Street-smart cat Steve
As the snow began to fall around him, Steve must have been confused and very worried. At just three years old he had never seen snowflakes on the streets of London before, and now the stray cat found himself not only all alone but in desperate need of a safe place to shelter amid the harshest winter for decades.
When a kind passerby found Steve, he was so bitterly cold that his body was visibly shivering. The man knew the cat wouldn’t last much longer in the sub-zero conditions and brought him to the safety of Together for Animals member Blue Cross Merton animal hospital in south London.
Steve was obviously a street-smart puss. His body bore all the hallmarks of a feisty tomcat, with fight wounds on his head and battle scars on his ears, but even he would not have been tough enough to survive the plummeting temperatures.
We took him in from the cold and gave him a warm and safe place to rest. After giving Steve a full health check, we put him on a course of antibiotics to clear up an infection caused by life on the streets. Over time, Steve came out of his shell and became somewhat of a chatterbox. Though a tough cookie on the outside, he is clearly a sweet boy at heart.
Steve tested positive for feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), which is a common condition affecting unneutered stray cats as it is easily transmitted between moggies through bites and scratches. Because of this condition, Blue Cross will find Steve a new home as an indoor cat where he will not be able to pass on the virus to fellow felines. We neutered Steve and microchipped him, before transferring him to our Cambridge rehoming centre to begin his search for a loving family to take him home.
Every year, Blue Cross cares for around 40,000 sick, injured and homeless pets like Steve. We give ill and wounded dogs, cats, horses and small pets the veterinary care they need to get better, and find new families for abandoned and unwanted animals who need a new home. We don’t receive any government funding, so we can only help pets who need us with support from kind and generous people like you.