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GEORGE NEWS & VIDEO - Taryn Groenewald of the Garden Route Cat Assistance Team (CAT) is nursing three newborn kittens that were found in a plastic bag in a dust bin in Varing Avenue last week.
"A homeless person found the kittens in the bin and took them to the state vet's office nearby, that contacted me. We at CAT are horrified at the find," said Groenewald.
Another CAT volunteer, Ronel de Swardt, said the mother of the kittens can get mastitis because she is producing milk, but has no kittens to drink. "The poor mother must be in absolute agony because she does not know where her kittens have disappeared to."
Groenewald took the kittens home and after a weekend of tender care and two-hourly feeding, they were doing well. "I fed them every two hours in the beginning because they were dehydrated, but it is now every four hours. All three are drinking well and sleeping well.
They wake up only once at night. When I was sitting in the night, feeding them every two hours, I was wondering if the person who threw them away was having a sound night's sleep and if it did not bother him or her at all. It is unthinkable that someone can do such a thing."
Groenewald says most of the incidents CAT Garden Route handles involve unwanted kittens, mostly from poor areas where large numbers of cats that are not spayed.
The organisation tries to create awareness of the importance of spaying cats and also assist cat owners to get it done.
Watch a video where Taryn Groenewald is feeding one of them:
At the moment Groenewald has two six-week-old kittens that were the only ones that survived from a litter of six that were rescued in Mossel Bay. Two semi-feral cats that are from a factory help raise the kittens - in her TV lounge.
"I urge people to have their cats sterilised early - from five months old. Be compassionate. You do not need to throw cats away if you do not want them. There are places to take them, like CAT Garden Route."
Contact CAT Garden Route on 072 425 5843 or visit www.catgardenroute.co.za for more information. They are on Facebook.
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