Spring is a wonderful time of year. Longer days, lighter nights, new life in the garden, new life at the farm, in fact new life everywhere … but it can have its drawbacks too.

Already unplanned litters of kittens have started to appear and already, as an RSPCA volunteer, I am being asked if I can help. A recent enquiry was about a small family of feral cats that have taken up residence in a garden shed. They arrived last September, a mother and her three babies. The house owners, whose shed the cats now call home, have kindly supplied cat igloos for the family to sleep in, as well as food, water and even worming treatments. By their own admission, these people do not know a lot about cats, never having had one before, but they have grown to enjoy the cats’ presence in their garden. They enjoy watching them and feeding them, even though the cats will not allow anyone to touch them. An abortive attempt was made last year by the Cats Protection League, to try to catch the mother cat, with a view to neutering, but unfortunately the trap was not secure and she escaped. Not surprisingly mother cat is now more wary than ever, of bipeds bearing gifts!

Again, not surprisingly, at the beginning of April a new litter of five healthy kittens were born. Last year’s offspring are still around, but one of the older female kitten-cats is now constantly being chased away by mother, who is very protective of her new babies. The other female, however, plays an active part in taking care of her younger siblings, even taking over babysitting duties when mum is out hunting. As for the older, pure white male kitten-cat, he tends to take himself off for days at a time now, as is the way of unneutered tom cats. So now we have a problem. The people whose shed has been taken over by the feline squatters, do not want to be inundated with cats, which is both understandable and very responsible. They can now no longer get near enough to the adult cats to catch them, with a view to neutering and they have no experience of handling cats either. Cats Protection League have offered to cover the cost of neutering, but due to the current economic climate and the closure of some of their branches, they now have no one available to help catch them and likewise RSPCA staffing levels have also been severely affected by the pandemic, which means that at the moment only the most urgent incidents can be dealt with.

So once again, this highlights the importance of neutering. Kittens (and puppies) are so adorably cute when they are small, but with that cuteness comes great responsibility and not inconsiderable expense. Female cats can come into season from just four months of age when they are still kittens themselves and contrary to popular belief, there are no health or welfare benefits in allowing a cat to have a litter before she is neutered. So, before anyone thinks about taking on a new, adorably appealing kitten, even one that is free to a good home, please make sure that you have plans in place to cover the cost of neutering by the time they reach six months of age. The feral cats mentioned above are now being helped and hopefully, things will work out well for them. They have been incredibly lucky.