Loud purring of sheer gratitude

I would like to share my story of the Feral Feeding Fund (FFF) in Ballito. We moved to Ballito just over a year ago. Devastated that we could not find a place to rent which was pet friendly we very sadly had to re-home our animals.
Being an animal lover (a bunny-hugger of note) I missed our interactions with my furry friends.
On our daily walks to the beach – we discovered the feeding station behind Hops in Edward Road – we regularly stopped to say “Hi” to the cats.
After a few weeks we realised that what our family needed to involve ourselves and we volunteered immediately to help with the feeding of these homeless kitties twice a week.
There is nothing more rewarding than having built up trust with these “wild” cats. They soon associated my family with food and affection. One cat in particular seemed to crave our attention. We called him Tiger. A very thin, scraggy male cat. Wild look in his eyes. To begin with he would hiss at us and was incredibly scared. Over a few weeks we started seeing a very different cat. He allowed us to stroke him, and that was the turning point,  he could not get enough!
Sharon Cossey and I agreed that he really was in a poor state. Having been de-wormed he was not picking up condition despite the daily feeding regime. We decided to have him looked over by the vet (Aloe vet).
As it turns out, Tiger is in fact an ancient cat (as Sharon described) roughly about 10 – 15 years old. The vet advised that we put him down as he would not survive living on the streets as he may have kidney failure and there was no way to monitor his intake of fluids and food. Of course that was not going to happen in my books! Tiger was going to come and live with us! Spend his last years in comfort.
We brought him home, much to the excitement of my kids, and let him out of his cage.
I have never heard a cat purr so loudly. It was like he had an overdose of catnip. He showed absolutely no signs of stress and in fact quite the opposite. Two days later he is now sprawled on my bed, his paws constantly pudding. He gets “fancy” food and is drowned with affection. What a happy boy. He can now rest in a cool comfy place and retire in peace and quiet.
I would like to thank the FFF for all their hard word and devotion to the cats.
JANINE SIEDLE
Ballito