White River Cat Rescue - caring for cats across the spectrum in St Austell, Cornwall

Sam's Story

Sam came to us along with his sister, Spice from the Liskeard area. They were both in terrible condition; covered with fleas and a case of worms so bad they were crawling up their tails.

After several trips to the vets, blood tests and treatment for infection it finally transpired that Spice' kidneys had failed and she was in so much pain the vet advised she be put to sleep. This is not something we do lightly and if anything could have been done to save her, we would have done it. Sadly, in this case, there was no alternative.

Sam was now on his own and with his own problems. He had cancerous polyps on his ears, which could only be treated effectively by removing the part of the ear that was affected in this case the tips. Although this has left him with deformed ears, it shouldn't cause any more problems.

Sam is now fit and healthy and living very happily with two of our staunch supporters, Margaret and Peter.

Sam's is just one story about one cat that we rescued from certain death had we not been there to take him in and give him the treatment and the love and care he so desperately needed. His sister, Spice was not so lucky but at least her final weeks were made comfortable and the pain she was suffering eased.

This is why your continued support is so important.

We have recently been informed that Sam has now passed on, but thanks to Margaret and Peter his last years where very happy and comfortable. Rest in Peace Sam

Toby's tale…

It was a Monday in early October when a call came in from concerned animal lover, David Arnold. He had found a cat behind a bucket in his garage and was worried as the cat didn't seem able to stand up so he gave us a call to see if we could help. I went straight away to where he lived and could see that the poor feline, while obviously well cared for, did seem to have an injury to his paw and he cried when his back legs were touched.
A trip to Pelyn vets, an examination and X-rays showed that he had a cracked pelvis, probably from being clipped by a car. Disorientated with the pain of his injury, the cat (who we called Ronny) had crawled into the nearest warm place he could find. A scan showed that he was micro chipped but the number could not be linked to any name or address so he remained in our care, under strict cage rest and pain medication, as this was the only remedy for his condition.
Ten days went by and Ronnie was recovering well. He was beginning to sit up and could even stand, although not for very long. It was beginning to look as if we would have to find Ronnie a new home once he had recovered.
Then that evening we received an email about a missing cat with a picture attached, this cat was called Toby but he was obviously our Ronny. I replied to email straight away, just to let them know we had Toby in our care. The next day, a long telephone conversation and subsequent visit told us all we needed to know and Toby was reunited with his family. I said the telephone conversation was long because Mike and his wife Allison run a business setting up websites.
We have long been saying that we would love to have our own website but the costs involved were prohibiting this. Mike and Allison, as a thank you, have set one up for us, free of charge and agreed to maintain it on our behalf, so this was a happy ending in more ways that one. Mike and Allison lost Toby for a short while but thanks to the internet, were reunited.
Hopefully, the White River Website will help others in a similar situation.

Magic…

Magic came to us covered in fleas and ticks. He was living rough but being fed by a kind lady who said that she couldn't keep him as he was 'too wild'. We took him in, sorted out the obvious problems and had him neutered. While it's true he was wild in the sense that he was extremely wary of humans but he was not totally unapproachable, he was not feral. With a lot of patience and TLC, Magic is now one of the most loving and affectionate cats and loves nothing more than a cuddle. He has been successfully rehomed to a loving family.




* Danny… Our Superstar *

Similar story to Magic, he was foraging around the Holmbush/Brockstone Road area, going through cat flaps and pinching other cats food, just to survive. Of course the householders did not take kindly to this and chased him away. Luckily for Danny he entered the house of one of our supporters and they got in touch with us to see if we could do something for him. Our first move was to catch him as he had become a bit wild and mistrusting of humans by now, so we put one of our humane traps in their garden and waited. After a few days he was tempted by the food left in the trap and we got him. We had him neutered and for a while he lived in a corner of our conservatory hidden by some of the things we had recently had donated to us, we gave him a bed and he came out to use a litter tray and eat his food, but only at night when there was no one around, it was obviously going to take some time and patience to get him to trust again.

Spring was already with us and summer was fast approaching, so we and we could no longer keep all the doors shut as it was getting very hot in the conservertory. Danny however did not leave his corner for a few days and when he finally ventured outside, he disappeared. We where not entirely surprised by this and just hoped he would stay on the farm and not find his way back to Holmbush. We left food out for him and a shelter and our wishes where granted a few days later when the food started to disappear
and then one day we spotted him sat on top of the shelter in the sun. He stayed around and we continued to feed him outside, he ran away whenever we tried to get near him, but, as time went on, we noticed that we where able to get closer and closer before he did so, until finally after many weeks he allowed Rowena to stroke him, then a few days later he allowed me to do the same. To cut, what is becoming, a long story short after a while he came into the house to eat and eventually to sleep and now he also is one of the family and will sit with us on the sofa in the evenings. He will even allow strangers to stroke him. He'd obviously been very badly treated and all he was looking for was some care, kindness and love

We always tell new fosterers that 'you can't keep them all' but it does not mean, on the very rare occasion, when we get in a cat that we cannot re-home, that we will give up on it as a 'hopeless case'.