Atira

When Atira was trapped as a feral, she was clearly pregnant, but nobody expected her to be quite so close to giving birth, least of all Gaye who volunteered to take her home while she had her kittens. Just three days later, Atira had her four kittens in Gaye's spare room.

Atira was fiercely protective of her offspring and would not let Gaye anywhere near them. If anything, she tried during the 2+ months the new family lived there to teach her babies to have the same fear and mistrust of humans that she did. In order to prevent these home born kittens from growing up wild, Gaye kept them with her for a further week or two after she brought their mom to the sanctuary. She later adopted two of them herself, and they are quite happily living back at home with her.

These days Atira still isn't exactly tame, but neither is she the wild thing she once was. She likes staying up high on top of the cages in the double wide, but she will often come when Gaye calls her, particularly if there looks to be a tuna treat involved.

Updated February 2012: We sadly lost Atira last week. Fortunately, Gaye was on hand and able to sit with her girl right to the very end.