🐾 Tabitha's rescue story is kept here, but her journey continues in the blog. Visit the blog section for updates, progress, and all the little moments that make rescue so special

 

Tabitha Update

13 June 2026

 

Tabitha update 🩶

Tabitha continues to take life very much on Tabitha’s terms.

She still prefers the security of her hiding bed, but today our camera spotted her poking her head out to watch a blackbird outside. It wasn’t for long, but curiosity got the better of her for a moment, and that’s something worth celebrating.

For cats like Tabitha, progress isn’t measured in giant leaps. It’s measured in small moments of confidence, brief glimpses of curiosity, and tiny decisions to engage with the world around them.

She remains cautious, watchful, and determined to do things her own way, but she’s safe, warm, well fed, and slowly learning that not everything has to be scary.

We’ll keep letting her move at the pace she chooses. 🐾

 

 

 

Tabitha the Escape Artist

11 June 2026

 

 

Tabitha – The Escape Artist

Some cats make rescue easy.

Tabitha is not one of those cats.

We first trapped Tabitha so she could be desexed, and everything went according to plan. She recovered well and was safely contained while she healed. Then an opportunity presented itself.

A door was accidentally left open. Tabitha didn’t hesitate. She was gone.

Thankfully, she stayed in the shed which we kept closed and always careful when entering, and was eventually trapped again. Back into care she came, and once again we thought we had things under control.

But Tabitha had other ideas.

Somehow, despite being securely contained, she escaped a second time. To this day, we’re not entirely sure how she managed it. Nothing appeared broken or damaged, yet the crate contained one less cat than before. And so began the next chapter.

Fortunately, again,  the shed was her home and no bolt for the great outdoors was made,  but she sure  made herself almost impossible to find. During the day she would vanish completely, hiding somewhere amongst the shelves, boxes, and mezzanine area. At night she would emerge to eat, use her litter tray, and then disappear again before anyone could catch sight of her.

For a while, we played this strange game of cat and human.

I knew she was there.

She knew I knew she was there.

But she had absolutely no intention of being caught. To make matters more difficult, she had already been trapped twice before. It soon became clear that Tabitha had developed a healthy suspicion of anything that looked remotely like a trap.

For two nights she happily walked into an unset trap and ate every scrap of food. The moment the trap was actually set, she wanted nothing to do with it.

She would come down from her hiding places, assess the situation, and retreat back to the safety of the mezzanine. At one point I genuinely wondered whether she would rather go hungry than risk being trapped again.

Then, after days of waiting, hoping, second-guessing, and resisting the urge to change the plan, hunger finally won the argument. The trap door closed. For the third time.

When I transferred her from the trap into a crate, I was expecting a very angry cat.

Instead, Tabitha calmly walked out, sat down, looked out the window, and seemed to say:

“Oh no. Here we go again.”

There was no drama. No tantrum. Just quiet acceptance that she had once again fallen victim to the oldest trick in the book: free food.

Today Tabitha is safe, warm, and back where she needs to be. She may not appreciate it yet. In fact, she almost certainly doesn’t. But after two escapes, countless hours of hiding, and one very patient game of cat and mouse, the Escape Artist has finally been caught.

AGAIN.

 

 

 

 

 

Tabitha Update

30 May 2026

 

Tabitha has gone from silent shutdown to grumbly negotiation.

Not long ago, Tabitha was very much in shutdown mode.

She was quiet, still, barely eating, and seemed to make herself as small and invisible as possible. The kind of silence that comes from a cat who feels too unsure to fully engage with the world around her.   But lately, our girl has been changing.

These days, Tabitha eats all of her dinner overnight, which is a huge sign that she’s beginning to feel safe enough to properly settle when everything goes quiet. And tonight, she showed just how far she’s come.

After being offered a new warmer cubby, she inspected it carefully and decided it was acceptable. Choice made.  Then came a creamy treat from my finger.

