animals are looked after by foster carers who take care of the animals in their own homes. Knine & Kitty Care doesn’t get any funding, it relies solely on donations, so struggles to make ends meet with all the food and the vet bills, ensuring all the cats and dogs are fit and healthy before finding them their forever home. There are so many cats and dogs in need of rescue, they often struggle to help them all as they are always in need of more foster carers.

After Knine & Kitty Care were contacted, a chain of events began that changed our lives. Knine & Kitty Care were notified of where we were living, they turned up prepared to catch us, but me and my brother and sisters didn’t trust humans, we’d never interacted with them before, I’m ashamed to say that we bit and scratched them as they tried to grab us, we were pretty feisty. We were terrified. They didn’t give up though, they wanted to ensure we were safe. They caught me, my mum and my brother and took us to their home. It was lovely and warm, but I was so scared. As they nursed their broken and bloody skin, the humans decided to call me Crunch and my brother Munch, they thought it was apt due to the bites we’d taken out of them. They called mum Elsie, she was quite calm when they caught her. The Knine & Kitty Care team left a trap with the human whose kitchen we’d entered and the following day she managed to catch my sisters who they called Chewie and Nibbles, they were just as feisty.

We were shown so much love and although we were still scared, we stopped biting and scratching and settled in our temporary home. We lived there with a lovely family for around two months and then one by one we found new homes.

We are so very grateful to Knine & Kitty Care, for saving us and for finding us loving homes where we’re cared for, fed and kept warm. I dread to think what would have happened to us if Knine & Kitty Care hadn’t found us.

If you think you could help Knine & Kitty Care in any way at all, please get in touch with them at natkkc@yahoo.co.uk. They really need support to help cats like me. If you can offer any donations of food, toys, or if you would like to become of foster carer yourself (of cats or dogs), they would really appreciate any support you could possibly give.

Scarlett (previously known as Crunch)