Latest / The Cattitude Diaries / Don’t Be A Simon 🤦‍♀️

Transcript

Don’t Be A Simon 🤦‍♀️ · The Cattitude Diaries

• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: We rescue, rehabilitate, and rehome vulnerable cats and kittens at risk of euthanasia.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Text us on 0422-928492 to find out more.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Hannah's Haven.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Catatude Diaries.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you everybody for tuning in and taking a listen.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Apologies for not being as consistent as I wanted to be, but kitten season has come in hard and fast.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: I want to start off this episode just with a reminder that it shouldn't have to be said each and every single time.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: But please, please, please, please de-sex your pets.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: It isn't fair on them that they're doing just what nature is wanting them to do.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: They go into a heat cycle, they need to find a mate, they go get pregnant.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: But there are so many cats already out there in this world that can't find homes, and we don't need any more.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if you can't do it yourself, reach out and ask.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Ask rescues, ask your counsel, ask anybody and everybody.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because we don't need any more animals.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Especially cats in this world where they're not loved, they're not wanted, they're not needed, and they will never ever ever get the respect that they deserve.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: So after having said that, I do want to start this episode.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'll explain why it's titled the way it is later down the track.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: But for now, I just need you to listen to a message that we received late on Thursday evening.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: And it says in the subject subject line, my cat just had kittens.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And the message said, I need to get rid of five newborn kittens.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, surely, surely this has to be a typo.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there wasn't enough room for him to put the whole context of what he wanted to say.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: And of course he'd sent through the phone number and everything like that.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I sat there for a few moments, composed myself, and then I'd sent a text.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the text said, Hi, I'm Hannah, director of Hannah's Haven Cat Rescue.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: I was told that you have a mum cat that says given birth.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: I can take mum and babies and return them to you when she's finished raising them, but there will be no cost to you.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then I told him our location.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, These babies need their mother's milk, and the best place for them is to stay with her.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Please contact me if you'd like my help.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Literally 30 seconds after sending that text, I got a phone call from him.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it was one of those phone calls where you want to scream, you want to rage, you want to s shout and be like, How dare you?
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what is wrong with you?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: But then we become part of the problem too, because we don't we don't know the circumstances, we don't know what's going on in this person's life, we don't know anything really, other than my main concern being we need to keep this mum with her babies at all costs.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I gave him the opportunity to not surrender mum, to temporarily give us mum while she was doing her job, which was raise the babies, and uh keep them together so that they can grow because the best milk is mumma's milk, and yes, we can have all the stuff in the world to help them along the way, but again, nothing is going to prepare them for life more than mumma's milk because it's got all of the proteins and nutrients, and it's got all the things that are gonna help build a nice strong immune system, and yeah, it's just keep mums with their babies, it's as simple as that.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Keep mum with her babies.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I had the conversation with him and explained how it would work that mum would come back to us, we would look after her, keep her in our care, get her any veterinary treatment that she needed, and raise her babies.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Then, when she was ready, we would get mum de-sexed and give her back.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: So once that conversation had been had, we could then move on to the next bit, which was we need to know that the mum and babies will be safe until we can get there.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Can you guarantee that?
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: So we made it a point that we would get there as soon as humanly possible.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Given that it was I think 7:50 p.m.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: on a Thursday evening, and after a full day's work, we put a call out to our volunteer and we said, Okay, who is available right now to literally drop everything and go to this address because a mum and her babies are at risk right now.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And when our volunteer came back to us and said, Yep, okay, I can do this.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: What's the address?
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: We started having a text conversation, which was okay, our carer is on the way.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Her ETA is approximately 845, and it was thank you, see you soon.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then 10 minutes later, how far away are they?
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, ETA is still the same, 845, and they come back with okay.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, in the meantime, trying to kind of build a little bit of a relationship to see honestly, is this guy as bad as he's making out to be, or was it just typically panic in the moment because I'm still fuming, I am still on the inside raging and fuming, and just all the things are coming and all the emotions are being felt, so it was it was really really hard to keep composure.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, um he's asking as what's the ETA?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, yep, still the same.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then I say, What's mum's name?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And he came back with his name, and I'm like, I understand that's your name, but what's mum's name?
