Cat saves her kittens before being killed on road

A stray cat gave the final gift of safety to her kittens before she was killed on a road.

The four kittens are now being cared for by an animal charity in Cornwall after the mother saved three of them – with the fourth finding his own way to his siblings.

Cats Protection said the mother wandered into a family's home carrying a kitten and dropped it on their kitchen floor before returning later with a second and third kitten.

But a few days later the adult cat was found dead on a busy road.

Jane Tamblyn, 67, from Truro, rang the Cats Protection Cornwall Cat Centre for help after the mother cat appeared with the first two kittens.

The charity said the kittens were around five or six weeks old but was concerned there may be more of them.

They agreed the family should keep the kittens for a couple days to allow the mother easy access to them and to deliver other kittens if needed.

The mother cat later returned with a third kitten before tragedy struck.

Mrs Tamblyn said: "On the day we were going to bring them to the centre, the mother cat was outside the house having some food.

"She then suddenly went up the lane ... but later that morning my youngest son found she had been killed on the road that goes past our house."

She said the family buried the mother cat at an apple orchard where they buried other family pets.

The Tamblyns took the three orphan kittens to the centre but a few days later a fourth kitten arrived at their back door.

She said she and her husband were "thrilled" when they found him.

"The mother bringing them across those roads really was a miracle but we also couldn't believe how brave he must have been and that he had the instinct to survive and find us," she said.

The kitten, named Squirrel, was reunited with the rest of his litter and after a vet visited and found all the kittens were healthy.

The other black and white male was named Badger, the male tabby-and-white kitten was named Rabbit and the female tortoiseshell was named Fox.

Ciaran Brookes-Whyte, rehoming and welfare assistant at the centre, said: "It is so deeply sad that their mother went to such lengths to get her kittens to safety only to be killed on the road."

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