She took it readily… while loudly growling the entire time and even throwing in a dramatic hiss for emphasis. And yet, she kept licking .

It was the most wonderfully Tabitha thing imaginable.   What she seems to be saying is:

“I am absolutely not convinced about this… but I am also absolutely taking that treat.”

And honestly, that’s such an important shift.

Tabitha has gone from:

“I’m too overwhelmed to respond.”

to

“I have very strong opinions about this situation, and I’m going to tell you all about them… while still participating.”

She’s no longer frozen in fear.  She’s grumbly, suspicious, opinionated, and cautiously brave.

She’s negotiating. And for a cat like Tabitha, that noisy little negotiation is the sound of progress.

 

 

 

Tabitha Breakthrough!

29 May 2026

 

A quiet but important breakthrough for Tabitha.

After a few days of worry, tiny nibbles, and lots of uncertainty, Tabitha gave us some wonderful reassurance overnight.

This morning her bowls were completely empty — every bit of her wet food and all of her dry food gone — and, just as importantly, she had used her litter tray too.

For a cat who has been moving so cautiously, these small everyday things are actually huge signs of progress. Eating properly and toileting normally tells us that her body is beginning to relax enough to settle into a routine.

This morning I kept things very simple for her: a clean litter tray, fresh food and water, her familiar little setup restored exactly as she likes it, and then I left her to enjoy the quiet.

Sometimes progress with frightened cats doesn’t come through dramatic moments. Sometimes it arrives overnight, in an empty food bowl and the quiet reassurance that they’re beginning to feel safe enough just to be.

Tabitha is still taking everything at her own careful pace, but last night felt like a very hopeful step forward.

That empty bowl and poop are Tabitha’s way of saying, “Okay… maybe this is safe.”

 

 

 

Tabitha Update

28 May 2026

 

Tabitha is still very shy and spends much of her time hunkered down in her safe space, watching with wide, alert eyes. She is not yet fully comfortable, but there are encouraging small steps forward. She has started cautiously accepting food from a hand, even briefly licking treats directly from a finger instead of waiting for a person to move away. She also ate a little overnight on her own, although not all of her food, which is a positive sign that she is beginning to settle enough to eat when she feels unobserved. She is still very much in her “protection mode,” but these quiet changes show early progress as she slowly starts to feel a little safer and more curious about her surroundings at her own pace.

 

Tabitha Update

26 May 2026

 

Little Tabitha is spending her first recovery day quietly resting after being trapped, desexed, microchipped, and brought safely home. She hasn’t eaten very much yet and is still sitting wide-eyed and very still, but this is completely normal for a feral cat on day one. After such a huge and unfamiliar experience, many cats shut down and stay on high alert while they process everything around them. For now, this tiny brave girl is simply watching, waiting, and slowly learning that she is safe.

 

 

Tabitha

25 May 2026

 

 

 

Meet Tabitha.

Named after the little nose-wrinkling witch from the old television show, Bewitched, our newest beautiful girl would no doubt love to magic herself straight out of her recovery crate tonight if she could.

Today’s vet visit confirmed that this striking little tabby and white with a touch of ginger, is indeed a she … small, beautiful, and surprisingly sweet. Well at least while the anaesthetic still has her feeling a little less certain about expressing her full opinion on recent events.

She has now been desexed, health checked, and microchipped , an important step that means this little life is now officially protected and accounted for.

And the family resemblance is unmistakable.

Tabitha is definitely one of Big Daddyo Ginger’s girls, another sibling to Mouse, Timtim, Gingerpaw, BB, and Hope/Andarna. It seems this remarkable family line just keeps revealing itself, one careful trap at a time.

Back home tonight, she settled into her recovery crate while BB watched the proceedings closely from his cubby, no doubt supervising all the commotion.

Though her tiny claws may soon return to full force once the anaesthetic wears off, tonight she is safe, warm, and one more precious life given a healthier future.

One more quiet victory.
One more beautiful soul helped.
And one more chapter in this ever-growing family story.