Miss Priscilla lives happily ever after Priscilla and Betty arrive at Yorkshire Cat Rescue Miss Priscilla came to Yorkshire Cat Rescue with her sister Betty, two orphan kittens either abandoned by their mother or ripped away from her at birth, and then dumped because they were unwanted by their owners... Kittens without a mother have a 25% chance of survival especially at such a young age, so our concerns for Priscilla and Betty were extremely high. With lack of space at the centre and our concerns that these kittens needed 24/7 care and attention, the pair were personally taken in by our CEO Lynn to be hand reared and cared for. A vet tip confirmed that these babies had already developed cat flu, making them awfully congested and unable to feed. Kittens at this age need to be fed almost every hour and a kitten that isn't feeding is a major concern as it puts them at a serve risk of death. These poor babies had to be placed in a steamy room several times throughout the night to help with their breathing. This helped them to take their bottles a little bit better, but our concerns will still very high for this sweet little pair. Betty's turn for the worse Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse, we noticed that little Betty had developed a lump about 1/2 an inch in diameter on her lower back towards her bum. Betty was taken to the vets where it was confirmed that she had a rip in her bowel or an internal prolapse, which caused a pocket to develop that was filling up with poop and causing the lump to swell. After a second opinion from another vet the answer was the same, there was nothing that could be done to save sweet Betty's life... An in-depth surgery would have been far too dangerous given how tiny she was and we were told that leaving her like this would more than likely cause an infection to develop in the next 12 hours or so. With the vets advice and after careful consideration we decided that letting her go was the kindest thing do, while she was still happy and she wasn't suffering. We knew from day one that her chances of survival were slim but that didn't make it any less heartbreaking to say goodbye. This girl had been such a warrior from the moment she was born. We took comfort in knowing that even for a short time she was loved beyond all measures, with a full belly and a cuddle from her sister Priscilla before she left for the vets. Betty's death took a toll on the whole of our centre... but we still had our little girl Priscilla who needed us to be strong and give her the best fighting chance so that she could make Betty proud. Priscilla's foster family With Betty crossing over the rainbow bridge we didn't want Miss P being all by herself, so we decided to pair her with some other hand rear kittens so they could make their one little family and support and learn from each other. Priscilla now had two new sisters Blake and Lisa-Marie and her new brother Kooper. With all the kittens now living at our CEO Lynn's house they also had the support of her two kitties Spud and Dennis, our Yorkshire Cat Rescue Mascots! Miss P's hernia For a short while things were amazing with little Priscilla, she was playing and loving life and clearly living for both her and her sister Betty. She was absolutely loving the company of her foster kitties and developing her sassy little personality when the others were too tired to play with her! It wasn't until we discovered a small lump underneath on her tummy that we started to gain concerns again and we knew an urgent vet trip was needed. It was discovered that Miss P sadly had a hernia, which is caused at birth when the umbilical cord is not detached correctly and is tugged on too hard. Miss Priscilla needed to undergo surgery to get this hernia removed, but she was just too tiny and the risk of putting her under anaesthetic was far too dangerous without her gaining some more weight first. We decided to wait a little longer until we could reduce the risk of her surgery but it was growing bigger and bigger everyday... At first we tried our best to temporarily push the hernia back inside as it was getting caught while she was trying to play with the other kitties, but after a few weeks the hernia became too big. With the hernia getting out of control and with the vets confirmation it was decided that at this point the risk of leaving the hernia was much greater than the risk of surgery. It was a very difficult decision to make but knew Miss P was a fighter and that she would do her best to make it through. After surgery After a teeth clenching few hours with lots of crossed fingers and toes, we finally received the news that Miss Priscilla had awoken from her surgery and that her hernia was removed! We were absolutely over the moon for this girl, she aways knew how to tackle everything that life had thrown her way and was one of the strongest fighters we'd ever seen. There were lots of happy tears at the centre that day and she was picked up by Lynn where she would spend the remainder of her recovery. Shortly after her surgery we did have a little scare as Priscilla was being very quiet and not eating much at all, we knew it was a big operation but she seemed to be going back downhill. She didn't want to interact with the other kittens and we believed she was in a lot of pain despite the numerous pain mediations the vets had prescribed, so it was back to the vets to get this girl back on track. The vets believed that the pain medication was making her feel sick which would explain hy she wasn't eating and we were advised to monitor her for 24 hours. Thankfully the next day Miss P was back to eating without encouragement like the little warrior that she was. Her wound was also healing really well and she was back to playing and being her cheeky little self, it finally started to seem like this little girl would get the happy ending she desperately deserved. Miss P's adoption With Miss Priscilla back to her old self it was finally time for her to go up for adoption and get the furever home of her dreams. It was not an easy goodbye as we had all grown a special attachment to this brave little girl and her incredible fight to survive. We had seen her face what felt like a million hurdles and watched as she fought to survive to overcome every single one of them. We knew that we needed to be very particular win finding the purfect parents for her. Many of our supports we're surprised that Miss P wasn't staying with our CEO Lynn and felt that she should stay with her big brothers Spud and Dennis, but we knew deep down that this girl would be better in a new home where she could go enjoy her new adventures and make us all proud. We also needed Lynn, Spud and Dennis to be free to help the next little kitty who would come along and need their support. We asked our applications to write a little something about why they think Priscilla is the special girl for them and we wanted to find someone who had been following her story from the very beginning and knew how much she had been through. After lots of careful reading we found the purfect parents for little Miss P. Her new family have been supporters of Yorkshire Cat Rescue for some time and helped us in many ways. They had also been following Pricilla's story right from the start when she arrived with her sister Betty. We felt confident that Priscilla had found her match and she would even have two older siblings to keep her company and chase till hearts content. Miss Priscilla now After some long hard goodbyes Miss Priscilla was on her way and we couldn't have been anymore proud of her. She is now living her best life for both her and Betty and is completely settled in her new home! We adore receiving frequent updates about her recent adventures and love to see her enjoying the company of her new siblings. Every kitty that comes through our door is loved beyond all measure, but Miss Pricilla's story and the number of challenges she faced will always have a special place in our hearts for her determination to survive. She is one special kitty. Manage Cookie Preferences