A mama cat and her five kittens were rescued from train tracks by railway workers and animal rescuers after concerned commuters noticed them and sought help.
The little cat family was spotted near the Sandhills Station on the Merseyrail line in Liverpool, UK on Thursday and are all safely in foster care now.
Rescue Me Animal Sanctuary , a small foster home based animal sanctuary in the Merseyside area, participated in the rescue and is caring for Mama and her kittens. They wrote about the rescue at Facebook today, saying: “Yesterday we were alerted to the plight of a mum cat and her 4 kittens who were on the train tracks at Sandhills Station in Liverpool. The kittens were approx. 5 weeks old and were obviously poorly. The mum cat was emaciated and appeared to have abandoned 3 of the kittens as they were further up the track and calling to her but she was not responding. Luckily, with the help from John and Kieran from network rail, we managed to get all of them to safety. They risked jumping over the live rail, in between trains to catch the kittens, and later on helped us to humanely trap the mum cat. The kittens are now safe and warm and have started on treatment for cat flu and mum is eating for England!!”
The Liverpool Echo covered the story, noting that dozens of concerned commuters saw Mama and her kittens wandering close to a live track Thursday afternoon.
Rescue Me volunteer Joy Jones rushed out to the scene to help when she learned of the cats’ plight.Rescue Me manager Steph Taylor was also called and was asked to bring carriers for the cats.
Joy called Merseyrail, and Network Rail sent a railway worker came to the station to rescue the cats, going onto the track in between trains. The workman said he was scared of cats but overcame his fear to make sure they were safely rescued.
Steph is quoted in the Echo saying: “He got two kittens and had to wait for another ten minutes to get the rest. They kept going really close to the live track, it was scary. We had to keep waiting until the train had gone to make sure they were OK.
“Members of the public were really concerned. Lots of people were watching.”
“It looks like the mum might have given birth in a disused area used for wires.
“There was no food for her which is why the kittens got ill.”
The kittens have been named Roberta, Phyllis, Peter and Bobbie after The Railway Children and Mama has been named for Mrs Waterbury from the book.
Steph is fostering Mama and her kittens. After they’ve recovered and are old enough, the kittens will be made available for adoption.
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s that a picture of the mother? she must be about 6 months old! so helpful that people were able to save them and their mother. great work and thank you!!