A Tale of 3 Kittens

My name is Hannah and I’ve been a cat lover all my life and I currently own a young rescue cat called Pumpkin, I discovered your campaign through social media and for some time now I've always thought we should make the roads safer for not just cats but also for wildlife. Cars fly down the lane at ridiculous speeds and the road above where they live as well and sadly has claim the lives of 4 cats who dear to me they weren't mine but loved them and treated them like they were my own. I would like to share a story about 3 cats called Mo, Molly and Alvin. Molly and her brother Mo live with my neighbours Laura and her family, they adopted both as kittens in 2022, I was part of their upbringing as I’m close friends with Laura and her family. Mo and Molly led happy healthy lives; Mo is a very excitable, independent cat and is nowadays a bit of a Houdini and likes to spend all his time outside. Molly was sweet loving cat with fluffiest tail I’ve ever seen; all was good, until May 2023. One evening Laura went to call the cats in and there was no sign of Molly. Laura and her children went to look for her and they found her under a parked car, crying and unable to move, when they carried her home it turned out she couldn’t stand up and move at all. Later that evening they took her to the vet and tragically discovered her spinal cord had been obliterated and she would never walk again. She was euthanized later that night, she was 8 months old. Her fatal injury was almost certainly caused by RTA and her death traumatised her family for weeks and her brother Mo as you’d expect couldn’t understand what had happened to his sister and spend days looking for her.

Months passed and now the family have 2 new kittens to their family Kenny and Storm and all was happy again. In September 2023 only months after losing Molly, Mo came home one evening limping and in pain, he was taken to the vet and found he had a fractured pelvis, the vet was convinced yet again his injury was probably caused by an RTA, he was put on cage rest and pain killers for 6-7 weeks, Mo didn’t take to the cage rest very well, the first few days he was depressed and in pain and after a couple weeks always attempted to make an escape and often was successful. This happened weeks before his family were due to go on 3 week tour of the US, it was bad timing but I looked after him as well as his little brother and sister while they were gone. Caring for a sick or injured pet is challenging and emotional but Mo made a fantastic recovery and got back to being his usual independent and crazy self.

This is Alvin’s story. Nik, Abby and their children live opposite my parents and Laura, they had two cats called Bruce and Alvin. Alvin was a curious playful little lad, Bruce is a shy and nervous individual. Alvin was adopted as a friend for Bruce. It turned out Bruce had stuck up a friendship with Mo and they have a very close bond, they went everywhere together, one morning Laura’s son went downstairs and found both of them asleep together on the cat tree. When Mo had his accident and was unable to go out Bruce would sit outside the door and wait for him and Laura guided Bruce to the window to see Mo. Abby told us that during that time Bruce would cry and be pining at night and they couldn’t figure out why until Mo was better and started visiting them again and even staying with them. Alvin also struck up and bond with Mo and often would follow him around, it was heart-warming and great to watch Alvin progress and watch him grow up.

Sadly 6 weeks ago Alvin got run over outside my parent’s house and was found dead in the early hours of the morning by his family in parents front garden, he was 6 months old. It was huge blow and left all of us devastated; it left me angry and for me it was the final straw and made me think we need to make our roads safer for our cats. We all had the same thought. 4 cats in our area have died due to RTAs and Mo nearly became the 5th. We all agreed we had to do something. The blessing for us, it turned out Nik works in the road sign industry and has made 6 Cat crossing signs to be put up in our area in hope that it will stop anything like this ever happening again, we are also looking into changing the speed limit as well. We have loads of cats living in our area and we hope the road signs and changing speed limit will make the road safer for beloved pets. Nik will hopefully be putting up the road signs this weekend. For me, Laura, Abby and Nik would be a huge achievement and as a lasting memorial to Alvin.