The tale of the Talei rescue

In the heart of a small retirement village, cats stalked the area. The council had deemed them as pests and a notice was released stating that the cats were going to be ‘removed’. My Grandaunt, a resident of the village called me in a panic. She knew of my love for animals and my experience in the animal training industry. She was terrified that all these animals would be killed. My work colleague Zoe and I devised a plan and we went to the village. On our way, we bought cat food and a cat trap. We created the trap and sat in wait for cats. We had to rescue as many as we could in the hope we could rehabilitate them and find them homes.

3 hours had passed and there was no sign of the cats. No one was outside anymore as the clouds began to gather and spurt sprinkles of rain. Cold winds caught the branches, forcing leaves to race in the breeze. We sat in the car, 20 metres away from the trap. My friend had fallen asleep by the time 6 hours had passed. Then all of a sudden “Bang!”, the cage door slammed and our heads jolted up in alert. We raced over and grabbed the cage. We placed the cat in the back of the ute and placed blankets over it. She hissed and growled but we saved her and with a sigh of relief we drove home. We designed my garage into a temporary cat rescue and rehabilitation. We placed beds on the shelves that previously held some boxes of old things I was storing in there. We made sure that there was always a top-up of water and food. We left old clothes around so our scents became familiar. We didn’t know if it was the right thing to do but it was better than the latter.

We returned to the village every day for 2 weeks. Some days were better than others. We were able to save 6 cats. We took them to the vet and because of their feral like nature, they were unable to undertake a proper medical examination. From a general overview, they did not look like they had any obvious health issues, however, they looked quite young. The assumption was they were all female except for one. The vet advised that we separate the assumed male from the females. We relocated him into the tool shed with his own shelf, bed, food and water.

On one of the days of topping up food and water, we noticed there was something bunched up in the corner of one of the beds. We looked in to inspect it further and gasped at the realisation of what we had stumbled upon. These were a litter of kittens. We rushed them to the vet for a health check-up. They were all under 50 grams and crying of hunger. The vet suggested that the cat was pregnant prior to the rescue and had given birth prematurely. The kittens also showed signs they were not being fed regularly.

Zoe and I decided that we would bottle feed them every 2 hours until they were able to consume solids regularly. We relocated the kittens to her house and took shifts so we could all get an adequate amount of sleep. After 2 weeks they had reached a healthy weight range. We continued to care for them until they were 12 weeks old. We then located houses for them. There were 3. One was given to a wonderful lady that we worked with. Zoe’s mum kept the other but the final kitten could not be adopted out. We met with this lady and her first impression seemed nice. We allowed a trial run for our last kitten and visited her for 3 days. She showed us the limited and dangerous balcony she had provided for our kitten. It had motorbike parts and the kitten looked cold and was shivering when we saw her.

We took her home and I decided to bring her home with me. I introduced her to my older cat Rua and taught her to socialise. She became very friendly with people and fell in love with my other cat. They cuddled and played and kept each other company when I was out for the day. I named her Talei, which means precious in Fijian. She thrived and I registered her as a support animal. She went with me to doctors and therapist appointments. We bonded through trips to the beach, to some of her favourite outdoor cafes, visiting her sister at Zoe's house and train rides (they are definitely her favourite).

She is family and I wouldn’t trade her for the world.