A cool cat struggling to cope with her three kittens has left them in the best possible place – a Wilmslow animal shelter.
It is believed the stray mother brought her newly born kittens to the safety of the house barn at The Animal Sanctuary on Newgate – previously the Humane Education Society – before abandoning them.
Janet Colter, 51, has been a trustee of the shelter for five years. She said: "We found them in the house barn, they are definitely not from our cats so the mother must have brought them to us or given birth to them here. Of all the places she could find she leaves them with us – she must have known!"
The fluffy little kittens, Jonty, Mat and Louie, were found at just four weeks old under a pile of straw by staff worker Jen Canavan, and two work experience volunteers Natalie Chapman and Eloise Reed, who were cleaning out the barn.
Janet added: "We couldn't believe that the three little kittens and their mum had gone unnoticed – they were just hiding under a huge pile of straw."
Two of the kittens have already found new owners, but Janet said the sanctuary is full up with older cats desperate for a home.
Teacher Janet, from Timperly, explained: "We are absolutely full to bursting.
"The kittens are’t so bad because we have no problems re-homing kittens, but we have 57 cats here and we just can't take any more.
"It's heartbreaking, we are having to turn people away who are absolutely desperate for our help but we physically don't have the space."
"We can't help anybody else until somebody helps us by re-homing some of them," she added.
The Animal Sanctuary, at Newgate, Wilmslow, costs as much as £15,000 a month to run and currently homes more than a hundred animals.
All cats have been neutered and microchipped, and home checks are carried out before a cat is sent with a new owner.
The society was established in Manchester in 1927 and moved to Wilmslow in the late sixties. It originally rescued pit ponies from the mines of Lancashire, but now homes 77 cats, five rabbits, two guinea pigs, six ferrets, two rats, two budgies, one cockateil, 24 chickens, one duck, two gerbils, two horses, four ponies, two donkeys and finally, two pot bellied pigs, and many are now permanent residents.
For more information go to humaneeducationsociety.co.uk or call 01625 520802.
