I've found a newborn kitten in Lara Beach Turkey. What should I do?

[whatisdrowsybutawake]

Hi, posting here as I've tried every other avenue with no luck. This morning I found a newborn kitten outside our hotel in Lara Beach. It still has the cord attached to its belly so can't be more than a day old? Mother was nowhere to be seen, hotel staff looked everywhere and couldn't find her. We left kitten where we found it for ages but nothing. There were four other mother cats in the nearby area and we tried to merge kitten with those families but no joy, mothers rejected and hissed.

I took kitten to my hotel room and have fed it baby milk (I know not ideal but tried supermarket and there is no kitten milk). Couldn't find any condensed milk etc either as I've heard you can mix that up in an emergency. It's drinking and peeing as normal.

We leave tomorrow night, the local vet will not help as they can't commit to looking after a kitten so small. Reception unhelpful too. I've reached out to local groups on fb and nothing.

I don't suppose there are any mumsnetters in the area who would like to take the kitten when I leave? I'm honestly considering putting in my cardigan pocket and bringing back to UK but I know there's a hefty fine attached to that option if caught.. On hol with husband and 2 toddlers but managing to keep regularly feeding kitten, feels like having a newborn!

Picture below of course!

"The kitten was helpless. I would have helped it, definitely cannot leave it there. Poor thing."

It probably had more chance of its mother finding it or another cat taking it on where it was.

Instead it was artificially nursed in a hotel room until the security guards were forced to step in!

So sorry OP, you did everything you could.

I volunteer in an animal rescue and have cared for many babies. Some thrive, and others, no matter how hard you try they are just not strong enough.

OP you sound like a lovely caring person, thank you for doing what you could for that little kitten ❤it’s a shame there aren’t more kind people like you

A sad ending OP but you did everything you could and did your best.

I feel that posts like this are deliberately trying to make the OP feel awful and guilty. Stop

Who is being nasty? Posters are practical & pragmatic.

Many are. Others have enjoyed sticking the boot in.

Agreed, it is vile.

"I feel that posts like this are deliberately trying to make the OP feel awful and guilty. Stop"

No. That post is in response to a poster who said that the world would be better if I was dead. They even brought my family into it.

I won't stop, thank you very much.

Anyway, I've got a very valid point, if you all love cats so much then maybe think about your actions when dealing with strays abroad.

"Agreed, it is vile."

And telling people they should die isn't? I didn't even say they should cull the bloody cat. Or any cat.

That is indeed vile, I haven’t seen the posts you must be referring to.

I haven’t seen any posts that are “sticking the boot in”.

I suspect that the crankier sort of animal lover would regard any posts that point out that the OP’s actions are well intentioned but foolish and misguided would be “sticking the boot in”.

"The world would be a better place without people like you in it."

Here you go @rhubarbcrumbleyum

The first of many personal insults. Towards both me and my family for some reason. I was replying to that poster who was justifying (badly) her vile comments with "well I would have to help the cat".

But yeah, call me vile. Join in, why not? Stick the boot in

Well a good deed done is met with negative comments, ignore them OP, it’s MN, the whole site is often full of negativity, it’s better avoided.

Of course a newborn kitten shouldn’t have just been left on the floor. The OP did the right thing, and saying “it was always going to end this way” is ridiculous. A local rescue might have been able to foster it, they might have had a mother with kittens the right age.

It didn’t end happily, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t the right thing to do.

OP you were very kind, Don’t let this stop you from helping again.

I’ve lost animals that I have rescued, but sometimes they thrive, and live happily.

It’s not convenient or easy to be the person that doesn’t look away when an animal is suffering, thank you for caring.

True.. the vast majority of Turkish people I've ever met dislike cats/dogs, especially strays. Despite what people claim, cats are regularly culled over the winter months. I've witnessed staff prodding a clearly dehydrated dying stray dog with their foot to get it away from the pool in a hotel becsuse it was obviously a nuisance for them (rather than just giving it some water) at much disgust from the British holiday makers 😬

Others have enjoyed sticking the boot in.

I agree. The poster that when someone missed the update that the kitten had died and asked about taking it home, said ‘what?, the remains of a dead cat?’. It was obvious they knew that wasn’t what the poster had in mind but they just enjoyed being nasty with their snide little comment. How pathetic.

Others were enjoying calling the cat mangy, their tone was nasty. Another saying, there’s no way they’d spend their last night on holiday helping a cat...good for you, move along then. Others will the I told you so type posts now the cat has died.

Many seem to have enjoyed the whole thing. I’ve seen some of them on other threads and it’s what they do.

I volunteer with animals and years ago did so in Europe, sometimes we have success stories and other times some very sad endings. Well done for trying to help OP, you sound like a very caring person. 💐

OP - please get yourself a rabies shot.

I know you were trying to do a nice thing but honestly the kitten was best left where it was. Either mum would have come back for it or it would have passed away naturally.

Newborn kittens need round the clock care and you knew from the outset that you wouldn't be able to provide it.

Completely agree with your post and well done and thank you for everything you do volunteering for animals

Passed naturally? Of heat exhaustion, dehydration, whist looking for its mother. Honestly the Cognitive dissonance on this thread is shocking.

No we shouldn’t leave helpless creatures to die a long drawn out death. We show kindness because we can. It might have survived, it didn’t sadly but they can and do.

At least it was safe and shown kindness.

Passed naturally? Of heat exhaustion, dehydration, whist looking for its mother. Honestly the Cognitive dissonance on this thread is shocking.

No cognitive dissonance here - that's the reality of feral cats. Many don't survive kitten hood and yes, they do die of heat exhaustion, or dehydration, or starvation.

However I don't believe taking a newborn animal away from it's mother to be fed baby milk in a hotel room is the better option, especially as OP knew she had no means of caring for it in the long-term.

I think OP had nice intentions but ultimately you can't keep a newborn kitten alive on baby milk and cuddles. If they can't be with mum, they need round-the-clock, specialist care - not to be taken away and kept in someone's cardigan in a hotel room.

Unless you're a rescue with the ability to provide that care, the best thing to do with baby animals is to leave them for mum to find. She was probably off hunting and would have come back to feed it afterwards.

Absolutely. Whenever there's any kind of animal welfare issue, there's a certain type of person that comes along to deride more compassionate people

I've seen this lots in real life and on here. It doesn't make you cool (oh look at me, I'm too busy having fun on holiday to care about a dumb smelly animal). It just makes you look like a dick

Animals feel pain like we do. Nobody says 'too bad, cancer/starvation/cholera is natural' when a human gets it. We try to help them. The kitten needed help, whether from a kind person like op or a vet PTS

However, the rest of your post is fair enough

I work with animals and I totally get the compassionate angle but ultimately human "help" can do more harm than good in the long run.

I do agree the kitten needed help - but from a professional organisation, not a tourist with no means to actually provide any meaningful long-term care. OP's choices really were to leave the kitten where it was, get a rescue to intervene, or take it to a vet to be PTS - not to take it to her hotel room and try and keep it alive on baby formula.

If you can't intervene properly, leaving the baby with mum while you approach the relevant authorities is the best thing to do.

so sad and so cute...i am sure left in Turkey might survive somehow

I guess it's tricky for op to know what to do. It's really hard to leave a kitten there when you think it might survive with help