I had to cancel my evening plans with my family.
They asked if I had a hot date, but no.
I was just picking up a box of kittens.
You see, the rescue I foster for put out an immediate call for help after their trip back from country NSW ended up with about 3x more kittens than they were expecting. I volunteered to take three, drove an hour there and was immediately amazed at how many kittens there were.
These kittens were on Deathrow in country pounds throughout NSW- some literally had just minutes to live. Most were no more than 8 weeks old.
I grabbed my carry cage, while the rescue coordinators chose me some kittens- two from one cage, and one from another. That one was Scrat. He wasn't meant to come with me, but by some twist of fate he did.
I travelled home, they were terrified- they didnt make a peep the whole way.
They smelt like urine and were covered in fleas- so I spent the night gently washing and blowdrying kittens. Each of them just lay in my lap like they knew their lives would change.
They were all skinny, but I had never seen a kitten as thin as Scrat. He wanted to play, but didnt have the energy like his foster siblings. He had ringworm, and was missing patches of hair all over. His hair was sparse, dull and he was definitely not winning any awards on attractiveness.
But he had the biggest heart, the loudest purr and just tried so hard. It was this reason that I fell in love with him.
Because he was so malnourished, he was TINY. I mean- hand and pocket sized. He loved this, because he could sit on your shoulder and get carried around all the time.
One day I was in the kitchen, and I turned around to see this:
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Scrat after being in my care for 2 weeks. This is not even the extent of his malnourishment.
That is Scrat. Riding Kokoda.
This just amazed me- you see, Kokoda never let any other foster kitten get anywhere near him. Let alone TOUCH him. This pretty much sealed the deal. But it wasnt until someone else wanted to come meet him that I made it official- realising I couldn't let this creature go.
Fastforward to today, my pocket sized kitten is now a pocket sized cat.
He is still quite small, which is lucky, because he still demands to be carried around on your shoulder (and I mean demand- pick him up or he will get up there himself!)
He is not longer starving, but he acts like it. His coat is as soft as velvet and glistens in the light.
He comes when he is called, rides in the car and loves to watch the birds in the garden and the fish in the fishtank.
All his foster siblings are in extremely loving families and it makes it all worth it.
To help more kittens (and dogs, pigs, cows, goats, horses- they do it all!) just like Scrat survive deathrow and move into loving families, a portion of EVERY session fee is donated directly back to local animal rescues, including Deathrow Unchained Animal Rescue- the ones who saved the worlds best cat.