Rescued feral kittens named after figures from NHS history

Three rescued kittens have been named after key NHS figures
Cat Protection
Emily Lawford21 April 2020

Three kittens rescued from a garden have been named after key figures from NHS history.

The three-day-old kittens were named after “inspirational” heath figures, after they were abandoned by their mother and taken to Cats Protection’s Cornwall adoption centre.

The kittens have been called Nye, after Aneurin Bevan, who founded the NHS; AJ, after AJ Cronin, whose book The Citadel paved the way for the service; and Elizabeth, after Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first woman to qualify in Britain as a physician and surgeon.

The kittens were abandoned when their feral mother was accidentally disturbed by a woman in a garden near Redruth, Cornwall, where they were sheltering.

Although the woman, who loved cats, kept her distance, the mother fled the scene with one of her five kittens.

The kittens were abandoned by their mother in a garden in Cornwall
Cat Protection

The woman immediately contacted Cats Protection’s Cornwall adoption centre for advice. Centre manager Libby Jepson told her to monitor the situation from a distance.

The mother came back to collect one more of the litter, but by evening, when she had still not returned for the remaining three kittens, Ms Jepson knew they were unlikely to survive if left alone

“Feral cats are terrified of humans so we want to have as little contact with them as possible,” Ms Jepson said. “In this situation, the kittens had been left for over two hours since the mother had first been frightened away.

“Although she may have returned, at around three days old kittens cannot maintain their own body temperature and need continual feeding.

“I was worried that even if their mother did come back, her kittens would be too cold and hungry to survive or another animal would prey on them once it got dark, so we made the decision to bring them in, maintaining social distancing throughout.

The kittens were delivered to Cat Protection's Cornwall adoption centre
Cat Protection

As the centre only had skeleton staff because of the coronavirus lockdown, Ms Jepson toon on the responsibility for hand-rearing the kittens herself.

“The kittens are really vulnerable so we have named them after some of the most inspirational people we could think of,” she said.

“Grey-and white Nye is named after Aneurin Bevan who founded the NHS, tabby-and-white AJ is named after AJ Cronin whose book The Citadel paved the way for the NHS and tabby Elizabeth has taken her name from Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first woman to qualify in Britain as a physician and surgeon.

“We hope their names bring them the strength they will need to thrive, but also provides a small nod of recognition to the people who created the healthcare system for which we are all currently so grateful.”

The three kittens – one female and two males – will not be ready to home until they are at least eight weeks old.

Additional reporting by PA media

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