A tiny kitten who almost died of her injures after she was attacked and almost kicked to death is now enjoying life in her new forever home thanks to the work of local charity Help for Cats.

The founder of this animal rescue, Dr Audrey Matheson told the Ross Gazette about Fleur who was found recently and nursed back to health.

It was the darkest and coldest of November nights; a threatening wind promised worse to come. I awoke to an insistent knocking on my cottage and a voice calling my name.

It was one of our supporters from Ross who had recently given a wonderful new home to one of our rescued cats. He stood on my doorstep, holding in his arms a small bundle wrapped in a blanket. The blanket was bloodstained.

“I found her lying in the gutter by the Chase Hotel” he told me, “I thought she was dead, is she?”

Carefully unwrapping the blanket revealed one of the most piteous sights I have ever seen and in our work for animals I have seen too many. It was a tiny, emaciated ginger kitten, motionless, apparently lifeless; the thin wasted little body bearing sparse matted fur, blood on the tiny face. As we placed the little one in a warm, heated bed, the eyes opened, slowly and fearfully. Thank God she was still, but barely, alive.

The vet arrived rapidly and took over. “She’s been kicked, almost to death, severe internal injuries”. She shook her head. “The prognosis is poor, do you want me to put her to sleep?”

“Not if there is any hope of saving her” I replied.

Accordingly, the kitten was hospitalised and Help For Cats began an anguishing period of waiting. Astonishingly, she survived the night; then the following day, slowly, oh so slowly, gaining strength as the hours passed. She was fighting, struggling for the life that was her right and which some savage being had endeavoured to kick out of existence.

After some days she was returned to me for on-going care and, we scarcely dared hope too much, for recovery and convalescence. I did not sleep much for I feared, irrationally, that if I left her for long I would lose her. She seemed comforted and strengthened by a human presence and the nonsense I talked to her. More than once the kitten relapsed and I thought we would lose her. But lose her we did not and a semblance of health (?) and kittenish strength asserted themselves, albeit warily.

‘Fleur’, the name her new owner gave her, had received serious and permanent internal injuries, which all but killed her. She would never recover fully from this damage; she is unable to eat the usual cat food, surviving instead on a very specialised (and expensive!) diet available to cats similarly injured.

As my now very affectionate “patient” improved, I realised there was only one person to whom I could entrust her future. Jane has supported our work at Help For Cats with outstanding dedication and commitment for many years. She has given a loving “forever” home to several of our rescued cats.

Fleur is now enjoying a happy life with Jane and her ‘ginger boys’. There are periods when Fleur is less than well. Perhaps she will not make old bones, but she is loved, happy and enjoys to play in the garden. Hopefully, the past is a dark shadow remembered only by those who cared and agonised for her in that darkest of times.

Dr Audrey Matheson,

Founder of Help For Cats