In case you missed it on their social media Woodlands Animal Sanctuary would like to share with you an incredibly sad story, that would have been completely avoided if the cat involved had been neutered.

As upsetting as these stories are, Woodlands know how incredibly important it is to share them – to raise awareness of why suggestions, such as neutering, are made to pet owners. It would also reduce the suffering of many pets in the process. At the beginning of this week a mummy cat and her literally just born kittens were admitted, and it was not clear whether she still had more kittens to come. This was determined by a trip to the vet.

This mummy and her babies were brought to the animal rescue because there had been a threat made to the kittens' lives. After her trip to the vet to confirm she had indeed given birth to all her babies, she was reunited with her kittens and the whole team had their fingers crossed for a smooth road ahead for this beautiful, trusting soul. However, towards the end of the routine night check that the Woodlands team do daily, it was noticed all was not well with Ariel. At 10:30pm she was rushed to the emergency vet. Every effort was made to save her precious life, but heartbreakingly she lost her fight at 3am the following morning.

This means that all 5 of her new kittens are now orphaned. They are receiving around the clock care, by one of Woodlands very experienced and dedicated volunteer fosterers. This will be the case for several weeks to come and Woodlands will be footing the bill for all the milk these innocent babies need.

The final unexpected twist to this story is that Airel was in fact microchipped. Woodlands made contact with her registered owners, who it turns out had given her away “ages ago” to someone they didn’t know and therefore didn’t have any details for her new family. Her new family, didn’t update the details on her microchip and she obviously she hadn’t been neutered. It is extremely unlikely that this is her first litter of unwanted kittens and this is the hardest aspect for the dedicated team at Woodland to stomach. This suffering, could have been easily avoided had Ariel been neutered when she was younger.

Neutering can save and enhance so many lives. Woodlands Animal Sanctuary would like to remind you, that if you need financial help with your pet, for a procedure such as this, that you should contact your local rescue who will be only too happy to signpost you towards help.