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And again, came back with his name.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm assuming, okay, well the cat's name is his name.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever, each to their own.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Then I got a text from him saying a friend of mine would like a kitten when they're older.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I just came back with when they're ready we'll let you know.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: They have to stay with mum until they're weaned, and then they'll be de sexed, vaccinated, and microchipped.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Same as mum will be.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: His reply was OK.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Can you check if there are any boys?
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Mind you, I don't even have the kittens yet.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I've replied, yeah, I'll do all of that once they're here and they're settled.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Then he asks, Where will they sleep?
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: So the little bit inside me goes maybe, maybe Okay.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was a little bit of fear.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: So then I said they'll be in a room away from mum uh sorry they'll be in the room with mum away from other cats.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell me how she had any vaccinations before?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Has she ever been to a vet?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: What foods does she like to eat?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: And personally one of my pet peeves is the cheap stuff or whiskers because oh my god It's like giving that food is like giving your human child McDonald's for every single meal and expecting them to be healthy and at a great weight and all of those things.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: So having those as fuels was mm.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, okay, just want to make her as comfortable as possible so the shock of moving doesn't interrupt her milk supply.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Then he comes back with can I visit her?
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: I want to see her.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Excuse me again, sir, we need to get her and the kittens into care and settled, and then we can assess the situation going forward.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: I can't make any promises right now.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Then I said she's the carer is approximately five minutes away, and he said, Okay, no worries.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, Thank you so much, she's in safe hands, and I'll keep you updated over the next few days.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Once she's arrived and she's settled in, I'll just leave her to do her job.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Mums are the best and they know what to do.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: So he said, Okay, thanks.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Then my carers come and collected her, and it was literally a five minute interaction.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: She came, she said who she was, she took the cat, she took the kittens, messaged me on the way saying they're really they seem to be in really good health.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um mum seems to be doing a great job.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then she said, Mum's black and the kittens are tuxies.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, sweet, that doesn't you know we all know the superstitions about black cats, but that doesn't matter in that moment.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: The the most important thing was getting those kittens safe and keeping them with mum.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, we did that.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then he messaged me and he's like, Can I have a photo?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, they're not even here yet.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: They are still in still in transit, they have not arrived.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Then he comes back with how's she doing?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: She still hasn't arrived.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, how far away are you?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what does that mean?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Well, where are you?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: So again I told him my location.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And he just goes, Oh, okay.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well my mate wants kittens.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, my mate knows about kittens and he reckons because she's black that she would have all black kittens.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, not necessarily, but most of the time that could be, you know, it could be fact.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Then he comes Then he comes at me with my mate said that black cats only have boy kittens.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, excuse me, sir, can you explain your m your reasoning for that?
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because your cat is black, correct?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, yes.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: And your cat just had kittens, correct?
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Yes.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: I said, therefore, therefore, your hypothesis is not correct because she's a black female cat.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I reckon she's had all boy kittens.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Thankfully we weren't on the phone because I was laughing just like I am now.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not laughing at him, I'm just laughing at like honestly, people we don't know people's upbringing.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, it was kind of like sir, your cat is female.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Your cat has given birth to five kittens.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: He's saying it, all the kittens were black.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, sure, fine, no worries.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: We get here in their taxis.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: They're black and white cats.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: However, they are really, really small.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: So we've kept keeping a very close eye on them.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: However, Mama is doing an amazing job.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that's not going to be any concern.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll do the best that we can with what we've got.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: We keep them safe, we get them vet care if they need it, we check that there's no more babies left inside, mum.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: We give them the high-quality food to help with their milk production, we give them some herbal um herbal powder to keep them nice and calm.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: All of the things that we need to do to get our babies out of that critical zone.