****Update on Willow - October 2014****

Firstly, we would like to say a huge “Thank You” to those of you who have donated via this page towards the cost of Willow’s emergency caesarean operation, we are extremely grateful. Please see her continuing story below for a full update on Willow, as you will see, her ordeal was far from over.

Shortly after Willow’s traumatic experience of her very difficult labour and emergency caesarean operation it became apparent to her fosterer that she was having problems with inappropriate urination and that her tail didn’t hang properly as it should. As she was only in our care 3 days prior to giving birth and due to her enormous size her tail wasn’t of any particular concern at all to her fosterer at the time.

As she recovered from the birth and surgery we became a little more concerned about her "droopy" tail and so once the kittens were a little bigger and able to fend for themselves we took Willow to our usual vets who agreed all was not right and they suspected some damage to the tail bones and nerves prior to arriving with us. X-rays confirmed a tail trauma had occurred at some point in her short life and various treatments were tried. Sadly, these proved to be unsuccessful and the only option left to us and the vet after several months of treatments was to amputate the damaged part of her tail and hopefully this would, in time lead to the nerves healing and the urinating problem to cease. So a few weeks ago, this adorable little cat underwent a second operation to remove the damaged part of her tail. The operation was a success but the healing process will be a long one, taking many months but despite all that she has been through she remains one of the friendliest, affectionate little cats we have ever cared for. Currently, Willow is on a special diet of food to help control her bladder while her body recovers. The cost of the further surgery and the additional expense of the food that we need to purchase is mounting but we cannot give up on her as she is so young and so affectionate and there is a real hope of her recovering given time so we need to continue with her treatment and give her every possible chance in life.

We need to ask again for your support in funding the cost of Willow’s further surgery and are extremely grateful for any amount you are able to donate which will go directly towards the cost. We will provide further updates on Willow’s progress in the coming months. Once again, Thank you xx

P.S – All Willow’s kittens have gone to excellent new homes following their vaccinations, micro-chips and an overall clean bill of health from our vet. We really hope that it won't be too long before Willow too finds  a perfect new home.

Appeal for Willow

This is Willow, she is only 8 months old. We got an urgent call from a lady reporting her as a pregnant stray hanging around her garden. When we collected Willow she was as round as she was tall with kittens! It was obvious she was near her due date, it was also clearly obvious that she had a lot of kittens inside and that she was a very young, petite cat, still a kitten herself.

The following Sunday, just three days after we took her into care she started her labour, the first kitten being born OK, the second and third kitten OK too, but then things started to go wrong, she took a long time to deliver kitten number four which sadly died shortly after being born. She was still pushing and still very round so we knew there were more kittens to come but she was exhausted and just couldn’t manage any more. By this time it was late and being a Sunday evening all our usual vets were closed. We urgently had to get her and the newborns to the emergency vet. On arrival, Willow was in a bad way and in order to save her life there was no other option for the vet than to perform an emergency caesarean operation.

Sadly, the remaining kittens were delivered deceased but Willow was saved and the three first born kittens are now doing well with mum and feeding OK from her.  There is no doubt that had Willow still been living as a stray she and all the kittens would not have survived the labour.

The cost of this operation to us, using the emergency out of hours vet is in excess of £1200 but there was no other option to save Willow and her three first born kittens lives.

We desperately need help with raising the money towards the cost of Willow’s surgery and are extremely grateful for your donation whatever you are able to give. Please help Willow and all the other cats in our care needing new homes. Thank you