Bella had been missing for four months. But she was later rescued, along with her newborn kittens, from an electrical substation in St. Mary’s, Southampton.
Even though Bella, a 3-year-old British shorthair, was pregnant, she somehow was able to squeeze herself into a cabinet that held electrical equipment.
Thankfully, they were discovered by two of Scottish and Southern Electricity Network’s workers. They were able to free Bella and her kittens safely.
Cabinet birth
The kitty family was taken to Southampton Cats Protection who was able to reunite Bella with her owner. Garry Black was one of the low-voltage fitters who found the cats.
He believes that Bella got into the cabinet before she gave birth.
It would have been hard for her to get in and out with each of her kittens after she had them. The space they were in was filled with dust, cobwebs, and crisp packets.
“Sometimes we’ll see birds and smaller animals around the substations as they can provide some warmth during winter months, but we didn’t expect to find five healthy felines when we removed the cabinet cover,” Black told BBC.
The cats remained in the care of Southampton Cats Protection for several weeks until they were finally able to track down Bella’s owners.
“The mother and kittens were very calm, so after making sure that all were safe and in no danger of coming into contact with electrical equipment we called Cats Protection, who was with us in half an hour,” Black told SSEN.
Bella had a microchip but it had moved. It was later located during a second scan. The organization’s welfare team said Bella’s owners were overjoyed to have their kitty back.
Back home
“It’s extremely unusual for a microchip to move but luckily once we had the details, we were able to contact the owners and discovered their cat Bella had disappeared in May,” Scott Ridd, welfare team leader, said.
Bella’s owners recently got another kitten because they didn’t think that Bella would ever return. Bella was taken home and her kittens were placed for adoption.
The kittens, who were about 10-weeks-old, were vaccinated and all adopted into forever homes.
“[The situation] not only highlights the need for full body scanning for microchips and the importance of keeping microchip details up to date but also how vital it is to have your cats neutered,” Ridd said.
Southhampton Cats Protection says cats should be neutered from 4-months-old to make sure they don’t have unexpected litters. Bella has an appointment scheduled to be spayed.