Just before lunch time the Controller’s phone rang. It was a call from a concerned person working in a local hotel telling us that he had seen a cat jumping into a skip with a kitten in her mouth. The Controller thanked him, and told him that his message would be passed on to our Volunteer for that area, Patricia.
When contacted, Patricia explained that she was just completing another job but that she would follow up on the call as soon as possible. Within ten minutes she and her friend, Kathy, arrived outside the hotel, and found, as was expected, a rubbish skip standing at the kerb nearby. It was a much smaller skip than she had anticipated, and after making a quick assessment of the situation she decided to climb onto the skip hoping that it would be a case of just moving a few bits and pieces, getting the cat and her kitten out and being finished.
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It soon became evident that this was not going to be the way of things. As you can see, the mini skip was full of building rubbish, and broken glass. There was no sign of either the cat or the kitten. They had evidently ‘gone to ground’ and were hiding deep down in the interior.
The antics of Patricia and Kathy, who had joined her on top of the skip, had drawn quite a crowd. It included a rather irate manager of the hotel, who demanded to know what was going on. Patricia explained. The hotel manager was far from sympathetic.
“You mean that my guests are being disturbed, access to my hotel is being blocked, and I am losing business all on account of a cat!” he shouted. “I will not have it! I will call the Police and have you arrested for obstruction, unless you get down off of there and go away at once. At once.”
Patricia was about to take issue with the manager when her attention was diverted to a young man at the front of the crowd who beckoned to her and said “I’ll give both of you a hand down. It’s dangerous for the pair of you up there. There are a lot of rusty nails and bits of broken glass that you could get into trouble with. I have an idea. Pretend to let him have his way for now.”
Away from the skip, the manager and the crowd, the young man introduced himself as John, one of the hotel staff. A few minutes later all three of them were having a cup of tea in a nearby café.
“His Highness finishes work prompt at six in the evening. Never fails,” John said. “I have a friend who, like me, finishes at eight. Allow us a little time to grab a spot to eat in the kitchen, as we usually do, and the four of us can meet up, say at nine. Then we get to work on that skip properly and systematically, wearing thick protective clothing and with gloves on. The skip is due to be taken away and emptied first thing tomorrow morning, but we can be through before then.”
The girls saw the sense of this, and readily agreed to John’s plan.
Sharp at nine Linda, Kathy her friend, John and his friend Keith, met at the skip, now lit by a nearby street light. John and Keith clambered up on to the skip and started to carefully hand down its contents, piece by piece, to the two girls who stacked it neatly in the roadway beside the skip.
Throughout the night they worked, trying to find the kitten. Hours went by. The four of them were getting tired and dejected. Then a tabby kitten in good condition was found, non the worst for her ordeal, and within another half an hour they found a second kitten!
Everybody carefully looked around and listened for a long time from inside the skip for any sight or sound of any more life, but nothing more was to be found. Evidently Mum had decided to ‘skip it’ while things had been quiet during the evening after the crowd has dispersed and before the erstwhile rescuers had returned. Eventually they decided that it was unlikely that there was anything else alive in the skip, and they tackled the enormous job of putting all the rubbish back into the skip.
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The rescue team finally left the site at 06:00 am, having worked virtually through the night so that the two, small, defenceless lives might be saved. The kittens, by now sound asleep in their temporary baskets, were taken to the Cat Sanctuary to be cared for. They were named Mini and Skip - we hardly need to explain to why! We now are trying to catch the mother so that we can care for her too.
The Animal Care Society wishes to express its deepest appreciation to Patricia, Kathy, John and Keith for their toil that night.
We can't thank them enough for all the help they gave. It was because of their perseverance that two little lives were saved. If nothing had been done, and the skip had been emptied while the helpless kittens were still inside it, they might well have died a horrible death.
The motto of the Cork ACS is: “Their Lives...Our Passion.” We hope that you, our readers, agree that we do all we can to live up to it. We would appreciate any help that you care to give to enable us to continue to do so.