Heartwarming rescue sees Laois kittens reunited

Two kittens from the same litter have been reunited this weekend following a rescue from Laois SPCA that took several hours.

Mac was rescued by Mountmellick woman Amanda, who had seen him in the ditch near Fairgreen on the Mountmellick road on Wednesday October 30.

The woman rescued the kitten and contacted Laois SPCA, who checked over the kitten. Amanda began fostering the cat, and named him Mac.

Several days later, Amanda heard what she believed to be a second kitten in the ditch, 500 metres up from where Mac was found.

Laois SPCA were rang, and the group of volunteers spent several hours trying to bat down thorns and gorse to eventually find the second kitten on Saturday November 2.

Pictured: Janey (right) and Mac (left), kittens rescued from the Mountmellick road.

"A lady from Mountmellick contacted us that she found a kitten in a ditch on Wednesday night near Fairgreen on the Mountmellick road," Ms Finn Ryan, Chairperson of Laois SPCA explained.

"Amanda took the kitten home to take care of it, the message came in on Instagram, they collected the trap for us and we got that kitten into care the next day with our volunteer Laura. Laura then named the kitten Mac, he seemed well socialised with people which led us to believe he was dumped," Ms Ryan explained.

"Amanda contacted us once again on Friday night, she could hear another kitten on Mountmellick road, quite a distance apart from where Mac had been found. They're very friendly kittens and seemed used to human contact.

On Friday night we set up the humane trap, when Amanda went back on Saturday it hadn't caught the kitten. This is a very busy road, making it very hard to hear where the kitten is," Ms Ryan said.

Pictured: Volunteers spent over three and a half hours attempting to coax the kitten from the ditch.

"I brought three more traps to the spot on Saturday. We could hear the kitten in the ditch, it was always just within reach, but there were very thick gorse and bushes and we couldn't catch her. We got a good few glimpses of her, and then we ended up wading into briars, in the dark with phone torches," she said.

"John Styles came out to help us which was a fantastic help too. After three hours I suggested we leave the traps set and head home for the night, come back, john styles came out to help, we were going to turn in when Amanda persisted, and half an hour later she caught the kitten."

The group had played cat sounds on YouTube to lure out the kitten. Amanda took the kitten home and fed her that night, and Laois SPCA volunteer Laura picked her up the next day. 

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Pictured: Janey the kitten with Amanda and John Styles

Laura named the kitten Janey, sister to the other kitten Mac.

"When the kittens were reunited they instantly recognised each other and it was very sweet," Ms Ryan said.

"We are very grateful for the help from Amanda and her partner. Amanda has since signed up as a volunteer, and we appreciate any help we can get," Ms Ryan finished.

The charity have seen a significant uptick in reports of feral cats in the Mountmellick area.  Laois SPCA have recently launched  a GoFundMe fundraiser to support their Trap, Neuter Release (TNR) campaign.

'TNR' focuses on humanely trapping wild cats to calmly transport them for neutering. Once the cats have recovered from the surgery, they are then either adopted or released. This effort is to keep the amount of stray cats low, for the sake of both mothers and kittens. 

You can donate to Laois SPCA's fundraiser here.