I was walking up a road in Oxford on Thursday 01 of March when I heard a cat meow very loudly. It was extremely cold and windy and was set to soon be snowing. After looking around I spotted a cat taking whatever shelter she could in front of a house door. I immediately wondered why any cat owner would have left their cat outside in such freezing weather and I asked a man who was shovelling snow next door if he knew whether she belonged to anyone. He stated he didn't have a cat and neither did the neighbours. At this point I decided to walk up to the door to check on her and discovered she was in an appalling neglected state. She was freezing, extremely thin, with mucus around her eyes and with really bad hair mats, one of which run along her entire spine and had caused bald skin patches. I had never seen a cat in that state in person and it was just heartbreaking. I decided I had to do something, the weather was getting worse and she was clearly not being looked after by anyone. I went and got my car and parked up as close to the house she was at as possible. When I gently touched her head she jittered as though she hadn't quite realised I was standing right next to her. But as soon as I called "Kitty" and gestured her to follow me she immediately started to slowly walk and follow me. I slowly managed to get her to my car, although it seemed she couldn't properly see. I don't know whether she could smell me, or how she knew she had to follow but she slowly did, with a couple of stops on the way, trusting me completely, either sensing I was going to help or out of utter desperation to get any sort of help or attention. I picked her up and put her in the back of my car and took her to the nearest vets in Cowley. As soon as she was in my car she stopped meowing, probably already incredibly grateful to be somewhere slightly warmer and out of the elements. At the vets she started to purr so loud as soon as she got wrapped in a towel to be taken in. It was really as though she knew she had finally found love and safety. At that point it started to snow very badly, so she got in on very good timing!

She run to a water bowl as soon as she spotted one as though she hadn't drank in years. She went to water before going to food. After that the nurse put her next to a heater and she purred like crazy, finally being in the warm able to relax a little.

I held back the tears whilst at the vets, but as soon as I left I couldn't help having a little cry, how could she have been so ignored and neglected?? A lot of people would have walked by her not doing anything for her to get to that stage, and it makes me so sad and mad.

Vets reassured me they would do what they could to help her, before handing her to a charity. I went back to see her the next day on Friday. I was so happy to see she was alive and was told she was eating her own food as well as trying to steal other kitties' food whenever she could! She was sleeping super well and through very loud noises so vets think she may be completely or partially deaf, although maybe she is just so utterly exhausted and finally able to sleep peacefully and safely. She has an eye infection and doesn't seem to follow hand gestures so may be blind or partially blind, although she also has a very bad cold so I really hope she will gain some sight back once the cold and eye infection have cleared. Her mats were shaved to reveal how skinny she is. God knows when she last had any food before I took her into the vets. When I visited her she was so extremely affectionate and looking for lots of cuddles and affection.

Even through her neglect, she is a gorgeous tortoise cat with beautiful eyes and a very gentle and loving disposition.

Sadly I am unable to rehome her myself but I am working hard to find her the loving safe new home she deserves to spend the rest of her days in. Given some love and care she will no doubt be back to beautiful form and make a loving companion.

RSCPA will only contribute £50 towards veterinary fees and the local charities vets work with are currently all full due to the amount of strays being taken in because of the current weather.

I am going to make sure she goes to a new home asap but I need a hand with vet fees, to make sure that she gets all the treatments she needs to get back on her feet and find a willing human companion to look after her.

Any donations will be much appreciated and will all go towards the cost of her treatments. Flee and worming treatments and basics, and hopefully enough to cover some blood tests and teeth treatments she needs in order to look for any underlying issues and get her back to proper good health. Even £1 will make a difference and will incentivise the vets to really look after her and the more is done to help get her back to good health now the more chances I have to find her a new home asap.

I am so so grateful to have found her when I did, she would have frozen to death for sure otherwise, and despite only knowing her very little I was struck by her gentle trusting nature from the first second I met her.

I hope that with support from all of you wonderful humans out there we will see a much better picture of her in a month's time!

Thank you for taking the time to read her story so far, let's make it a hopeful, loving and beautiful ending for her.

Carolina x