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: So mumma's nice and friendly, so that's amazing.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so far, everybody is doing well.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: And to his credit, he has been reaching out every day and he's asking about her.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, I miss her, can I come and visit her?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I think there's one thing that a lot of people um misunderstand.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: We're a small home-based rescue, and the prominent word there being home-based.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that means that all of the cats that we rescue live in homes with carers, families that have opened up their personal residence to take on the responsibility of these animals to keep them safe until they can find their forever home.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not ruling that out, but for right now I am, because we don't want mum so stressed out that her milk supply dries up, she gets mastitis, and then something, God forbid, would happen to her babies.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess our main focus right now is to keep her as calm as possible with as less stress as possible, so that she can do her job, her babies grow up nice and strong, and then when they get to the eight to nine week mark when they're fully weaned and not relying a hundred percent on mum for food, then we can look about getting mum d sex and returning him to her because ultimately we don't need any more cats, we've got enough.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be trying to find homes for cats that already have somebody that loves them.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, regardless of what happened on the I guess the start and how we got to be in contact and how the story came to be, ultimately, the end goal is keep the mum with the kittens, which we have done, get mum into care, which we have done, then assist mum to be able to give her babies the very best of her so that they can grow and then in turn go on to have nice loving homes.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: And mum is lucky because she's gonna go back to somewhere that she's familiar, but the only difference being she's never gonna be able to have to have babies again, which is really good because we don't need any more, as I've said previously.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: So for now, this mumma we have named her Simone.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's not the name that he has for her.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now that can be his name with her, but when they come in with us, we kind of think of it as this is their life with us, and while they're with us, we give them it their own name.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: So her name is Simone, and it's kind of a real bit of a tongue-in-cheek because the gentleman's name was Simon.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, the episode is called Don't Be a Simon.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now you can take that as humour, and it's not in any way, shape, or form meant to throw shade.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a little bit of a saying of don't be a Simon, don't do that, don't send messages like that because alarm bells ring, they ring loud and clear, and we will go into panic mode and we will go into let's get this family safe by any means possible, and that is exactly what happened.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, huge shout out to our volunteer driver that dropped literally dropped everything.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: Called her on FaceTime and said, Babes, we need to get to this mama cat in this location like tomorrow.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: No, not tomorrow, sorry, like now.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: This cannot wait till tomorrow.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: And she was I saw her on FaceTime, you know she's chopping up her veggies for dinner.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: She literally threw down the knife, chucked off the apron, got her keys, got her bag, walked out the door and said, Send me the address, I'm on my way.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: And 45 minutes later, I've already told you that story.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes things can't wait.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I had just earlier that day put a post up on social media saying, sorry guys, we are now tapped out.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have any more funds available to be able to assist anybody else.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: But when you get messages like that late on a Thursday evening and it reads the way it did, you can't do anything but wait until worrying about the bank balance until tomorrow.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: But we've got such an amazing community behind us because I put a post up yesterday morning, which was Friday, and saying, you know, we'll go into more detail with the podcast this episode as we are, and we need funds desperately because we can't keep our doors open, we can't keep helping.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: So we've had some amazing response to that, and we've got a little bit more money in the bank, we're no longer in the red.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's just showing that there are people out there that want to help, they don't have the capacity to open up their own homes to provide anything other than some money here and there.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: And don't get me wrong, your five dollars that's five dollars less that we have to find.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: So all of those things just make life that much easier for us, and then in turn makes it so much easier for them, being our mama cats and the kittens that we have in care.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, that's the reason why this episode is called Don't Be A Simon.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: And like I say, it's a bit of a tongue-in-cheek, but it just goes to show that sometimes these things are still happening, and it is 2026.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we can help, sometimes we can't, and thankfully, in this circumstance, we were able to help.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, thank you everybody for listening.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that story made you giggle as much as it did me.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: But also behind the laughter, see the importance of keeping mums and kittens together and reaching out to people when they ask for help.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: They might not come about it the right way, but in the end, little Simone and her five little babies are now safe in care with us.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: We're in regular contact with Simone's dad, and he will take her back and give her a loving home when she's done being a mum.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: We will come back with another episode with an update on our amazing community day.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: We just felt that this episode was a bit more important to get to our listeners than the community day update.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: But again, thank you so much for listening.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: We hope that you're gonna stick with us.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: We've got lots and lots more stories to tell, and we'll talk to you soon.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hannah's Haven